Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#2590
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Saffron Burrows represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 33 years in, and Saffron is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Saffron Burrows appears in 16 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Saffron. In the Name of the Father is the clearest case: a film rated 7.7 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, action, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Pierre Morel, Jonas Åkerlund, Jonas Pate and others, Saffron Burrows 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.
In the Name of the Father (1993) as Girl in Commune · Troy (2004) as Andromache · Frida (2002) as Gracie
Career snapshot
Ranked #2590 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
16
1993–2026
Career length
33 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.7
In the Name of the Father
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
In the Name of the Father
Most frequent director
Pierre Morel
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Pierre Morel
Most common genre
Drama
8 titles
Average runtime
1h 52m
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
6.6
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
2000s
6.9 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Shrink, The Bank Job, Reign Over Me — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.9
Across 8 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.8
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. Deep Blue Sea, Wing Commander, In the Name of the Father.
Most productive era
2000s
8 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 | 7.71 film | 6.76 films | 5.81 film | — |
| Action | 5.52 films | 6.92 films | — | 6.21 film |
| Thriller | — | 6.53 films | — | 5.82 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.21 film | 5.81 film | — |
| Crime | — | 6.72 films | 5.81 film | 6.21 film |
| Romance | — | 6.82 films | — | — |
| Horror | 6.21 film | — | — | 5.82 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Girl in Commune. 7.7 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 Morrigan
The current state of the argument, as Fiona.
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 Martine Love
Directed by Roger Donaldson
as Donna Remar
Directed by Mike Binder
as Andromache
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
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
Girl in Commune
In the Name of the Father (1993)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Girl in Commune gives Saffron Burrows a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Martine Love
The Bank Job (2008)
Performance score7.3
The Bank Job asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Martine Love is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Donna Remar
Reign Over Me (2007)
Performance score7.3
Reign Over Me asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Donna Remar is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Andromache
Troy (2004)
Performance score7.2
Troy asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Andromache 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 Girl in Commune
Start here. In the Name of the Father is the clearest statement of what Saffron Burrows does — accessible, 133 minutes, and rated 7.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Saffron 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.
Frida (2002)
Keeps the drama register of In the Name of the Father but asks for a colder reading of it.
Troy (2004)
A deliberate change of key after Frida — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Reign Over Me (2007)
A deliberate change of key after Troy — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Bank Job (2008)
Keeps the drama register of Reign Over Me but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jim Sheridan
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Name of the Father
Christopher Roberts
Director
1 film together
Notably Wing Commander
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Deep Blue Sea
Paul McGuigan
Director
1 film together
Notably Gangster No. 1
Michael Apted
Director
1 film together
Notably Enigma
Julie Taymor
Director
1 film together
Notably Frida
P.J. Hogan
Director
1 film together
Notably Peter Pan
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably Troy
Mike Binder
Director
1 film together
Notably Reign Over Me
Roger Donaldson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bank Job
Jonas Pate
Director
1 film together
Notably Shrink
Jonas Åkerlund
Director
1 film together
Notably Small Apartments
Pierre Morel
Director
1 film together
Notably Canary Black
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jim Sheridan
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Name of the FatherWolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TroyJulie Taymor
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FridaMike Binder
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Reign Over MeP.J. Hogan
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Peter PanRoger Donaldson
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bank JobPaul McGuigan
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gangster No. 1Michael Apted
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EnigmaPierre Morel
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Canary BlackJonas Pate
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ShrinkRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deep Blue SeaJonas Åkerlund
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Small ApartmentsChristopher Roberts
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wing CommanderSix 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
In the Name of the Father
as Girl in Commune
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Frida
as Gracie
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
In the Name of the Father
as Girl in Commune
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Peter Pan
as Story Narrator (voice)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
In the Name of the Father
as Girl in Commune
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. Saffron Burrows 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
33 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
8 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
Peter Pan
as Story Narrator (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Bank Job
as Martine Love
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Frida
as Gracie
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Peter Pan
as Story Narrator (voice)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Troy
as Andromache
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Wing Commander
as Lt. Cmdr. 'Angel' Devereaux
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Small Apartments
as Francine
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Troy
as Andromache
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: family and comedy
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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