Juliette Lewis

Performer

Juliette Lewis

A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.

Born
21 June 1973
Age
53
Nationality
American
Active
1980–present
Performances
43
In Nutevio
1980–present
Known for
Over Your Dead Body
Performer Score
6.9
  • Hall of Fame
  • Horror Icon
  • Action Legend
  • Modern Classic
View filmography

Nutevio rank

#592

of 909177 performers

Top 1%

Juliette Lewis represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 46 years in, and Juliette is still choosing the harder script.
Ranked #592 of 909177 performers in the Nutevio catalogue. Recalculated automatically as titles and credits are imported.

The essay

Reading Juliette Lewis

Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.

Why this performer matters

Juliette Lewis appears in 43 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Juliette. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.

Signature style

The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, comedy, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.

Legacy

Working with Jorma Taccone, Alex Prager, Elliott Lester and others, Juliette Lewis helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.

Best known for

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) as Becky · The Basketball Diaries (1995) as Diane Moody · Cape Fear (1991) as Danielle Bowden

Career snapshot

The career at a glance

Ranked #592 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.

  • Films in Nutevio

    43

    1980–2026

  • Career length

    46 yrs

    Measured across our catalogue

  • Academy Awards

    Unknown

  • Oscar nominations

    Unknown

  • Highest Nutevio score

    7.6

    What's Eating Gilbert Grape

  • Average Nutevio score

    6.1

    Across catalogue work

  • Highest IMDb rating

    7.7

    What's Eating Gilbert Grape

  • Most frequent director

    Todd Phillips

    3 films together

  • Longest collaboration

    With Todd Phillips

  • Most common genre

    Drama

    26 titles

  • Average runtime

    1h 46m

    Across catalogue work

  • Golden Globe wins

    Unknown

Nutevio metric

Performer Score

Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.

Nutevio Performer Score

6.9

out of 10

A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.

  • Performance quality6.4
  • Consistency6.4
  • Emotional range6.7
  • Character transformation6.8
  • Cultural impact6.4
  • Iconic roles6.4
  • Career longevity9.9
  • Influence6.4
  • Awards recognition7.1
  • Rewatch value6.4

Nutevio metric

Influence Score

Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.

Nutevio Influence Score

6.7

out of 10

A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.

  • Cultural impact5.5

    How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.

  • Legacy6.7

    What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.

  • Industry recognition6.6

    Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.

  • Career longevity9.8

    Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.

  • Awards6.4

    Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.

  • Iconic performances6.8

    Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.

  • Influence on filmmakers5.5

    Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.

  • Influence on other actors6.0

    The reading other performers now have to answer.

Actor DNA

How they work on screen

A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.

  • Versatility99
  • Transformation99
  • Quiet performance95
  • Screen presence67
  • Rewatchability60
  • Charisma56
  • Drama56
  • Emotional range54
  • Intensity37
  • Villain presence34
  • Comedy25
  • Action15
  • Physical performance15

The shape of a career

Career evolution

Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.

6789101980198819891991199219931993199319941994199519961999200020022003200320042004200620072009200920102010201020122013201520162019201920192019201920212021202120242025202620262026
  • Nutevio
  • Performance score
  • IMDb

Peak years

Best era

Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.

Best decade

1990s

6.8 average MV

The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Other Sister, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Basketball Diaries — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.

Highest average Nutevio score

1990s

6.8

Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.

Highest average IMDb rating

1990s

6.8

The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.

Most awarded era

1980s

0 Academy Awards

Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, My Stepmother Is an Alien, Bronco Billy.

Most productive era

2010s

12 films

The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.

Range, mapped

Career heatmap

Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.

The career concentrates in drama during the 2010s, and the scores hold there.
Genre1980s1990s2000s2010s2020s
Drama
6.31 film
6.88 films
6.35 films
6.29 films
5.43 films
Action
7.11 film
6.31 film
6.51 film
Thriller
7.03 films
6.14 films
5.82 films
4.74 films
Comedy
6.43 films
6.33 films
5.94 films
6.15 films
6.13 films
Crime
7.06 films
6.02 films
6.42 films
6.22 films
Romance
6.31 film
6.55 films
5.72 films
6.21 film
5.91 film
Horror
7.11 film
5.52 films
2.92 films

Chronology

Career timeline

Firsts and peaks

Career milestones

The turning points, in the order they happened.

  1. First film in Nutevio

    1980Bronco Billy

    Where our catalogue meets this career, as Child Spectator (uncredited).

