Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#236
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Woody Harrelson represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and Woody is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Woody Harrelson appears in 70 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Woody. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 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 science fiction, comedy, family. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Andy Serkis, Rebecca Harrell Tickell, Ruben Fleischer and others, Woody Harrelson 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.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) as Willoughby · No Country for Old Men (2007) as Carson Wells · Kiss the Ground (2020) as Self - Narrator (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #236 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
70
1988–2026
Career length
38 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.1
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Most frequent director
Ruben Fleischer
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Ruben Fleischer
Most common genre
Drama
34 titles
Average runtime
1h 53m
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
6.7
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
2010s
6.7 average MV
The 2010s are where the work and the material meet. Breakthrough, Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times", Midway — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2010s
6.7
Across 27 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
6.7
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. She's Having a Baby.
Most productive era
2010s
27 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 | 5.91 film | 6.67 films | 6.48 films | 6.613 films | 6.55 films |
| Action | — | 6.02 films | 6.34 films | 6.77 films | 6.64 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.52 films | 7.13 films | 6.68 films | 6.62 films |
| Comedy | 5.91 film | 6.39 films | 6.28 films | 6.57 films | 5.78 films |
| Crime | — | 6.33 films | 6.75 films | 6.77 films | 6.61 film |
| Romance | 5.91 film | 6.43 films | 6.12 films | 6.61 film | 6.81 film |
| Horror | — | — | 7.41 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Woody Harrelson (uncredited).
Highest rated performance
8.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2017Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026Full Phil
The current state of the argument, as Philip Doom.
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.
70 of 70 films
as Self - Narrator (voice)
Directed by Rebecca Harrell Tickell
as Carson Wells
Directed by Joel Coen
as Tallahassee
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
as Mickey Knox
Directed by Oliver Stone
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
Willoughby
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Performance score8.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Willoughby gives Woody Harrelson a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self - Narrator (voice)
Kiss the Ground (2020)
Performance score8.2
Kiss the Ground asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self - Narrator (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Carson Wells
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Performance score8.1
No Country for Old Men asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Carson Wells is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Tallahassee
Zombieland (2009)
Performance score7.7
Zombieland asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tallahassee 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 Willoughby
Start here. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is the clearest statement of what Woody Harrelson does — accessible, 115 minutes, and rated 8.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Woody 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.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Keeps the crime register of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri but asks for a colder reading of it.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Keeps the crime register of Natural Born Killers but asks for a colder reading of it.
Zombieland (2009)
A deliberate change of key after No Country for Old Men — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Kiss the Ground (2020)
A deliberate change of key after Zombieland — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Francis Lawrence
Director
3 films together
Notably The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Ruben Fleischer
Director
3 films together
Notably Zombieland
Ron Shelton
Director
2 films together
Notably White Men Can't Jump
Rob Reiner
Director
2 films together
Notably LBJ
Martin McDonagh
Director
2 films together
Notably Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Ron Howard
Director
2 films together
Notably Solo: A Star Wars Story
Roland Emmerich
Director
2 films together
Notably Midway
Bobby Farrelly
Director
2 films together
Notably Champions
Rebecca Harrell Tickell
Director
2 films together
Notably Kiss the Ground
Andy Serkis
Director
2 films together
Notably Venom: Let There Be Carnage
John Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably She's Having a Baby
Mick Jackson
Director
1 film together
Notably L.A. Story
Michael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together
Notably Doc Hollywood
Adrian Lyne
Director
1 film together
Notably Indecent Proposal
Gregg Champion
Director
1 film together
Notably The Cowboy Way
Oliver Stone
Director
1 film together
Notably Natural Born Killers
Barry Levinson
Director
1 film together
Notably Wag the Dog
Terrence Malick
Director
1 film together
Notably The Thin Red Line
Peter Segal
Director
1 film together
Notably Anger Management
Brett Ratner
Director
1 film together
Notably After the Sunset
Mark Mylod
Director
1 film together
Notably The Big White
Niki Caro
Director
1 film together
Notably North Country
Robert Altman
Director
1 film together
Notably A Prairie Home Companion
Richard Linklater
Director
1 film together
Notably A Scanner Darkly
Stuart Townsend
Director
1 film together
Notably Battle in Seattle
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably No Country for Old Men
Brad Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably TransSiberian
Stephen Belber
Director
1 film together
Notably Management
Peter Stebbings
Director
1 film together
Notably Defendor
Will Gluck
Director
1 film together
Notably Friends with Benefits
