Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#7382
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Kim Cattrall represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 39 years in, and Kim is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Kim Cattrall appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Kim. Big Trouble in Little China is the clearest case: a film rated 7.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
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 comedy, adventure, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Laura Terruso, Dominic Brigstocke, Roman Polanski and others, Kim Cattrall 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.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986) as Gracie Law · Mannequin (1987) as Ema 'Emmy' Hesire · The Ghost Writer (2010) as Amelia Bly
Career snapshot
Ranked #7382 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
1984–2023
Career length
39 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.2
Big Trouble in Little China
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.2
Big Trouble in Little China
Most frequent director
Michael Patrick King
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Michael Patrick King
Most common genre
Comedy
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 51m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
7.0 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Mannequin, Big Trouble in Little China, Police Academy — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.0
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.9
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. Mannequin, Big Trouble in Little China, Police Academy.
Most productive era
2000s
4 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 5.61 film | 5.83 films | 6.01 film | — |
| Action | 7.21 film | — | 5.91 film | — | — |
| Thriller | — | — | 5.91 film | 6.81 film | — |
| Comedy | 7.03 films | 5.61 film | 5.83 films | 5.62 films | 6.01 film |
| Crime | 6.81 film | — | 5.91 film | — | — |
| Romance | 6.91 film | — | 5.92 films | 6.01 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1984Police Academy
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Karen Thompson.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
1986Big Trouble in Little China
7.2 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.
Most recent film
2023About My Father
The current state of the argument, as Sen. Tigger MacArthur (Collins).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
12 of 12 films
as Gracie Law
Directed by John Carpenter
as Amelia Bly
Directed by Roman Polanski
as Karen Thompson
Directed by Hugh Wilson
as Samantha Jones
Directed by Michael Patrick King
From the library
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
#1
Gracie Law
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Performance score7.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Gracie Law gives Kim Cattrall a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Ema 'Emmy' Hesire
Mannequin (1987)
Performance score7.3
Mannequin asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ema 'Emmy' Hesire is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Amelia Bly
The Ghost Writer (2010)
Performance score7.2
The Ghost Writer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Amelia Bly is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Karen Thompson
Police Academy (1984)
Performance score7.2
Police Academy asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Karen Thompson is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Gracie Law
Start here. Big Trouble in Little China is the clearest statement of what Kim Cattrall does — accessible, 100 minutes, and rated 7.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Kim 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.
Police Academy (1984)
Keeps the comedy register of Big Trouble in Little China but asks for a colder reading of it.
Mannequin (1987)
Keeps the comedy register of Police Academy but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sex and the City (2008)
Keeps the romance register of Mannequin but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Ghost Writer (2010)
A deliberate change of key after Sex and the City — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Michael Patrick King
Director
2 films together
Notably Sex and the City
Hugh Wilson
Director
1 film together
Notably Police Academy
John Carpenter
Director
1 film together
Notably Big Trouble in Little China
Brian De Palma
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bonfire of the Vanities
John Herzfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably 15 Minutes
Tamra Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably Crossroads
Alec Baldwin
Director
1 film together
Notably Shortcut to Happiness
Roman Polanski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ghost Writer
Dominic Brigstocke
Director
1 film together
Notably Horrible Histories: The Movie — Rotten Romans
Laura Terruso
Director
1 film together
Notably About My Father
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Michael Patrick King
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Sex and the CityJohn Carpenter
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Big Trouble in Little ChinaRoman Polanski
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ghost WriterHugh Wilson
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Police AcademyLaura Terruso
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
About My FatherJohn Herzfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
15 MinutesAlec Baldwin
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shortcut to HappinessBrian De Palma
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bonfire of the VanitiesDominic Brigstocke
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Horrible Histories: The Movie — Rotten RomansTamra Davis
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CrossroadsSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Ghost Writer
as Amelia Bly
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Sex and the City
as Samantha Jones
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Big Trouble in Little China
as Gracie Law
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
15 Minutes
as Cassandra
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Big Trouble in Little China
as Gracie Law
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
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Kim Cattrall has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
39 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.
Comedy Legend
Awarded
10 catalogue titles in comedy, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Ghost Writer
as Amelia Bly
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Ghost Writer
as Amelia Bly
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Sex and the City
as Samantha Jones
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Ghost Writer
as Amelia Bly
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Big Trouble in Little China
as Gracie Law
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Big Trouble in Little China
as Gracie Law
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Sex and the City 2
as Samantha Jones
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Police Academy
as Karen Thompson
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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