  2. Highest rated performance · Career peak

    1993What's Eating Gilbert Grape

    7.6 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.

  3. Most recent film

    2026DreamQuil

    The current state of the argument, as Nurse Chapman.

Our order

Performances ranked

Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.

1
Official poster for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

1993 · Romance

1h 58m

7.7IMDb
2
Official poster for The Basketball Diaries (1995)

The Basketball Diaries

1995 · Crime

1h 42m

7.4IMDb
3
Official poster for Cape Fear (1991)

Cape Fear

1991 · Crime

2h 8m

7.3IMDb
4
Official poster for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

1989 · Comedy

1h 37m

7.2IMDb
5
Official poster for Conviction (2010)

Conviction

2010 · Drama

1h 47m

7.1IMDb
6
Official poster for From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn

1996 · Action

1h 48m

7.0IMDb
7
Official poster for Natural Born Killers (1994)

Natural Born Killers

1994 · Crime

1h 59m

7.0IMDb
8
Official poster for Nerve (2016)

Nerve

2016 · Mystery

1h 36m

7.0IMDb
9
Official poster for Husbands and Wives (1992)

Husbands and Wives

1992 · Romance

1h 48m

7.0IMDb
10
Official poster for August: Osage County (2013)

August: Osage County

2013 · Comedy

2h 1m

6.9IMDb
11
Official poster for Whip It (2009)

Whip It

2009 · Drama

1h 51m

6.7IMDb
12
Official poster for Enough (2002)

Enough

2002 · Drama

1h 54m

6.7IMDb
13
Official poster for Old School (2003)

Old School

2003 · Comedy

1h 32m

6.6IMDb
14
Official poster for Kalifornia (1993)

Kalifornia

1993 · Crime

1h 58m

6.6IMDb
15
Official poster for Over Your Dead Body (2026)

Over Your Dead Body

2026 · Action

1h 45m

6.5IMDb
16
Official poster for The Thicket (2024)

The Thicket

2024 · Western

1h 45m

6.4IMDb
17
Official poster for Anthem of a Teenage Prophet (2019)

Anthem of a Teenage Prophet

2019 · Drama

1h 42m

6.4IMDb
18
Official poster for Due Date (2010)

Due Date

2010 · Comedy

1h 35m

6.4IMDb
19
Official poster for The Other Sister (1999)

The Other Sister

1999 · Romance

2h 10m

6.4IMDb
20
Official poster for The Way of the Gun (2000)

The Way of the Gun

2000 · Action

1h 59m

6.3IMDb
21
Official poster for Bronco Billy (1980)

Bronco Billy

1980 · Romance

1h 56m

6.3IMDb
22
Official poster for A Million Little Pieces (2019)

A Million Little Pieces

2019 · Drama

1h 53m

6.2IMDb
23
Official poster for The Switch (2010)

The Switch

2010 · Romance

1h 41m

6.2IMDb
24
Official poster for Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)

Romeo Is Bleeding

1993 · Romance

1h 50m

6.2IMDb
25
Official poster for Metropia (2009)

Metropia

2009 · Science Fiction

1h 26m

6.1IMDb
26
Official poster for By Design (2026)

By Design

2026 · Romance

1h 31m

5.9IMDb
27
Official poster for Breaking News in Yuba County (2021)

Breaking News in Yuba County

2021 · Comedy

1h 36m

5.9IMDb
28
Official poster for Catch and Release (2006)

Catch and Release

2006 · Romance

1h 51m

5.9IMDb
29
Official poster for Ma (2019)

Ma

2019 · Horror

1h 39m

5.8IMDb
30
Official poster for Back Roads (2019)

Back Roads

2019 · Crime

1h 41m

5.8IMDb
31
Official poster for Starsky & Hutch (2004)

Starsky & Hutch

2004 · Comedy

1h 41m

5.8IMDb
32
Official poster for My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988)

My Stepmother Is an Alien

1988 · Science Fiction

1h 48m

5.8IMDb
33
Official poster for Opus (2025)

Opus

2025 · Mystery

1h 44m

5.7IMDb
34
Official poster for Hick (2012)

Hick

2012 · Comedy

1h 39m

5.7IMDb
35
Official poster for Jem and the Holograms (2015)

Jem and the Holograms

2015 · Music

1h 59m

5.5IMDb
36
Official poster for The Darwin Awards (2007)

The Darwin Awards

2007 · Romance

1h 34m

5.5IMDb
37
Official poster for Cold Creek Manor (2003)

