Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#93
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jake Gyllenhaal represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 36 years in, and Jake is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jake Gyllenhaal appears in 47 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jake. Zodiac is the clearest case: a film rated 8.8 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, mystery, fantasy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with M. Night Shyamalan, Morgan Neville, Maggie Gyllenhaal and others, Jake Gyllenhaal 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.
Zodiac (2007) as Robert Graysmith · Prisoners (2013) as Detective Loki · Donnie Darko (2001) as Donnie Darko
Career snapshot
Ranked #93 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
47
1991–2027
Career length
36 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.8
Zodiac
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Prisoners
Most frequent director
Guy Ritchie
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Guy Ritchie
Most common genre
Drama
25 titles
Average runtime
1h 48m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
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
2000s
7.0 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Brothers, Zodiac, Zodiac — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.0
Across 12 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.1
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. October Sky, City Slickers.
Most productive era
2010s
19 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 | 7.41 film | 7.19 films | 7.212 films | 6.63 films |
| Action | — | — | 7.24 films | 5.75 films |
| Thriller | — | 7.04 films | 7.36 films | 7.05 films |
| Comedy | 6.51 film | 6.02 films | 6.45 films | 0.01 film |
| Crime | — | 8.32 films | 7.83 films | 6.61 film |
| Romance | — | 6.54 films | 5.72 films | 0.01 film |
| Horror | — | — | 6.02 films | 3.02 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1991City Slickers
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Danny Robbins.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2007Zodiac
8.8 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
2027Remain
The current state of the argument, as Tate Donovan.
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.
47 of 47 films
as Robert Graysmith
Directed by David Fincher
as Detective Loki
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
as Donnie Darko
Directed by Richard Kelly
as Master Sergeant John Kinley
Directed by Guy Ritchie
as Louis Bloom
Directed by Dan Gilroy
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 55 titles · 61 total credits · active 1991–2027
Remain
2027 · Tate Donovan
Generations: The Evolution of Spider-Man
2026 · Self - Mysterio (archive footage)
Lorne
2026 · Self
The Bride!
2026 · Ronnie Reed
In the Grey
2026 · Bronco
No Way Home
2026 · Officer
Actors on Actors: Broadway
2025 · TV · Self
Road House
2024 · Dalton
Presumed Innocent
2024 · TV · Rozat 'Rusty' Sabich · Executive Producer
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
2023 · Master Sergeant John Kinley
A Journey to Sundance
2023 · Self
Ambulance
2022 · Danny Sharp
Strange World
2022 · Searcher Clade (voice)
Spirit Untamed
2021 · Jim Prescott (voice)
The Guilty
2021 · Joe Baylor · Producer
Show of Titles
2021 · "Camelot" Performer
Breaking News in Yuba County
2021 · Producer
The Devil All the Time
2020 · Producer
Joe Bell
2020 · Executive Producer
Relic
2020 · Producer
Spider-Man: Far From Home
2019 · Quentin Beck / Mysterio
Velvet Buzzsaw
2019 · Morf Vandewalt
John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch
2019 · Mr. Music
Wildlife
2018 · Jerry Brinson · Producer
The defining work
#1
Robert Graysmith
Zodiac (2007)
Performance score9.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Robert Graysmith gives Jake Gyllenhaal a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Detective Loki
Prisoners (2013)
Performance score8.5
Prisoners asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Detective Loki is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko (2001)
Performance score8.4
Donnie Darko asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Donnie Darko is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Master Sergeant John Kinley
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant (2023)
Performance score8.2
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Master Sergeant John Kinley 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 Robert Graysmith
Start here. Zodiac is the clearest statement of what Jake Gyllenhaal does — accessible, 157 minutes, and rated 8.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jake 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 Darko (2001)
Keeps the mystery register of Zodiac but asks for a colder reading of it.
Prisoners (2013)
Keeps the drama register of Donnie Darko but asks for a colder reading of it.
Nightcrawler (2014)
Keeps the crime register of Prisoners but asks for a colder reading of it.
