Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#527
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Stellan Skarsgård represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 36 years in, and Stellan is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Stellan Skarsgård appears in 44 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Stellan. Dune: Part Two is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 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 mystery, comedy, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Joachim Trier, Denis Villeneuve, Taika Waititi and others, Stellan Skarsgård 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.
Dune: Part Two (2024) as Baron Harkonnen · Good Will Hunting (1997) as Gerald Lambeau · The Avengers (2012) as Selvig
Career snapshot
Ranked #527 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
44
1990–2026
Career length
36 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
Dune: Part Two
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Dune: Part Two
Most frequent director
Denis Villeneuve
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Denis Villeneuve
Most common genre
Drama
22 titles
Average runtime
2h 4m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
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
6.9
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
7.1 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Deep Blue Sea, Savior, Ronin — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.1
Across 6 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
2020s
2 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Dante, Please, Sentimental Value.
Most productive era
2010s
17 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 | 7.43 films | 6.58 films | 6.88 films | 5.43 films |
| Action | 6.93 films | 6.75 films | 7.44 films | 6.61 film |
| Thriller | 7.22 films | 6.55 films | 6.82 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 7.11 film | 6.83 films | 2.23 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | — | — | 9.01 film |
| Crime | 7.01 film | 6.84 films | 7.51 film | — |
| Romance | — | 7.11 film | 6.75 films | — |
| Horror | 6.21 film | 5.91 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Capt. 2nd Viktor Tupolev (V.K. Konovalov).
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2024Dune: Part Two
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 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
2026Please
The current state of the argument, as Winston.
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.
44 of 44 films
as Baron Harkonnen
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
as Gerald Lambeau
Directed by Gus Van Sant
as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
as Selvig
Directed by Joss Whedon
as Baron Harkonnen
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
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 48 titles · 49 total credits · active 1990–2026
Dante
2026 · Dante (voice)
Please
2026 · Winston
Sentimental Value
2025 · Gustav Borg · Executive Producer
Variety & CNN Actors on Actors
2025 · TV · Self
Dune: Part Two
2024 · Baron Harkonnen
Thor: Love and Thunder
2022 · Selvig
Andor
2022 · TV · Luthen Rael
Dune
2021 · Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Last Words
2020 · Zyberski
11 Colours of the Bird
2020 · Self
Out Stealing Horses
2019 · Trond
I'll Find You
2019 · Benno Moser
Hope
2019 · Tomas
Chernobyl
2019 · TV · Boris Shcherbina
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
2018 · The Boss
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
2018 · Bill / Kurt
Our Kind of Traitor
2016 · Dima
Avengers: Age of Ultron
2015 · Erik Selvig
Cinderella
2015 · Grand Duke
River
2015 · TV · John River
Hector and the Search for Happiness
2014 · Edward
Thor: The Dark World
2013 · Erik Selvig
The Railway Man
2013 · Finlay
The Physician
2013 · Barber
The defining work
#1
Baron Harkonnen
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Performance score8.6
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Baron Harkonnen gives Stellan Skarsgård a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Gerald Lambeau
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Performance score8.3
Good Will Hunting asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gerald Lambeau is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Dune (2021)
Performance score8.0
Dune asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Selvig
The Avengers (2012)
Performance score8.0
The Avengers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Selvig 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 Baron Harkonnen
Start here. Dune: Part Two is the clearest statement of what Stellan Skarsgård does — accessible, 166 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Stellan 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.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Keeps the drama register of Dune: Part Two but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Avengers (2012)
A deliberate change of key after Good Will Hunting — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dune (2021)
Keeps the science fiction register of The Avengers but asks for a colder reading of it.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Same director as Dune, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Lars von Trier
Director
3 films together
Notably Dogville
Denis Villeneuve
Director
3 films together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Gore Verbinski
Director
2 films together
Notably Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Kenneth Branagh
Director
2 films together
Notably Cinderella
Joss Whedon
Director
2 films together
Notably The Avengers
John McTiernan
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hunt for Red October
Gus Van Sant
Director
1 film together
Notably Good Will Hunting
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Amistad
John Frankenheimer
Director
1 film together
Notably Ronin
Predrag Antonijević
Director
1 film together
Notably Savior
Renny Harlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Deep Blue Sea
Bob Rafelson
Director
1 film together
Notably No Good Deed
Antoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together
Notably King Arthur
Sturla Gunnarsson
Director
1 film together
Notably Beowulf & Grendel
Miloš Forman
Director
1 film together
Notably Goya's Ghosts
Tom Shankland
Director
1 film together
Notably WΔZ
Tarik Saleh
Director
1 film together
Notably Metropia
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Angels & Demons
David Fincher
Director
1 film together
Notably The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Philipp Stölzl
Director
1 film together
Notably The Physician
Jonathan Teplitzky
Director
1 film together
Notably The Railway Man
Alan Taylor
Director
1 film together
Notably Thor: The Dark World
Susanna White
Director
1 film together
Notably Our Kind of Traitor
Terry Gilliam
Director