Cold Creek Manor

2003 · Mystery

1h 58m

5.4IMDb
38
Official poster for Mixed Nuts (1994)

Mixed Nuts

1994 · Romance

1h 37m

5.4IMDb
39
Official poster for Dreamland (2019)

Dreamland

2019 · Mystery

1h 32m

5.3IMDb
40
Official poster for Music (2021)

Music

2021 · Music

1h 47m

5.2IMDb
41
Official poster for Mayday (2021)

Mayday

2021 · Mystery

1h 40m

5.0IMDb
42
Official poster for Blueberry (2004)

Blueberry

2004 · Western

2h 4m

4.8IMDb
43
Official poster for DreamQuil (2026)

DreamQuil

2026 · Mystery

1h 29m

Every title

Filmography

Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.

Genre
Decade
Sort

43 of 43 films

Official poster for Cape Fear (1991)

as Danielle Bowden

Directed by Martin Scorsese

IMDb7.3Rotten Tomatoes73%Metacritic672h 8mCrime · Drama · Thriller
View movie

From the library

Complete credits

Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.

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The defining work

Signature performances

Official poster for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

#1

Becky

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

Performance score7.9

The performance the rest of the career is read through. Becky gives Juliette Lewis a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.

View movie
Official poster for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

#2

Audrey Griswold

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

Performance score7.6

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Audrey Griswold is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie
Official poster for Natural Born Killers (1994)

#3

Mallory Knox

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Performance score7.5

Natural Born Killers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Mallory Knox is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie
Official poster for Cape Fear (1991)

#4

Danielle Bowden

Cape Fear (1991)

Performance score7.4

Cape Fear asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Danielle Bowden is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.

View movie

Start here

The movie journey

A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.

Official poster for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

Best entry point

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

as Becky

Start here. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is the clearest statement of what Juliette Lewis does — accessible, 118 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.

Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Juliette at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.

  1. Official poster for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

    National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

    A deliberate change of key after What's Eating Gilbert Grape — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.

  2. Official poster for Cape Fear (1991)

    Cape Fear (1991)

    A deliberate change of key after National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.

  3. Official poster for Natural Born Killers (1994)

    Natural Born Killers (1994)

    Keeps the crime register of Cape Fear but asks for a colder reading of it.

  4. Official poster for From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

    From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

    Keeps the crime register of Natural Born Killers but asks for a colder reading of it.

Company kept

Frequent collaborators

The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.

Behind the camera

Director network

Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.

Six degrees

Connected through cinema

Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.

Categories of our own

Most rewatchable, most emotional, most influential

Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.

Most rewatchable

Official poster for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

as Becky

The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.

Most emotional performance

Official poster for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

as Becky

Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.

Most influential performance

Official poster for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

as Becky

You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.

Best ensemble performance

Official poster for Bronco Billy (1980)

Bronco Billy

as Child Spectator (uncredited)

Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.

Career defining performance

Official poster for What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

as Becky

If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.

In their films' words

Lines that stay

You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Juliette Lewis has known it for a long time.

Nutevio Editors · On What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Head to head

Compare performers

Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.

Ours alone

Nutevio Honors

Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.

Career Achievement

Awarded

46 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.

Modern Classic Performer

Awarded

Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.

Drama Legend

Awarded

26 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.

Our desk

Editor's picks

Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.

Best ending

Official poster for Nerve (2016)

Nerve

as Nancy Delmonico

The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.

Best opening

Official poster for From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn

as Kate Fuller

A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.

Most emotional

Official poster for Jem and the Holograms (2015)

Jem and the Holograms

as Erica Raymond

The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.

Best twist

Official poster for Mayday (2021)

Mayday

as June

A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.

Best visual achievement

Official poster for From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn

as Kate Fuller

Images that would survive with the sound switched off.

Best action sequence

Official poster for Over Your Dead Body (2026)

Over Your Dead Body

as Allegra

Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.

Best dialogue

Official poster for Bronco Billy (1980)

Bronco Billy

as Child Spectator (uncredited)

Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.

Most underrated film

Official poster for Opus (2025)

Opus

as Clara Armstrong

The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.

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Reference

Quick facts

Born
21 June 1973
Los Angeles, California, USA
Age
53
Nationality
American
Years active
1980–present
Known for
Over Your Dead Body
Genres
Action, Comedy, Thriller
IMDb
nm0000496
Nutevio rank
#592
of 909177 performers tracked

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