Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#8298
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Lena Olin represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 42 years in, and Lena is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Lena Olin appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Lena. One Life is the clearest case: a film rated 7.8 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 science fiction, adventure, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Johan Renck, Carlson Young, James Hawes and others, Lena Olin 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.
One Life (2023) as Grete Winton · The Reader (2008) as Rose Mather · Fanny and Alexander (1982) as Rosa
Career snapshot
Ranked #8298 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
16
1982–2024
Career length
42 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.8
One Life
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.8
One Life
Most frequent director
Lasse Hallström
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Lasse Hallström
Most common genre
Drama
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 57m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
6.8
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
7.4 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Fanny and Alexander — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.4
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.8
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. Fanny and Alexander.
Most productive era
2000s
6 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 | 7.41 film | 6.21 film | 6.94 films | 7.11 film | 7.03 films |
| Action | — | 5.91 film | 5.21 film | — | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.61 film | 5.92 films | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 5.91 film | 6.23 films | — | 5.92 films |
| Crime | — | 6.21 film | 6.52 films | — | 4.61 film |
| Romance | — | 6.21 film | 7.03 films | 7.11 film | 7.21 film |
| Horror | — | 6.61 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Rosa.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2023One Life
7.8 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
2024Upgraded
The current state of the argument, as Catherine.
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.
16 of 16 films
as Grete Winton
Directed by James Hawes
as Rose Mather
Directed by Stephen Daldry
as Catherine
Directed by Carlson Young
as Diane Hirsch
Directed by Allen Coulter
as Rosa
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
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
Grete Winton
One Life (2023)
Performance score8.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Grete Winton gives Lena Olin a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Rose Mather
The Reader (2008)
Performance score7.6
The Reader asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rose Mather is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Catherine
Upgraded (2024)
Performance score7.3
Upgraded asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Catherine is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Diane Hirsch
Remember Me (2010)
Performance score7.2
Remember Me asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Diane Hirsch 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 Grete Winton
Start here. One Life is the clearest statement of what Lena Olin does — accessible, 109 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Lena 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.
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Keeps the drama register of One Life but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Reader (2008)
Keeps the drama register of Fanny and Alexander but asks for a colder reading of it.
Remember Me (2010)
Keeps the romance register of The Reader but asks for a colder reading of it.
Upgraded (2024)
Keeps the romance register of Remember Me but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Lasse Hallström
Director
2 films together
Notably Chocolat
Ingmar Bergman
Director
1 film together
Notably Fanny and Alexander
Peter Medak
Director
1 film together
Notably Romeo Is Bleeding
Roman Polanski
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ninth Gate
Ron Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Hollywood Homicide
Joby Harold
Director
1 film together
Notably Awake
Stephen Daldry
Director
1 film together
Notably The Reader
Allen Coulter
Director
1 film together
Notably Remember Me
Michael Uppendahl
Director
1 film together
Notably Adam
Tomas Alfredson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Jonsson Gang
James Hawes
Director
1 film together
Notably One Life
Carlson Young
Director
1 film together
Notably Upgraded
Johan Renck
Director
1 film together
Notably Spaceman
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Lasse Hallström
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ChocolatJames Hawes
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One LifeStephen Daldry
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ReaderIngmar Bergman
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fanny and AlexanderCarlson Young
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
UpgradedAllen Coulter
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Remember MeJohan Renck
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpacemanJoby Harold
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AwakeRoman Polanski
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ninth GateMichael Uppendahl
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AdamPeter Medak
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Romeo Is BleedingRon Shelton
Director
1 film together · 5.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hollywood HomicideTomas Alfredson
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Jonsson GangSix 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
One Life
as Grete Winton
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
One Life
as Grete Winton
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
One Life
as Grete Winton
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Fanny and Alexander
as Rosa
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
One Life
as Grete Winton
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. Lena Olin 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
42 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
10 catalogue titles in drama, 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
Fanny and Alexander
as Rosa
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Fanny and Alexander
as Rosa
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
One Life
as Grete Winton
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Fanny and Alexander
as Rosa
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
One Life
as Grete Winton
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Mystery Men
as Dr. Anabel Leek
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Casanova
as Andrea
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Ninth Gate
as Liana Telfer
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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