Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3185
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Holly Hunter represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 43 years in, and Holly is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Holly Hunter appears in 19 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Holly. The Incredibles is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 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 action, science fiction, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Peter Sohn, Anthony Russo, Brad Bird and others, Holly Hunter 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 Incredibles (2004) as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice) · Incredibles 2 (2018) as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice) · The Piano (1993) as Ada McGrath
Career snapshot
Ranked #3185 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
19
1985–2028
Career length
43 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
The Incredibles
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.7
The Incredibles
Most frequent director
Joel Coen
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Joel Coen
Most common genre
Drama
9 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
6.9
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
6.7
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
1980s
6.8 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Always, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
6.8
Across 3 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Always, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple.
Most productive era
2000s
5 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 | 6.72 films | 7.12 films | 5.93 films | 5.52 films | — |
| Action | — | — | 7.91 film | 6.82 films | 3.32 films |
| Thriller | 7.11 film | 6.72 films | — | — | — |
| Comedy | 7.01 film | 6.21 film | 6.33 films | — | — |
| Crime | 7.02 films | 6.51 film | 6.82 films | — | — |
| Romance | 6.21 film | 6.82 films | 5.82 films | 5.51 film | 7.11 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1985Blood Simple
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Helene Trend (voice) (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2004The Incredibles
7.9 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
2028Incredibles 3
The current state of the argument, as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice).
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 Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
Directed by Brad Bird
as Ada McGrath
Directed by Jane Campion
as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
Directed by Brad Bird
as Ed
Directed by Joel Coen
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
Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
The Incredibles (2004)
Performance score8.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice) gives Holly Hunter a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Ada McGrath
The Piano (1993)
Performance score8.0
The Piano asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ada McGrath is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
Incredibles 2 (2018)
Performance score7.8
Incredibles 2 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Penny
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Performance score7.4
O Brother, Where Art Thou? asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Penny 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 Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
Start here. The Incredibles is the clearest statement of what Holly Hunter does — accessible, 115 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Holly 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.
Raising Arizona (1987)
A deliberate change of key after The Incredibles — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Piano (1993)
A deliberate change of key after Raising Arizona — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
A deliberate change of key after The Piano — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Incredibles 2 (2018)
Keeps the adventure register of O Brother, Where Art Thou? but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Joel Coen
Director
3 films together
Notably O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Brad Bird
Director
2 films together
Notably The Incredibles
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Always
Jane Campion
Director
1 film together
Notably The Piano
Sydney Pollack
Director
1 film together
Notably The Firm
Jon Amiel
Director
1 film together
Notably Copycat
Danny Boyle
Director
1 film together
Notably A Life Less Ordinary
Brad Silberling
Director
1 film together
Notably Moonlight Mile
Nick Hurran
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Black Book
Mark Mylod
Director
1 film together
Notably The Big White
David Gordon Green
Director
1 film together
Notably Manglehorn
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Terrence Malick
Director
1 film together
Notably Song to Song
Anthony Russo
Director
1 film together
Notably The Electric State
Peter Sohn
Director
1 film together
Notably Incredibles 3
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Joel Coen
Director
3 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
O Brother, Where Art Thou?Brad Bird
Director
2 films together · 7.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The IncrediblesJane Campion
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PianoSydney Pollack
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 FirmAnthony Russo
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 Electric StateJon Amiel
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CopycatBrad Silberling
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Moonlight MileMark Mylod
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 Big WhiteDanny Boyle
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Life Less OrdinarySteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AlwaysZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Batman v Superman: Dawn of JusticeTerrence Malick
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Song to SongDavid Gordon Green
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ManglehornNick Hurran
Director
1 film together · 5.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little Black BookPeter Sohn
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Incredibles 3Six 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
The Incredibles
as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Piano
as Ada McGrath
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 Incredibles
as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Electric State
as Madeline Vance
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Incredibles
as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
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. Holly Hunter 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
43 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
9 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 Incredibles
as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Incredibles
as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Song to Song
as Miranda
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Copycat
as M.J. Monahan
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Incredibles
as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Electric State
as Madeline Vance
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Big White
as Margaret Barnell
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Incredibles
as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
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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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
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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