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant (2023)
Keeps the thriller register of Nightcrawler but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
David Fincher
Director
2 films together
Notably Zodiac
Antoine Fuqua
Director
2 films together
Notably Southpaw
Guy Ritchie
Director
2 films together
Notably Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
Ron Underwood
Director
1 film together
Notably City Slickers
Joe Johnston
Director
1 film together
Notably October Sky
Richard Kelly
Director
1 film together
Notably Donnie Darko
Brad Silberling
Director
1 film together
Notably Moonlight Mile
Miguel Arteta
Director
1 film together
Notably The Good Girl
Roland Emmerich
Director
1 film together
Notably The Day After Tomorrow
Sam Mendes
Director
1 film together
Notably Jarhead
John Madden
Director
1 film together
Notably Proof
Ang Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Brokeback Mountain
Gavin Hood
Director
1 film together
Notably Rendition
Jim Sheridan
Director
1 film together
Notably Brothers
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Edward Zwick
Director
1 film together
Notably Love & Other Drugs
Duncan Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Source Code
David Ayer
Director
1 film together
Notably End of Watch
Denis Villeneuve
Director
1 film together
Notably Prisoners
Dan Gilroy
Director
1 film together
Notably Nightcrawler
David O. Russell
Director
1 film together
Notably Accidental Love
Baltasar Kormákur
Director
1 film together
Notably Everest
Jean-Marc Vallée
Director
1 film together
Notably Demolition
Tom Ford
Director
1 film together
Notably Nocturnal Animals
Daniel Espinosa
Director
1 film together
Notably Life
David Gordon Green
Director
1 film together
Notably Stronger
Bong Joon Ho
Director
1 film together
Notably Okja
Jacques Audiard
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sisters Brothers
Paul Dano
Director
1 film together
Notably Wildlife
Rhys Thomas
Director
1 film together
Notably John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch
Jon Watts
Director
1 film together
Notably Spider-Man: Far From Home
Lonny Price
Director
1 film together
Notably Show of Titles
Elaine Bogan
Director
1 film together
Notably Spirit Untamed
Don Hall
Director
1 film together
Notably Strange World
Michael Bay
Director
1 film together
Notably Ambulance
Julian Starks
Director
1 film together
Notably A Journey to Sundance
Doug Liman
Director
1 film together
Notably Road House
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together
Notably The Bride!
Morgan Neville
Director
1 film together
Notably Lorne
M. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together
Notably Remain
Zach Grenier
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Richmond Arquette
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Bob Stephenson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Mark Ruffalo
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Anthony Edwards
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Robert Downey Jr.
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Chloë Sevigny
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Elias Koteas
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
John Carroll Lynch
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Brian Cox
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Dermot Mulroney
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Charles Fleischer
Actor
1 film together
Notably Zodiac
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
David Fincher
Director
2 films together · 8.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ZodiacGuy Ritchie
Director
2 films together · 7.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Guy Ritchie's The CovenantAntoine Fuqua
Director
2 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
SouthpawDenis Villeneuve
Director
1 film together · 8.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PrisonersRichard Kelly
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Donnie DarkoAng Lee
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Brokeback MountainJon Watts
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spider-Man: Far From HomeDan Gilroy
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NightcrawlerTom Ford
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nocturnal AnimalsDavid Ayer
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
End of WatchJoe Johnston
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
October SkyElaine Bogan
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spirit UntamedBong Joon Ho
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OkjaDuncan Jones
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Source CodeJim 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
BrothersRhys Thomas
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch BunchDavid Gordon Green
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StrongerEdward Zwick
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love & Other DrugsDoug Liman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Road HouseJean-Marc Vallée
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DemolitionMorgan Neville
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LorneJacques Audiard
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 Sisters BrothersBaltasar Kormákur
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EverestSam Mendes
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
JarheadMichael Bay
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AmbulancePaul Dano
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WildlifeRoland Emmerich
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 Day After TomorrowDaniel Espinosa
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LifeRon Underwood
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
City SlickersGavin Hood
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RenditionJohn Madden
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ProofMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Prince of Persia: The Sands of TimeBrad 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 MileDon Hall
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Strange WorldMiguel Arteta
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 Good GirlMaggie Gyllenhaal
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Bride!David O. Russell
Director
1 film together · 4.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Accidental LoveM. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RemainJulian Starks
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Journey to SundanceLonny Price
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Show of TitlesSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
1 win · 1 nomination
No wins yet · 1 nomination
as Actor
1 win · latest 2005
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Zodiac
as Robert Graysmith
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Brokeback Mountain
as Jack Twist
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Zodiac
as Robert Graysmith
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Lorne
as Self
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Zodiac
as Robert Graysmith
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. Jake Gyllenhaal has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 7.9 | 8.7 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #503 of 681 | #7 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 8.8 | 9.4 |
| Genres | Crime, Mystery, Drama | Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | David Fincher | Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Frank Darabont |
| Performance DNA | Quiet performance, Intensity, Screen presence | Screen presence, Drama, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2007–2007 | 1994–2008 |
| Most iconic role | Robert Graysmith — Zodiac | Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding — The Shawshank Redemption |
| Most rewatchable film | Zodiac | The Shawshank Redemption |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 3 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
David Fincher
Shared collections
Best Detective Movies, Best Psychological Thrillers, Top 100 Crime Movies, Mystery Movies, Crime Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
David Fincher
Morgan Freeman 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
36 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
25 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
Zodiac
as Robert Graysmith
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Zodiac
as Robert Graysmith
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Everest
as Scott Fischer
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Donnie Darko
as Donnie Darko
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Spider-Man: Far From Home
as Quentin Beck / Mysterio
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Okja
as Johnny Wilcox
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Spirit Untamed
as Jim Prescott (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Zodiac
as Robert Graysmith
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
Best Detective Movies
Features Zodiac at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Top 100 Crime Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Mystery Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features Zodiac
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Jared Leto
Works with the same directors — Denis Villeneuve
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
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