Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3210
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Gretchen Mol represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Gretchen is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Gretchen Mol appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Gretchen. Manchester by the Sea is the clearest case: a film rated 7.6 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 comedy, drama, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Shane Black, Edward Burns, John Lee and others, Gretchen Mol 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.
Manchester by the Sea (2016) as Elise Henderson · Donnie Brasco (1997) as Sonny's Girlfriend · 3:10 to Yuma (2007) as Alice Evans
Career snapshot
Ranked #3210 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1996–2026
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.6
Manchester by the Sea
Average Nutevio score
6.1
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Manchester by the Sea
Most frequent director
Woody Allen
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Woody Allen
Most common genre
Drama
14 titles
Average runtime
1h 49m
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
6.4
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. Sweet and Lowdown, The Thirteenth Floor, Rounders — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
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
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. Sweet and Lowdown, The Thirteenth Floor, Rounders.
Most productive era
1990s
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 | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.85 films | 6.21 film | 6.55 films | 4.13 films |
| Action | — | — | — | 6.61 film |
| Thriller | 7.32 films | — | 5.71 film | 6.12 films |
| Comedy | 6.32 films | 5.52 films | 6.11 film | 0.01 film |
| Crime | 7.13 films | — | 6.31 film | 6.61 film |
| Romance | — | 6.21 film | 6.11 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | 5.61 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1996The Funeral
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Helen.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.6 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
2026Horsegirls
The current state of the argument, as Sandy.
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.
19 of 19 films
as Jane Fuller
Directed by Josef Rusnak
as Alice Evans
Directed by James Mangold
as Sonny's Girlfriend
Directed by Mike Newell
as Elise Jensen
Directed by Mark Williams
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
Elise Henderson
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Performance score7.7
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Elise Henderson gives Gretchen Mol a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Jane Fuller
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
Performance score7.4
The Thirteenth Floor asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Jane Fuller is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Alice Evans
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Performance score7.3
3:10 to Yuma asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Alice Evans is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Sonny's Girlfriend
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Performance score7.3
Donnie Brasco asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sonny's Girlfriend 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 Elise Henderson
Start here. Manchester by the Sea is the clearest statement of what Gretchen Mol does — accessible, 138 minutes, and rated 7.6 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Gretchen 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.
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Keeps the drama register of Manchester by the Sea but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
Keeps the thriller register of Donnie Brasco but asks for a colder reading of it.
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
A deliberate change of key after The Thirteenth Floor — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
A Family Man (2016)
A deliberate change of key after 3:10 to Yuma — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Woody Allen
Director
2 films together
Notably Sweet and Lowdown
Abel Ferrara
Director
1 film together
Notably The Funeral
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Donnie Brasco
John Dahl
Director
1 film together
Notably Rounders
Josef Rusnak
Director
1 film together
Notably The Thirteenth Floor
Neil LaBute
Director
1 film together
Notably The Shape of Things
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably 3:10 to Yuma
David Wain
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ten
Lynn Shelton
Director
1 film together
Notably Laggies
Rupert Goold
Director
1 film together
Notably True Story
Mark Williams
Director
1 film together
Notably A Family Man
Kenneth Lonergan
Director
1 film together
Notably Manchester by the Sea
John Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably False Positive
Edward Burns
Director
1 film together
Notably Millers in Marriage
Shane Black
Director
1 film together
Notably Play Dirty
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Woody Allen
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
Sweet and LowdownKenneth Lonergan
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Manchester by the SeaMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Donnie BrascoJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
3:10 to YumaJosef Rusnak
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 Thirteenth FloorJohn Dahl
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RoundersMark Williams
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Family ManAbel Ferrara
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The FuneralShane Black
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Play DirtyRupert Goold
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
True StoryNeil LaBute
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Shape of ThingsEdward Burns
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Millers in MarriageLynn Shelton
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LaggiesJohn Lee
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
False PositiveDavid Wain
Director
1 film together · 4.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The TenSix 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
Manchester by the Sea
as Elise Henderson
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Laggies
as Bethany
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Donnie Brasco
as Sonny's Girlfriend
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Celebrity
as Vicky
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Manchester by the Sea
as Elise Henderson
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. Gretchen Mol 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
30 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
14 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
The Thirteenth Floor
as Jane Fuller
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Donnie Brasco
as Sonny's Girlfriend
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Laggies
as Bethany
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Thirteenth Floor
as Jane Fuller
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
3:10 to Yuma
as Alice Evans
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Play Dirty
as Grace Webb
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Sweet and Lowdown
as Ellie
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Manchester by the Sea
as Elise Henderson
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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Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Christian Bale
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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