Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#136
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Eric Roberts represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Eric is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Eric Roberts appears in 118 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Eric. The Dark Knight is the clearest case: a film rated 9.5 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, science fiction, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with James Cullen Bressack, Jorge Xolalpa Jr., AJ Lutsky and others, Eric Roberts 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 Dark Knight (2008) as Maroni · The Dark Knight (2008) as Maroni · Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker's Nightmare (2019) as Dr. Albert Beck / Laid Back Beck
Career snapshot
Ranked #136 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
118
1984–2027
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.5
The Dark Knight
Average Nutevio score
4.0
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.0
The Dark Knight
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Action
39 titles
Average runtime
1h 26m
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
6.6
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
7.0 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.0
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
2 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.
Most productive era
2020s
79 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 | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.82 films | 5.93 films | 7.53 films | 5.79 films | 3.920 films |
| Action | 6.63 films | 6.03 films | 7.25 films | 5.19 films | 4.819 films |
| Thriller | 7.01 film | 6.05 films | 7.12 films | 6.36 films | 3.219 films |
| Comedy | 6.31 film | 6.01 film | 6.33 films | 6.32 films | 4.015 films |
| Crime | 6.31 film | 6.01 film | 7.36 films | 5.13 films | 4.06 films |
| Romance | — | 5.81 film | — | 5.81 film | 4.36 films |
| Horror | — | 6.01 film | — | 4.75 films | 2.919 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1984The Pope of Greenwich Village
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Paulie.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2008The Dark Knight
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.5 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
2027Christmas Eve
The current state of the argument.
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.
118 of 118 films
as Maroni
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Dr. Albert Beck / Laid Back Beck
Directed by Jeff Hare
as Maroni
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Buck
Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
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 24 of 131 titles · 132 total credits · active 1984–2027
Christmas Eve
2027 · Actor
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence
2026 · Actor
Holy Father
2026 · Holy Father
Clika
2026 · Angelo
Oldburgh
2026 · Eric Roberts
Madonna Non Grata
2026 · Eddie
Skate to Hell
2026 · Derek
8v40
2026 · Supreme Commander Marshall
Someone Dies Tonight
2026 · Niko 'The Closer' Dukakis
Desert Fiends 2
2026 · Eric
The Method
2025 · Harold Price
Dante's Inferni
2025 · Dante (voice)
3
2025 · Oracle
Darkness of Man
2025 · Larry
We're Not Married?
2025 · Martin Miller
Shakey Grounds
2025 · Lou Bernstein
Stand Your Ground
2025 · Earl
Lolita
2025 · Officer Jones
Jump Scare
2025 · Father
Die Slow
2025 · Victor
1242: Gateway to the West
2025 · Captain Akos
The Lost Princess
2025 · The Shaman
Scissors
2025 · Mayor Anderson
Overall Figure
2025 · Cottafavi
The defining work
#1
Maroni
The Dark Knight (2008)
Performance score9.1
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Maroni gives Eric Roberts a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Dr. Albert Beck / Laid Back Beck
Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker's Nightmare (2019)
Performance score8.8
Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker's Nightmare asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Dr. Albert Beck / Laid Back Beck is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Maroni
The Dark Knight (2008)
Performance score8.4
The Dark Knight asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Maroni is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Angelo
Clika (2026)
Performance score7.8
Clika asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Angelo 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 Maroni
Start here. The Dark Knight is the clearest statement of what Eric Roberts does — accessible, 152 minutes, and rated 9.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Eric 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.
Runaway Train (1985)
Keeps the action register of The Dark Knight but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Keeps the action register of Runaway Train but asks for a colder reading of it.
Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker's Nightmare (2019)
Keeps the thriller register of The Dark Knight but asks for a colder reading of it.
