Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1689
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Cherry Jones represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 26 years in, and Cherry is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Cherry Jones appears in 23 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Cherry. Erin Brockovich 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 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 drama, history, documentary. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Michael Showalter, Joey Soloway, Edward Norton and others, Cherry Jones 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.
Erin Brockovich (2000) as Pamela Duncan · Our Friend (2019) as Faith Pruett · Boy Erased (2018) as Dr. Muldoon
Career snapshot
Ranked #1689 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
23
1998–2024
Career length
26 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.4
Erin Brockovich
Average Nutevio score
6.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.4
Erin Brockovich
Most frequent director
M. Night Shyamalan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With M. Night Shyamalan
Most common genre
Drama
17 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
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
6.3
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
6.8 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Horse Whisperer — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.8
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.9
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. The Horse Whisperer.
Most productive era
2010s
11 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 | 6.81 film | 6.56 films | 6.59 films | 6.51 film |
| Action | — | 6.61 film | — | — |
| Thriller | — | 6.73 films | 6.71 film | — |
| Comedy | — | 6.21 film | 6.45 films | — |
| Crime | — | 6.71 film | — | — |
| Romance | 6.81 film | 6.51 film | 6.44 films | — |
| Horror | — | 6.91 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Liz Hammond.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2000Erin Brockovich
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
2024National Theatre Live: The Grapes of Wrath
The current state of the argument, as Ma Joad.
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.
23 of 23 films
as Pamela Duncan
Directed by Unknown
as Faith Pruett
Directed by Unknown
as Officer Paski
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
as Rachel Grover
Directed by Michael Showalter
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
Pamela Duncan
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Pamela Duncan gives Cherry Jones a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Faith Pruett
Our Friend (2019)
Performance score7.1
Our Friend asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Faith Pruett is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Officer Paski
Signs (2002)
Performance score7.1
Signs asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Officer Paski is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Rachel Grover
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
Performance score7.0
The Eyes of Tammy Faye asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Rachel Grover 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 Pamela Duncan
Start here. Erin Brockovich is the clearest statement of what Cherry Jones does — accessible, 131 minutes, and rated 7.4 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Cherry 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.
Signs (2002)
A deliberate change of key after Erin Brockovich — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Party (2017)
A deliberate change of key after Signs — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Our Friend (2019)
Same director as The Party, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
Keeps the drama register of Our Friend but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
M. Night Shyamalan
Director
2 films together
Notably Signs
Robert Redford
Director
1 film together
Notably The Horse Whisperer
Wolfgang Petersen
Director
1 film together
Notably The Perfect Storm
Callie Khouri
Director
1 film together
Notably Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Mira Nair
Director
1 film together
Notably Amelia
Rodrigo García
Director
1 film together
Notably Mother and Child
Jodie Foster
Director
1 film together
Notably The Beaver
Garry Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably New Year's Eve
Terrence Malick
Director
1 film together
Notably Knight of Cups
Marc Abraham
Director
1 film together
Notably I Saw the Light
Glenn Ficarra
Director
1 film together
Notably Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Joel Edgerton
Director
1 film together
Notably Boy Erased
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably A Rainy Day in New York
Edward Norton
Director
1 film together
Notably Motherless Brooklyn
Joey Soloway
Director
1 film together
Notably Transparent: Musicale Finale
Michael Showalter
Director
1 film together
Notably The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
M. Night Shyamalan
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
SignsJoel Edgerton
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Boy ErasedRobert Redford
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Horse WhispererEdward Norton
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Motherless BrooklynWolfgang Petersen
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 Perfect StormMichael Showalter
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Eyes of Tammy FayeWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Rainy Day in New YorkRodrigo García
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mother and ChildJoey Soloway
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Transparent: Musicale FinaleGlenn Ficarra
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Whiskey Tango FoxtrotJodie Foster
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BeaverMarc Abraham
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I Saw the LightCallie Khouri
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya SisterhoodGarry Marshall
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
New Year's EveTerrence Malick
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Knight of CupsMira Nair
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AmeliaSix 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
Erin Brockovich
as Pamela Duncan
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Our Friend
as Faith Pruett
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Erin Brockovich
as Pamela Duncan
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
New Year's Eve
as Mrs Rose Ahern
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Erin Brockovich
as Pamela Duncan
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. Cherry Jones 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
26 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
17 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
Erin Brockovich
as Pamela Duncan
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Ocean's Twelve
as Molly Star / Mrs. Caldwell
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Our Friend
as Faith Pruett
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Village
as Mrs. Clack
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Perfect Storm
as Edie Bailey
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Perfect Storm
as Edie Bailey
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
as Geri Taub
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Knight of Cups
as Ruth
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: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
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
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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