Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1903
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Margaret Qualley works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Margaret Qualley appears in 25 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Margaret. Poor Things is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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, thriller, romance. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Rachel Morrison, Ridley Scott, Ethan Coen and others, Margaret Qualley 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.
Poor Things (2023) as Felicity · Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) as 'Pussycat' · The Substance (2024) as Sue
Career snapshot
Ranked #1903 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
25
2014–2026
Career length
12 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Poor Things
Average Nutevio score
5.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.6
Poor Things
Most frequent director
Ethan Coen
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Ethan Coen
Most common genre
Drama
13 titles
Average runtime
1h 42m
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
6.1
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
2010s
6.1 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Strange but True, IO — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.1
Across 10 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Strange but True, IO.
Most productive era
2020s
15 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.46 films | 5.37 films |
| Action | 7.11 film | — |
| Thriller | 6.53 films | 5.25 films |
| Comedy | 7.32 films | 6.57 films |
| Crime | 5.72 films | 5.63 films |
| Romance | 6.71 film | 3.34 films |
| Horror | 4.31 film | 6.92 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2014Palo Alto
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Raquel.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2019Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
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.
Most recent film
2026The Dog Stars
The current state of the argument, as Cima.
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.
25 of 25 films
as 'Pussycat'
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Sue
Directed by Coralie Fargeat
as Felicity
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
'Pussycat'
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. 'Pussycat' gives Margaret Qualley a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sue
The Substance (2024)
Performance score7.6
The Substance asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sue is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Julia
How to Make a Killing (2026)
Performance score7.4
How to Make a Killing asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Julia is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Felicity
Poor Things (2023)
Performance score7.4
Poor Things asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Felicity 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 'Pussycat'
Start here. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is the clearest statement of what Margaret Qualley does — accessible, 162 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Margaret 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.
Novitiate (2017)
Keeps the drama register of Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood but asks for a colder reading of it.
Poor Things (2023)
Same director as Novitiate, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Substance (2024)
Keeps the science fiction register of Poor Things but asks for a colder reading of it.
How to Make a Killing (2026)
Keeps the thriller register of The Substance but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Ethan Coen
Director
2 films together
Notably Honey Don't!
Shane Black
Director
1 film together
Notably The Nice Guys
Adam Wingard
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Note
Rowan Athale
Director
1 film together
Notably Strange but True
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Olivia Wilde
Director
1 film together
Notably Wake Up
Coralie Fargeat
Director
1 film together
Notably The Substance
Kyle Newacheck
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy Gilmore 2
Richard Linklater
Director
1 film together
Notably Blue Moon
Ridley Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dog Stars
Rachel Morrison
Director
1 film together
Notably Love of Your Life
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Ethan Coen
Director
2 films together · 5.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Honey Don't!Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Once Upon a Time... in HollywoodCoralie Fargeat
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SubstanceShane Black
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Nice GuysRichard Linklater
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Blue MoonKyle Newacheck
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy Gilmore 2Rowan Athale
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Strange but TrueOlivia Wilde
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wake UpAdam Wingard
Director
1 film together · 4.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death NoteRachel Morrison
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love of Your LifeRidley Scott
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Dog StarsSix 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
Poor Things
as Felicity
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Vanishing of Sidney Hall
as Alexandra
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
as 'Pussycat'
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Happy Gilmore 2
as Sally
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
as 'Pussycat'
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. Margaret Qualley 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.
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
13 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
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
as 'Pussycat'
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Substance
as Sue
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Vanishing of Sidney Hall
as Alexandra
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Vanishing of Sidney Hall
as Alexandra
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Nice Guys
as Amelia Kuttner
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Nice Guys
as Amelia Kuttner
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Blue Moon
as Elizabeth Weiland
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
as 'Pussycat'
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
Which Margaret Qualley performance holds up best?
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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