Clika (2026)
A deliberate change of key after Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker's Nightmare — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Radler
Director
2 films together
Notably Best of the Best
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together
Notably The Dark Knight
Stuart Rosenberg
Director
1 film together
Notably The Pope of Greenwich Village
Andrei Konchalovsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Runaway Train
Phil Joanou
Director
1 film together
Notably Final Analysis
Luis Llosa
Director
1 film together
Notably The Specialist
Geoffrey Sax
Director
1 film together
Notably Doctor Who
Ben Stiller
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cable Guy
Greg Spence
Director
1 film together
Notably The Prophecy II
John Waters
Director
1 film together
Notably Cecil B. Demented
Jonas Åkerlund
Director
1 film together
Notably Spun
Dennis Dugan
Director
1 film together
Notably National Security
Corey Yuen
Director
1 film together
Notably DOA: Dead or Alive
Sylvester Stallone
Director
1 film together
Notably The Expendables
Uwe Boll
Director
1 film together
Notably Assault on Wall Street
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Inherent Vice
Roel Reiné
Director
1 film together
Notably The Condemned 2
Can Ulkay
Director
1 film together
Notably Ayla: The Daughter of War
Jeff Hare
Director
1 film together
Notably Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker's Nightmare
Glenn Plummer
Director
1 film together
Notably 7 Deadly Sins
Errol Sack
Director
1 film together
Notably Die for a Dollar
Geoff Meed
Director
1 film together
Notably Asteroid-a-Geddon
Tyler Spindel
Director
1 film together
Notably Deported
Nick Lyon
Director
1 film together
Notably The Rebels of PT-218
Damien Chazelle
Director
1 film together
Notably Babylon
Michael Su
Director
1 film together
Notably Snow White and the 7 Samurai
Jared Cohn
Director
1 film together
Notably Psycho Ex
AJ Lutsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Garlic Parmesan
Jorge Xolalpa Jr.
Director
1 film together
Notably Lolita
James Cullen Bressack
Director
1 film together
Notably Darkness of Man
Michael Caine
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Cillian Murphy
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Morgan Freeman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Christian Bale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Aaron Eckhart
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Gary Oldman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Monique Gabriela Curnen
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Ron Dean
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Chin Han
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Nestor Carbonell
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
2 films together · 9.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Dark KnightRobert Radler
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Best of the BestJeff Hare
Director
1 film together · 8.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stalked by My Doctor: A Sleepwalker's NightmareCan Ulkay
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ayla: The Daughter of WarDamien Chazelle
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabylonAndrei Konchalovsky
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Runaway TrainJonas Åkerlund
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpunPaul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Inherent ViceJohn Waters
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cecil B. DementedSylvester Stallone
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 ExpendablesStuart Rosenberg
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 Pope of Greenwich VillageGeoffrey Sax
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Doctor WhoDennis Dugan
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
National SecurityGreg Spence
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Prophecy IIBen Stiller
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Cable GuyLuis Llosa
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpecialistUwe Boll
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Assault on Wall StreetGeoff Meed
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Asteroid-a-GeddonPhil Joanou
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Final AnalysisJames Cullen Bressack
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Darkness of ManCorey Yuen
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DOA: Dead or AliveRoel Reiné
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Condemned 2Michael Su
Director
1 film together · 3.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Snow White and the 7 SamuraiNick Lyon
Director
1 film together · 3.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Rebels of PT-218Tyler Spindel
Director
1 film together · 3.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DeportedJared Cohn
Director
1 film together · 3.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Psycho ExGlenn Plummer
Director
1 film together · 2.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
7 Deadly SinsErrol Sack
Director
1 film together · 1.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Die for a DollarJorge Xolalpa Jr.
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LolitaAJ Lutsky
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Garlic ParmesanSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2009
The Dark Knight
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Dark Knight
as Maroni
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Clika
as Angelo
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 Dark Knight
as Maroni
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Babylon
as Robert Roy
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Dark Knight
as Maroni
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. Eric Roberts has known it for a long time.”
“Why so serious?”
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.4 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #81 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.5 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Action, Crime, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Screen presence, Charisma | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2008–2008 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Maroni — The Dark Knight | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Dark Knight | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Michael Caine · Cillian Murphy
Matt Damon 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
43 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Editor's Icon
Awarded
Named by our desk for a body of work we return to when we need to explain what screen acting is for.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Action Legend
Awarded
39 catalogue titles in action, 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 Dark Knight
as Maroni
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Dark Knight
as Maroni
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Clika
as Angelo
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Inherent Vice
as Michael Z. "Mickey" Wolfmann
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Dark Knight
as Maroni
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Lost Princess
as The Shaman
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Spun
as The Man
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Dark Knight
as Maroni
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 6 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Action Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #1
Read the collectiondirector
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Features The Dark Knight at #2
Read the collectiontheme
Best Heist Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features The Dark Knight at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Best Action Movies
Features The Dark Knight
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Jamie Harris
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Elliot Page
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
Which Eric Roberts 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
