20 underrated 'character actors' working today

HM: Domhnall Gleeson, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Riz Ahmed

A trio of extremely proficient actors, each with their own particular set of skills that make them such compelling onscreen presences. Gleeson is extremely charismatic and draws your attention without ever overacting whether it's in lead turns or supporting roles, Schoenaerts has proved himself to be the modern-day master of accents and restrained, subtle acting, and Ahmed is one of those dynamic performers who works equally well as a reactionary lead or a wackier/more kooky sidekick. I don't put any of these three on the list since their respective stars seem to be on the rise, and Schoenaerts in particular seems to be developing into a leading man of sorts; he already is pretty much an established star in European circles.

Gleeson's best performance: About Time (2013)

Schoenaerts' best performance: Bullhead (2011)

Ahmed's best performance: film, Four Lions (2010); television, The Night Of (2015)

20. Michael K. Williams

Pigeonholed into criminal roles, and he's really good at playing lowlifes and shady shorts don't get me wrong, but this unfortunately means that Williams has been stuck playing similar sort of characters for too long. He finds such variation within them though, whether it's the streetsmart and professional Chalky White from Boardwalk Empire or his philosophical gangster in The Gambler. Yet he's also shown on occasion how he can infuse so much more into a role, like his poignant one-scene wonder in The Road.

Williams' best performance: Boardwalk Empire (still need to see The Wire)

19. Benedict Wong

Little bit of a personal choice here, but Wong is an actor who's been very low-profile but still so easy to find intriguing due to the variation in his work, both in film and television. He's a great comedic actor, whether it's his lackadastical Errol in 15 Storeys High or the hilariously deadpan Wong in Doctor Strange, and perhaps best of all his performance as the Countdown finalist Prime in The I.T. Crowd's best episode. He's an effective dramatic actor as was shown in his small but powerful role in Sunshine and his wonderful and heartwarming supportive turn as a shady but kind nurse in Dirty Pretty Things. I really think we haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of his talent.

Wong's best performance: Dirty Pretty Things

18. Rebecca Hall

She's still flying under the radar for whatever reason, Christine has helped raise it slightly but the film underperforming at the box-office didn't help matters much. Hall, though is one of those actresses who can make a lot with very little. Her early career with small roles in The Prestige already made a substantial impact, she turned somewhat thankless roles in The Gift and Vicky Cristina Barcelona into characters with depth, and her leading turn as Christine Chubbuck was verging on greatness. I'm glad that despite its box-office failure it got good reviews, since even though I did not care for the film, I liked her performance a lot.

Hall's best performance: The Gift

17. Olivia Colman

She's won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, so how can she be underrated you might ask? Well Colman is one of those British character actresses who's been delivering solid work for so long, but only begun to be properly acknowledged and recognized recently for her dramatic work. And she's great in The Night Manager and Tyrannosaur, giving such heartbreaking and complex turns as very differently haunted women, but her comedic work in Hot Fuzz, Cuban Fury, and so I'm told, Peep Show also warrants acclaim.

Colman's best performance: Tyrannosaur 

16. Paul Bettany

Love a bit of Bettany. Now admittedly he hasn't been doing much as of late, with Vision in the Marvel Cinematic universe being his most prominent work recently. He does the role justice, and is an enjoyable part of his films. When he was on an early 2000s roll with turns in Master and Commander, Gangster Number 1, and A Knight's Tale, he was really quite something. He would turn in such subdued but unforgettable, or over the top and unforgettable, performances that would quite often be the highlight of the film.

Bettany's best performance: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

15. Frances McDormand

Someone else who hasn't been doing too much as of late, but she's still got it. For someone so proficient at bringing out the most out of even the most minuscule bit of screen-time (she's onscreen in Hail Caesar for about 30 seconds and I still laughed), she's always a guarantee of something special when she gets something to work with, even if it's small roles in North Country, or her recent comedic turn in Burn After Reading which was very enjoyable. Then there's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri this year which looks like a return to Fargo form for her in the hands of Martin McDonagh, which is a very good thing.

McDormand's best performance: Fargo (need to see Olive Kitteridge) 

14. Toby Jones

The sort of actor I hope someone like Tom Hollander, or Burn Gorman, will grow into, Jones is one of the unsung heroes of his generation of British actors. He's someone who knows how to utilize his unique screen presence to his advantage, standing out in strong ensembles like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Painted Veil with his nuanced work. Then when he gets slightly more substantial material, sometimes even in lead roles like Berberian Sound Studio and his portrayal of Truman Capote in Infamous, he almost always knocks it out of the ballpark. He's an extremely reliable actor who I'm always glad to see in a film, and is usually a guarantee for a good one.

