Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#738
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Clifton Collins Jr. represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 31 years in, and Clifton is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Clifton Collins Jr. appears in 38 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Clifton. Red, White & Royal Blue 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 romance, comedy, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Ari Aster, Matthew López, Renny Harlin and others, Clifton Collins Jr. 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.
Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) as Oscar Diaz · Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) as 'Lancer' - Ernesto the Mexican Vaquero · Star Trek (2009) as Ayel
Career snapshot
Ranked #738 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
38
1995–2026
Career length
31 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.7
Red, White & Royal Blue
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
Red, White & Royal Blue
Most frequent director
Guillermo del Toro
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Guillermo del Toro
Most common genre
Drama
21 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
6.8 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Star Trek, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, Extract — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
6.8
Across 11 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.7
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 Replacement Killers, One Eight Seven, Dead Presidents.
Most productive era
2010s
14 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 | 6.72 films | 7.07 films | 6.57 films | 6.55 films |
| Action | 6.52 films | 6.74 films | 6.45 films | 5.81 film |
| Thriller | 6.52 films | 6.75 films | 6.28 films | 6.32 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.32 films | 7.03 films | 6.54 films |
| Crime | 6.52 films | 6.64 films | 6.15 films | 6.43 films |
| Romance | — | — | 6.62 films | 6.82 films |
| Horror | — | — | 4.91 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1995Dead Presidents
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Betancourt.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
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
2026By Design
The current state of the argument, as Jacob the Stalker.
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.
38 of 38 films
as 'Lancer' - Ernesto the Mexican Vaquero
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
as Ayel
Directed by J.J. Abrams
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
Oscar Diaz
Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Oscar Diaz gives Clifton Collins Jr. a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Boomer
Train Dreams (2025)
Performance score7.4
Train Dreams asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Boomer is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
'Lancer' - Ernesto the Mexican Vaquero
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
Performance score7.4
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. 'Lancer' - Ernesto the Mexican Vaquero is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Ayel
Star Trek (2009)
Performance score7.4
Star Trek asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ayel 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 Oscar Diaz
Start here. Red, White & Royal Blue is the clearest statement of what Clifton Collins Jr. does — accessible, 118 minutes, and rated 7.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Clifton 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.
Capote (2005)
A deliberate change of key after Red, White & Royal Blue — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Star Trek (2009)
A deliberate change of key after Capote — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Star Trek — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Train Dreams (2025)
Keeps the drama register of Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Guillermo del Toro
Director
2 films together
Notably Pacific Rim
Albert Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Presidents
Kevin Reynolds
Director
1 film together
Notably One Eight Seven
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably The Replacement Killers
Joel Schumacher
Director
1 film together
Notably Tigerland
Rod Lurie
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Castle
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together
Notably Babel
Jim Sheridan
Director
1 film together
Notably Brothers
Brian Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Crank: High Voltage
Mike Judge
Director
1 film together
Notably Extract
J.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together
Notably Star Trek
Paul T. Scheuring
Director
1 film together
Notably The Experiment
Edgar Wright
Director
1 film together
Notably Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Taylor Hackford
Director
1 film together
Notably Parker
Wally Pfister
Director
1 film together
Notably Transcendence
Terrence Malick
Director
1 film together
Notably Knight of Cups
John Hillcoat
Director
1 film together
Notably Triple 9
Clint Eastwood
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mule
Jay Chandrasekhar
Director
1 film together
Notably Super Troopers 2
Alma Har'el
Director
1 film together
Notably Honey Boy
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Tate Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Breaking News in Yuba County
Kogonada
Director
1 film together
Notably After Yang
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bricklayer
Matthew López
Director
1 film together
Notably Red, White & Royal Blue
Ari Aster
Director
1 film together
Notably Eddington
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Guillermo del Toro
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pacific RimMatthew López
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red, White & Royal BlueQuentin 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 HollywoodJ.J. Abrams
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Star TrekEdgar Wright
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Scott Pilgrim vs. the WorldJim Sheridan
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BrothersAlejandro G. Iñárritu
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabelRod Lurie
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last CastleAlma Har'el
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Honey BoyClint Eastwood
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 MuleKevin Reynolds
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
One Eight SevenAlbert Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead PresidentsJoel Schumacher
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TigerlandAri Aster
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EddingtonKogonada
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 YangPaul T. Scheuring
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 ExperimentAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Replacement KillersWally Pfister
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TranscendenceTaylor Hackford
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ParkerBrian Taylor
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Crank: High VoltageJohn Hillcoat
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Triple 9Tate Taylor
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breaking News in Yuba CountyJay Chandrasekhar
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Super Troopers 2Mike Judge
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ExtractRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BricklayerTerrence Malick
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Knight of CupsSix 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
Star Trek
as Ayel
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Knight of Cups
as Jordan
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Star Trek
as Ayel
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
as Vegan Police (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Red, White & Royal Blue
as Oscar Diaz
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. Clifton Collins Jr. 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
31 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
21 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
Red, White & Royal Blue
as Oscar Diaz
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Traffic
as Francisco Flores
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Knight of Cups
as Jordan
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Super Troopers 2
as Bus Driver
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Star Trek
as Ayel
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Triple 9
as Jorge Rodriguez
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Breaking News in Yuba County
as Ray
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Pacific Rim
as Tendo Choi
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Harvey Keitel
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Christopher Walken
Works with the same directors — Quentin Tarantino
Jamie Harris
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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