Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#14961
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Susan Blackwell works on quiet performance 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.
Susan Blackwell appears in 10 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Susan. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is the clearest case: a film rated 7.4 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are quiet performance, versatility, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, drama, history. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Karen Maine, Bart Freundlich, Steven Spielberg and others, Susan Blackwell 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.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) as Intermission Woman · P.S. I Love You (2007) as Vicky · The Post (2017) as Dinner Wife
Career snapshot
Ranked #14961 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
10
2002–2020
Career length
18 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Most frequent director
J.C. Chandor
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With J.C. Chandor
Most common genre
Drama
10 titles
Average runtime
1h 46m
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
6.5
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
6.8 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. After the Wedding, The Post, 3 Generations — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.8
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Margot at the Wedding, P.S. I Love You, Changing Lanes.
Most productive era
2010s
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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.43 films | 6.86 films | 6.31 film |
| Thriller | 6.31 film | 6.82 films | — |
| Comedy | 5.81 film | 6.92 films | 6.31 film |
| Crime | — | 6.61 film | — |
| Romance | 7.21 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2002Changing Lanes
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Newsroom Producer.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2014Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
7.4 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
2020Yes, God, Yes
The current state of the argument, as Gina.
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.
10 of 10 films
as Intermission Woman
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
as Vicky
Directed by Richard LaGravenese
as Dinner Wife
Directed by Steven Spielberg
as Lauren Bratberg
Directed by J.C. Chandor
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
Intermission Woman
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Performance score7.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Intermission Woman gives Susan Blackwell a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Vicky
P.S. I Love You (2007)
Performance score7.1
P.S. I Love You asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Vicky is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Dinner Wife
The Post (2017)
Performance score6.9
The Post asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dinner Wife is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Lauren Bratberg
Margin Call (2011)
Performance score6.8
Margin Call asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Lauren Bratberg 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 Intermission Woman
Start here. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is the clearest statement of what Susan Blackwell does — accessible, 120 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Susan 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.
P.S. I Love You (2007)
Keeps the drama register of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) but asks for a colder reading of it.
Margin Call (2011)
Keeps the drama register of P.S. I Love You but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Post (2017)
Keeps the drama register of Margin Call but asks for a colder reading of it.
After the Wedding (2019)
Keeps the drama register of The Post but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
J.C. Chandor
Director
2 films together
Notably Margin Call
Roger Michell
Director
1 film together
Notably Changing Lanes
Richard LaGravenese
Director
1 film together
Notably P.S. I Love You
Noah Baumbach
Director
1 film together
Notably Margot at the Wedding
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together
Notably Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Gaby Dellal
Director
1 film together
Notably 3 Generations
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably The Post
Bart Freundlich
Director
1 film together
Notably After the Wedding
Karen Maine
Director
1 film together
Notably Yes, God, Yes
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
J.C. Chandor
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
Margin CallAlejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)Richard LaGravenese
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
P.S. I Love YouSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PostBart Freundlich
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
After the WeddingGaby Dellal
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
3 GenerationsKaren Maine
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Yes, God, YesRoger Michell
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Changing LanesNoah Baumbach
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Margot at the WeddingSix 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
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
as Intermission Woman
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
P.S. I Love You
as Vicky
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
as Intermission Woman
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Changing Lanes
as Newsroom Producer
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
as Intermission Woman
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. Susan Blackwell 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
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
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
as Intermission Woman
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
A Most Violent Year
as Female Radio Reporter
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Post
as Dinner Wife
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
A Most Violent Year
as Female Radio Reporter
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
as Intermission Woman
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
P.S. I Love You
as Vicky
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Post
as Dinner Wife
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
3 Generations
as Real Estate Agent
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: comedy and drama
Have your say
Community
Which Susan Blackwell performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
