Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Paul Lazar appears in 9 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Paul. The Silence of the Lambs is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 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 horror, drama, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Claire Scanlon, Michael Almereyda, Bong Joon Ho and others, Paul Lazar 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.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) as Pilcher · The Silence of the Lambs (1991) as Pilcher · Philadelphia (1993) as Dr. Klenstein
Career snapshot
A Nutevio catalogue profile for Paul Lazar.
Films in Nutevio
9
1991–2023
Career length
32 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
The Silence of the Lambs
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.6
The Silence of the Lambs
Most frequent director
Jonathan Demme
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Jonathan Demme
Most common genre
Drama
7 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
6.9
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
6.9
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
1990s
8.5 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Philadelphia, The Silence of the Lambs, The Silence of the Lambs — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
8.5
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
8.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Philadelphia, The Silence of the Lambs, The Silence of the Lambs.
Most productive era
1990s
3 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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 8.12 films | 6.52 films | 6.82 films | 0.01 film |
| Action | — | — | 7.11 film | — |
| Thriller | 8.82 films | 6.61 film | — | 0.01 film |
| Comedy | — | — | — | 6.41 film |
| Crime | 8.82 films | — | — | — |
| Romance | — | 6.41 film | — | — |
| Horror | 9.21 film | — | — | 0.01 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Pilcher. The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 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
2023Sweet Relief
The current state of the argument, as Mr. McDaniel.
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.
9 of 9 films
as Pilcher
Directed by Jonathan Demme
as Pilcher
Directed by Jonathan Demme
as Dr. Klenstein
Directed by Jonathan Demme
as Paul
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
as Gillespie
Directed by Jonathan Demme
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 9 of 9 titles · 9 total credits · active 1991–2023
Sweet Relief
2023 · Mr. McDaniel
Lisey's Story
2021 · TV · Thomas Fenton
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend
2020 · Drunk
Experimenter
2015 · Paul Errara
Snowpiercer
2013 · Paul
Rachel Getting Married
2008 · Rehearsal Dinner Guest
The Manchurian Candidate
2004 · Gillespie
Philadelphia
1993 · Dr. Klenstein
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 · Pilcher
The defining work
#1
Pilcher
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Performance score8.8
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Pilcher gives Paul Lazar a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Pilcher
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Performance score8.2
The Silence of the Lambs asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Pilcher is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dr. Klenstein
Philadelphia (1993)
Performance score7.5
Philadelphia asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Klenstein is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Paul
Snowpiercer (2013)
Performance score7.0
Snowpiercer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Paul 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 Pilcher
Start here. The Silence of the Lambs is the clearest statement of what Paul Lazar does — accessible, 118 minutes, and rated 9.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Paul 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.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Same director as The Silence of the Lambs, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Philadelphia (1993)
Same director as The Silence of the Lambs, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Same director as Philadelphia, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Snowpiercer (2013)
Keeps the drama register of The Manchurian Candidate but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jonathan Demme
Director
5 films together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Bong Joon Ho
Director
1 film together
Notably Snowpiercer
Michael Almereyda
Director
1 film together
Notably Experimenter
Claire Scanlon
Director
1 film together
Notably Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend
Jodie Foster
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Scott Glenn
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Ted Levine
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Heald
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Brooke Smith
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Diane Baker
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Kasi Lemmons
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Frankie Faison
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Tracey Walter
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Charles Napier
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Danny Darst
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jonathan Demme
Director
5 films together · 7.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Silence of the LambsBong Joon Ho
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SnowpiercerMichael Almereyda
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ExperimenterClaire Scanlon
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the ReverendSix 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 Silence of the Lambs
as Pilcher
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Rachel Getting Married
as Rehearsal Dinner Guest
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Silence of the Lambs
as Pilcher
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Rachel Getting Married
as Rehearsal Dinner Guest
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Silence of the Lambs
as Pilcher
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. Paul Lazar has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.2 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #239 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Thriller, Crime, Horror | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Jonathan Demme | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Villain presence, Quiet performance | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 1991–1991 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | Pilcher — The Silence of the Lambs | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | The Silence of the Lambs | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Thriller Movies, Crime Movies
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
32 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Drama Legend
Awarded
7 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
The Silence of the Lambs
as Pilcher
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Silence of the Lambs
as Pilcher
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Rachel Getting Married
as Rehearsal Dinner Guest
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Manchurian Candidate
as Gillespie
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Silence of the Lambs
as Pilcher
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Snowpiercer
as Paul
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Silence of the Lambs
as Pilcher
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Silence of the Lambs
as Pilcher
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Best Horror Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Horror Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
Ted Levine
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
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