1 film together
Notably The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Martha Coolidge
Director
1 film together
Notably I'll Find You
Taika Waititi
Director
1 film together
Notably Thor: Love and Thunder
Joachim Trier
Director
1 film together
Notably Sentimental Value
Timothée Chalamet
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Dave Bautista
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Zendaya
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Rebecca Ferguson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Javier Bardem
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Josh Brolin
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Austin Butler
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Florence Pugh
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Christopher Walken
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Léa Seydoux
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Charlotte Rampling
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Souheila Yacoub
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Denis Villeneuve
Director
3 films together · 8.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Dune: Part TwoLars von Trier
Director
3 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
DogvilleJoss Whedon
Director
2 films together · 7.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The AvengersGore Verbinski
Director
2 films together · 7.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's ChestKenneth Branagh
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
CinderellaGus Van Sant
Director
1 film together · 8.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Good Will HuntingDavid Fincher
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Girl with the Dragon TattooJohn McTiernan
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 Hunt for Red OctoberJoachim Trier
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sentimental ValuePhilipp Stölzl
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PhysicianJohn Frankenheimer
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RoninRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Angels & DemonsSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AmistadPredrag Antonijević
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SaviorTerry Gilliam
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 Man Who Killed Don QuixoteAlan Taylor
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Thor: The Dark WorldJonathan Teplitzky
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 Railway ManTaika Waititi
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Thor: Love and ThunderMiloš Forman
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Goya's GhostsAntoine Fuqua
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
King ArthurSusanna White
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Our Kind of TraitorTarik Saleh
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MetropiaRenny Harlin
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deep Blue SeaMartha Coolidge
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
I'll Find YouSturla Gunnarsson
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Beowulf & GrendelTom Shankland
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WΔZBob Rafelson
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No Good DeedSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
7 wins · 8 nominations
1 win · 1 nomination · latest 2025
Dune: Part Two
as Actor
2 wins · latest 2026
as Actor
as Actor
1 win · latest 2010
as Actor
1 win · latest 2025
as Actor
1 win · latest 2010
as Actor
1 win · latest 1982
as Actor
No wins yet · 1 nomination
as Actor
No wins yet · 3 nominations
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
No wins yet · 3 nominations
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Dune: Part Two
as Baron Harkonnen
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Cinderella
as Grand Duke
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Dune: Part Two
as Baron Harkonnen
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Dancer in the Dark
as Doctor
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Dune: Part Two
as Baron Harkonnen
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. Stellan Skarsgård has known it for a long time.”
“Long live the fighters.”
“I will love you as long as I breathe.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.0 | 8.4 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #398 of 681 | #39 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 1 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 1 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama | Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery, Thriller |
| Directors | Denis Villeneuve | Denis Villeneuve, David Fincher |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Screen presence, Physical performance | Quiet performance, Rewatchability, Drama |
| Career timeline | 2024–2024 | 1999–2017 |
| Most iconic role | Baron Harkonnen — Dune: Part Two | Angel Face — Fight Club |
| Most rewatchable film | Dune: Part Two | Fight Club |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 2 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Denis Villeneuve
Shared collections
Best Denis Villeneuve Movies, Best Space Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Denis Villeneuve · Dave Bautista
Jared Leto 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.
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.
Drama Legend
Awarded
22 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
Dune: Part Two
as Baron Harkonnen
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Dune: Part Two
as Baron Harkonnen
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Hope
as Tomas
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Angels & Demons
as Commander Richter
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Dune: Part Two
as Baron Harkonnen
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Avengers: Age of Ultron
as Erik Selvig
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Cinderella
as Grand Duke
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Last Words
as Zyberski
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 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
director
Best Denis Villeneuve Movies
Features Dune: Part Two at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Adventure Movies
Features Dune: Part Two at #3
Read the collectiontheme
Best Space Movies
Features Dune: Part Two
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features Dune: Part Two
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features Dune: Part Two
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
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: sci-fi and adventure
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Mark Ruffalo
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
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