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably Game Change
Gary Ross
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hunger Games
Scott Cooper
Director
1 film together
Notably Out of the Furnace
Louis Leterrier
Director
1 film together
Notably Now You See Me
Kieran Darcy-Smith
Director
1 film together
Notably The Duel
John Hillcoat
Director
1 film together
Notably Triple 9
Jon M. Chu
Director
1 film together
Notably Now You See Me 2
Craig Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Wilson
Matt Reeves
Director
1 film together
Notably War for the Planet of the Apes
Destin Daniel Cretton
Director
1 film together
Notably The Glass Castle
Andy Fisher
Director
1 film together
Notably Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times"
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
Director
1 film together
Notably Kate
Patrick Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably The Man from Toronto
Greg Berlanti
Director
1 film together
Notably Fly Me to the Moon
Laura Chinn
Director
1 film together
Notably Suncoast
James L. Brooks
Director
1 film together
Notably Ella McCay
Anthony Russo
Director
1 film together
Notably The Electric State
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Francis Lawrence
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 Hunger Games: Catching FireRuben Fleischer
Director
3 films together · 6.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ZombielandMartin McDonagh
Director
2 films together · 7.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriRebecca Harrell Tickell
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Kiss the GroundAndy Serkis
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Venom: Let There Be CarnageBobby Farrelly
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
ChampionsRoland Emmerich
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
MidwayRon Howard
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
Solo: A Star Wars StoryRob Reiner
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
LBJRon Shelton
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
White Men Can't JumpJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
No Country for Old MenTerrence Malick
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 Thin Red LineLouis Leterrier
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Now You See MeNiki Caro
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
North CountryMatt Reeves
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
War for the Planet of the ApesGary Ross
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 Hunger GamesDestin Daniel Cretton
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 Glass CastleOliver Stone
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Natural Born KillersJay Roach
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Game ChangeBarry Levinson
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wag the DogGreg Berlanti
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Fly Me to the MoonJon M. Chu
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Now You See Me 2Richard Linklater
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Scanner DarklyLaura Chinn
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SuncoastCedric Nicolas-Troyan
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
KateScott Cooper
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Out of the FurnaceWill Gluck
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Friends with BenefitsAnthony 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 StateMick Jackson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
L.A. StoryPatrick Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Man from TorontoPeter Stebbings
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DefendorBrad Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TransSiberianAdrian Lyne
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Indecent ProposalMichael Caton-Jones
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Doc HollywoodStuart Townsend
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Battle in SeattleRobert Altman
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Prairie Home CompanionMark 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 WhiteBrett Ratner
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
After the SunsetPeter Segal
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Anger ManagementAndy Fisher
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times"Craig Johnson
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WilsonJohn Hillcoat
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Triple 9Gregg Champion
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Cowboy WayJohn Hughes
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
She's Having a BabyJames L. Brooks
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ella McCayKieran Darcy-Smith
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DuelStephen Belber
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ManagementSix 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
No Country for Old Men
as Carson Wells
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Indecent Proposal
as David Murphy
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
No Country for Old Men
as Carson Wells
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
L.A. Story
as Harris' Boss (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
as Willoughby
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. Woody Harrelson 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
38 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
34 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
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
as Willoughby
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
No Country for Old Men
as Carson Wells
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Shock and Awe
as Jonathan Landay
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
TransSiberian
as Roy
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
as Haymitch Abernathy
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Electric State
as Mr. Peanut (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Cowboy Way
as Pepper Lewis
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Cowboy Way
as Pepper Lewis
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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Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
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Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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