Jones' best performance: Infamous

13. Alan Tudyk

This man is a chameleon. You'll have seen him in lots of things, not necessarily recognized him in most of them, particularly his voice work. He was the dumb chicken in Moana, the billains in Frozen and Wreck-it Ralph, and he did mo-cap work as K2SO in Rogue One and Sonny in I, Robot. He really disappears into every one of these roles, and his performances in the flesh are usually pretty good too, with particular highlights being one half of the lovable country hicks in the hilarious Tucker & Dale v.s. Evil, and Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball.

Tudyk's best performance: I, Robot

12. Imogen Poots

She seemed poised to break out into leading roles for awhile, but now seems to be doing more indie films/smaller roles in bigger films. Which is perfectly fine since she's really grown into an extremely talented and interesting actress who needs more exposure. She was brilliant in Green Room last year, and before that really shone in such a wide range of roles in 28 Weeks Later, Filth, The Look of Love, and as Green Room and the surprisingly okay remake of Fright Night showed it's a shame she and Anton Yelchin never got to make more films together, they'd be a dynamic duo.

Poots' best performance: Green Room

11. Luke Wilson

Another actor who doesn't get enough substantial work nowadays, Wilson is actually one of the most consistently good actors in the industry. I liked him particularly in The Skeleton Twins recently where he played a pretty interesting variation on the 'wholesome husband' trope. In general, I think he deserves to be put on the same level as his brother Owen and their friend Jason Schwartzman as kooky, offbeat character actors with leading men charisma. The thing that pushes Luke above this slightly for me is the glimpses of greatness he's shown. He gives one of the best performances in The Royal Tenenbaums, and the more I think about his work in that film the more I think, given the right sort of role, he could be bound for something truly special.

Wilson's best performance: The Royal Tenenbaums

10. Jeffrey Wright

I would've thought Westworld would have pushed him off this list into stardom, but from what I've seen he's barely gotten any awards attention, anywhere. Which is utter madness. Thandie Newton and Evan Rachel Wood who are both fantastic, are getting most of the plaudits, but I feel like so many people are underrating the magnificent work he's done as Bernard. Beyond Westworld there's his entertaining supporting turns in The Hunger Games series, Shaft, Broken Flowers, and Source Code, and his brilliant leading turn in Basquiat. Even in completely thankless roles in horrible films like Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close he can make an impact. Hopefully I'm wrong and Westworld will help garner him more attention and good roles in the future.

Wright's best performance: Basquiat for film, Westworld for television

9. Ben Mendelsohn

I'm planning on a full article for him at some point, but Mendelsohn outside of a terrible performance in The Dark Knight Rises, is one of the best actors working today. He can slip so seamlessly from a completely despicable yet charismatic Aussie gangster in Animal Kingdom to a regretful, downtrodden gambler in Mississippi Grind, infusing so much warmth to his role in The Place Beyond the Pines in contrast to his slimy, devious work in Killing Them Softly the year before. It's a bit of a shame that most people now know him as Orson Krennic from Rogue One, he was good there, but it barely made use of his talents. He can make simple roles into something more, but when he's given truly complex roles, leading roles in fact, that's where he shines the most.

Mendelsohn's best performance: Mississippi Grind

8. Paddy Considine

You'll know him as one half of the Andy's/Andes in Hot Fuzz, and he's a comedic delight in that and so many other films. Considine is really one of the most stellar character actors, who can bring so much to even the most thinly written villain role in Child 44, to being such a wonderful charming presence as a compassionate workers' union boss in Pride. Then there's his collaborations with Shane Meadows. He's an unforgettable boiling pot of suppressed rage and violence in Dead Man's Shoes and is even better in A Room for Romeo Brass as one of the most unnerving portrayals of a man-child ever put to camera. Plus, as Tyrannosaur proved, he's a pretty good director too.

Considine's best performance: A Room for Romeo Brass

7. Kirsten Dunst

Originally pegged to be one of the next wave of leading ladies, Dunst has instead become one of the most talented and intriguing character actresses working. I feel like her underwhelming work in a poorly written role in the Spider-Man films affects some people's view of her work. She was utterly fantastic in Melancholia, quite possibly the best performance out of all Lars Von Trier's leading ladies, and equally superb in Fargo as Peggy the demented housewife with lofty ambitions. Then there's her more subdued but so emotionally poignant supporting turns in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and last year's Midnight Special that really stick with you. She's a great actress, period, and I'm very much looking forward to Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled just to see what she does with a juicy role.

