Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#4525
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
James Ransone works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
James Ransone appears in 18 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without James. The Black Phone is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 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 horror, thriller, crime. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Scott Derrickson, John Pollono, Rupert Wyatt and others, James Ransone 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 Black Phone (2022) as Max Shaw · Inside Man (2006) as Steve-O · The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends (2019) as Self
Career snapshot
Ranked #4525 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
18
2006–2025
Career length
19 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
The Black Phone
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
The Black Phone
Most frequent director
Scott Derrickson
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Scott Derrickson
Most common genre
Thriller
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
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
6.3
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
2020s
6.3 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Black Phone 2, The Black Phone, Small Engine Repair — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.3
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.3
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Prom Night, Inside Man.
Most productive era
2010s
12 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 | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.32 films | 6.16 films | 6.11 film |
| Action | — | 5.73 films | — |
| Thriller | 7.51 film | 6.27 films | 6.34 films |
| Comedy | — | 5.72 films | — |
| Crime | 7.51 film | 6.24 films | 6.11 film |
| Romance | — | 6.82 films | — |
| Horror | 5.11 film | 6.82 films | 7.12 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2006Inside Man
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Steve-O. 7.5 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
2025Black Phone 2
The current state of the argument, as Max.
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.
18 of 18 films
as Max Shaw
Directed by Scott Derrickson
as Steve-O
Directed by Spike Lee
as Deputy
Directed by Scott Derrickson
as Eddie Kaspbrak
Directed by Andy Muschietti
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
Max Shaw
The Black Phone (2022)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Max Shaw gives James Ransone a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Steve-O
Inside Man (2006)
Performance score7.3
Inside Man asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Steve-O is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self
The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends (2019)
Performance score7.2
The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Deputy
Sinister (2012)
Performance score7.1
Sinister asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Deputy 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 Max Shaw
Start here. The Black Phone is the clearest statement of what James Ransone does — accessible, 103 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet James 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.
Inside Man (2006)
Keeps the thriller register of The Black Phone but asks for a colder reading of it.
Sinister (2012)
Keeps the thriller register of Inside Man but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends (2019)
A deliberate change of key after Sinister — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
It Chapter Two (2019)
A deliberate change of key after The Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Scott Derrickson
Director
3 films together
Notably The Black Phone
Spike Lee
Director
2 films together
Notably Inside Man
Nelson McCormick
Director
1 film together
Notably Prom Night
Paul Haggis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Next Three Days
Allen Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably Broken City
Paco Cabezas
Director
1 film together
Notably Mr. Right
Ti West
Director
1 film together
Notably In a Valley of Violence
Andy Muschietti
Director
1 film together
Notably It Chapter Two
Rupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together
Notably Captive State
John Pollono
Director
1 film together
Notably Small Engine Repair
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Scott Derrickson
Director
3 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Black PhoneSpike Lee
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Inside ManPaul Haggis
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Next Three DaysAndy Muschietti
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
It Chapter TwoPaco Cabezas
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Mr. RightJohn Pollono
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Small Engine RepairTi West
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In a Valley of ViolenceAllen Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Broken CityRupert Wyatt
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Captive StateNelson McCormick
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Prom NightSix 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
Inside Man
as Steve-O
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 Next Three Days
as Harv
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Inside Man
as Steve-O
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Next Three Days
as Harv
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Black Phone
as Max Shaw
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. James Ransone 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.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
12 catalogue titles in thriller, 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
Sinister
as Deputy
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Black Phone
as Max Shaw
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Next Three Days
as Harv
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Sinister
as Deputy
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Inside Man
as Steve-O
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
In a Valley of Violence
as Gilly
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Inside Man
as Steve-O
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Inside Man
as Steve-O
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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