Dunst's best performance: Melancholia for film, Fargo (season 2) for television

6. Jimmi Simpson

Probably the most obscure name on this list, even though he's popped up in some of the most popular teleivison shows like House of Cards, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, David Letterman, and Westworld. Whether it's as an incisive hacker, a sick and twisted (hilariously so) idiot, a rude mechanic, or a wide-eyed idealist corrupted by the ways of the West, Simpson is so versatile, so effortlessly becomes these different strokes of characters. He can be so funny or so emotionally powerful, often within the same character, and then there's his three minute's worth of screentime at the ending of Zodiac which is just an astounding example of making so much out of nothing.

Simpson's best performance: Westworld (though I'm tempted to go for Zodiac). 

5. John C. Reilly

Reilly's presence makes anything better. He's just a really likable presence whenever he appears onscreen, unless of course he's playing a reprehensible character which he's also good at, but most of his best roles are as very loveable, albeit flawed, characters. There's his tremendous work as the one and only Dewey Cox in the mock music biopic Walk Hard, and his comedic pairings with Will Ferrell which are also really funny, with the highlight being Talladega Nights. On the dramatic side of things he gives expertly understated performances in the likes of Magnolia and Hard Eight. Even when I hate the film he's good (Chicago), and his work in Kong Skull Island was remarkable in that he managed to make a complete mess of a dumb movie somewhat work through giving a hilarious, poignant depiction of a mad but brave soldier that the film didn't deserve.

Reilly's best performance: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

4. Brendan Gleeson

A 'character lead' I would categorize him as, since I do think some of Gleeson's most well-known roles now are his leading turns with the McDonagh brothers, particularly In Bruges where the greatness of his performance is indisputable. Which isn't to say his supporting turns are ever iffy. He's a perfect Mad Eye Moody in the Harry Potter movies, and makes for such a warm mentor character in both 28 Days Later and Gangs of New York. A remarkable example of his talents as a supporting actor was last year's The Heart of the Sea where his storytelling of the film's central events was more compelling than the cinematic depiction itself. He's a one-of-a-kind actor and I can quite comfortably place him among the all-time greats, though I do prefer when he's right and centre of a film leading it.

Gleeson's best performance: In Bruges

3. Mark Strong

Strong is always solid as a supporting actor, whether it's as the endearing genius Merlin in Kingsman or his villainous turns in Kick-Ass, The Imitation Game and The Guard, and he does the stoic leading man quite well in the likes of Welcome to the Punch. When he steps out of that though, in something like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy he's an amazing talent, and in that gives one of the greatest supporting performances of all-time, period. He's extremely underrated given how versatile he is, and I would love to see him in bigger and more substantial roles soon.

Strong's best performance: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

2. Mads Mikkelsen

The Danish fiend, as many may know him from his various villainous Hollywood roles from Casino Royale to Doctor Strange. Quite often these roles are somewhat one-note, in that they are decidedly unsympathetic villains who could've been just footnotes and paper-thin fodder. Mikkelsen always elevates these roles to something more by his talent, and goes a step further when he's given more to work with. When he's the lead, like in A Royal Affair and The Hunt, he's positively spellbinding. And even when it's a more limited supporting role like in Rogue One or King Arthur he can make you feel such a strong emotional connection within the limitations in the role. Then there's his stellar work as Hannibal Lecter which was unceremoniously cut off before its conclusion, which is a shame. Somehow still underappreciated, Mikkelsen is one of the best there is to offer, period.

Mikkelsen's best performance: The Hunt (have yet to see any of his Refn collaborations)

1. Ben Foster

One of the all-time greats, period, the media just doesn't know it yet. The man's dedication to his roles, sometimes for an almost futile cause (see X-Men: The Last Stand), is always giving 100% and then pushing those limits. Foster is known as one of the most intense actors around, parlayed brilliantly into his career-best turn as a violent outlaw in 3:10 to Yuma, but can equally play more sensitive sorts like the kind sheriff in Ain't Them Bodies Saints, or his haunted soldier in The Messenger. He gives it his all even in problematic films like Alpha Dog, and Kill Your Darlings, and can steal scenes from the film while also amplifying his co-stars performances (Lone Survivor is a great example of this). Then there's stuff like Hell or High Water where he appears to play into his usual groove as a maniacal violent outlaw before revealing something very sensitive within. He should be revered among the greats already, I knew this from the first time I saw him as Charley Prince gunning down a posse, and is undoubtedly the most underrated character actor working today.

Foster's best performance: 3:10 to Yuma