Best Actors of the Decade

This article is as subjective as they get. It ranks which actors, in my opinion, had the best collection of performances over the last decade. Points for:

• Peak performance. This is the most important factor. Did the actor give us one of the decade’s most memorable performances?
• Range. Did the actor display an ability to portray different kinds of characters?
• Visibility. How many noteworthy performances did the actor give? Did she regularly show up in interesting and/or high profile projects? Many actors who’d rank high on a list of “best individual performance” didn’t make the cut, because they only had one or two noteworthy roles the entire decade. (Frances McDormand and Isabelle Huppert come to mind.)
• Projects: Did the actor appear in some of the best or biggest films of the decade?
• Size of role. Some actors tick all of the above boxes but remain side characters in their best films.

A note on “Noteworthy performances:” I’ve listed each actor’s most noteworthy performances under their picture, in blue. Films are in cursive, TV shows in bold. These are listed in order of importance, i.e. the first one is the main reason they’re on the list, and so forth. When an actor reprised a role several times for a franchise, I’ve noted the franchise once, underlined. For the purposes of the rankings, I’ve only considered projects I’ve seen. To help viewers get an overview of the actor’s decade, however, I’ve noted important films or shows I missed in orange. (If a project the actor starred in isn’t noted at all, it’s either because a) I saw it but didn’t find the project noteworthy, or b) I haven’t seen it, but am under the impression the project isn’t noteworthy.) 

THE MEN

RUNNER UPS:
15. MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
14. ROBERT PATTINSON
13. MATT DAMON
12. BRAD PITT
11. TOM HANKS

10. DANIEL DAY-LEWIS
Noteworthy performances: Phantom Thread, Lincoln

Daniel Day-Lewis was in two films this decade. In them, he gave two of the decade’s best performances. He may just be the greatest actor of all time. 

9. JAMES FRANCO 
Noteworthy performances: Spring Breakers, The Disaster Artist, 127 Hours,  This is the End, The Interview, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Oz the Great and Powerful, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, True Story, The Deuce, 11.22.63, Your Highness, General Hospital

Hollywood’s busiest actor. Franko’s got 99 acting credits from the previous decade. Many are small parts. Many aren’t aren’t. (He directed quite a few films, too.) Thankfully, the quantity doesn’t ruin the quality. I’ve only seen 10% of his performances, but all these were, memorable, distinct and filled with interesting choices.

8. MICHAEL FASSBENDER
Noteworthy performances: Shame, Steve Jobs, 12 Years a Slave, Alien, X-Men, A Dangerous Method, Centurion, The Counselor, Frank, Macbeth, The Light Between Oceans, Slow West, Jane Eyre, 

Ridley Scott proved it: the only thing better than Fassbender playing a character in your film is Fassbender playing two characters in your film. 

7. TOM HARDY
Noteworthy performances: Locke, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, The Drop, Inception, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Warrior, Lawless, The Dark Knight Rises,Taboo, Peaky Blinders, Venom, Legend, Child 44, 

Hardy did so much great work this decade, but he’s mostly on this list because of Locke. He should record audiobooks in that voice. 

6. OSCAR ISAAC
Noteworthy performances: Inside Llewyn Davis, Show Me a Hero, Ex Machina, Drive, Star Wars, Triple Frontier, Life Itself, At Eternity’s Gate, Operation Finale, The Promise, Suburbicon, A Most Violent Year, The Two Faces of January,    

Each of Isaac’s performances is a different testament to his greatness. The way he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders in Inside Llewyn Davis. (The way he sings in that one, too.) The dancing in Ex Machina. The nuance he brought to a side character in Drive. The only bad performances Isaac gave this decade was in X-Men: Apocalypse, and given that everything about that movie sucked, let’s not hold that one against him.

5. RALPH FIENNES
Noteworthy performances: The Grand Budapest Hotel, A Bigger Splash, Harry Potter, Hail, Caesar!, James Bond, Kubo and the Two Strings, Lego BATMAN Movie, Official Secrets, Holmes & Watson, Great Expectations, Coriolanus, Cemetary Junction, 

You can’t find two characters further apart from one another than The Grand Budapest Hotel’s Gustave and Harry Potter’s Voldemort. But if you could, it’d be A Bigger Splash’s Harry Hawkes. Fiennes played them all to perfection. Fiennes can be elegant, brutal, funny, scary, charming, vulgar. His range is second to none.  

4. JAKE GYLLENHAAL
Noteworthy performances: Nightcrawler, Wildlife, Stronger, End of Watch, 
Nocturnal Animals, Prisoners, Demolition, Everest, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Okja, Love & Other Drugs, Source Code, Velvet Buzzsaw, The Sisters Brothers, Life, Southpaw, Enemy, 

Gyllenhaal excels at playing unlikeable characters. From Nightcrawler to Wildlife to Stronger to End of Watch to Spider-man: Far from Home to Okja, you rarely root for the guy. Gyllenhaal has an ability to channel the darkness we all carry, and a commitment to finding a different side of that darkness in each role. When he occasionally takes on a more straightforward hero role (Source Code, Demolition) he does that well, too. 

3. ADAM DRIVER
Noteworthy performances: Marriage Story, Paterson, Girls, Silence, Logan Lucky, While We’re Young, BlacKkKlansman, Star Wars, Midnight Special, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis, Lincoln, The F Word, The Dead Don’t Die, The Report, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, This Is Where I Leave You, Tracks, J. Edgar,

Adam Driver had one IMDB credit before this decade. (“Will Slanky” in episode 10 of The Unusuals. I hadn’t heard of that show either.) Since then he’s worked with the following directors: Clint Eastwood, Noah Naumbach, Steven Spielberg, The Coen Brothers, Jeff Nichols, Jim Jarmusch, J. J. Arbams, Rian Johnson, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee and Terry Gilliam. He also played one of the most interesting characters in Girls, one of the decade’s best TV shows. To say he exploded onto the scene is an understatement. Throughout the 2010’s Driver created an endless variety of oddballs, infinite flavours of the regular guy, and everything in between. In Marriage Story and Paterson he gave two of the decade’s most memorable performances. 

2. LEONARDO DICAPRIO
Noteworthy performances: The Wolf of Wall Street, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Django Unchained, Shutter Island, The Great Gatsby, Inception, The Revenant, J. Edgar, 

Arguably the biggest movie star alive. Definitely the one with the best batting average over the last decade. (Well, after Day-Lewis, but that’s not a fair comparison given that Day-Lewis was only in two films.) DiCaprio often plays straightforward Hollywood heroes, which aren’t always the most interesting characters, but he plays them brilliantly, and often in incredible films. Once he ventures into more colourful characters (usually when working with Tarantino or Scorsese) he proves that he is capable of so much more. 

1. JOAQUIN PHOENIX
Noteworthy performances: The Master, You Were Never Really Here, Her, Inherent Vice, Joker, Irrational Man, I’m Still Here, The Sisters Brothers, Mary Magdalene, Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far On Foot, The Immigrant, 

Phoenix was the lead in several of the decade’s best films. He was the best part (or one of the best parts) of all of them. He made countless bold choices, and crafted characters so different from one another it’s hard to believe the same actor was behind them. His range seems endless, and Phoenix has a good nose for picking projects. He’s one of the greatest actors not just of this decade, but of all time. We’re lucky to have him.

 

THE WOMEN

RUNNER UPS:
15. KRISTEN STEWART
14. LUPITA NYONG’O
13. SAOIRSE RONAN
12. NATALIE PORTMAN
11. MARION COTILLARD

10. AMY ADAMS
Noteworthy performances: The Master, Nocturnal Animals, Arrival, The Fighter, The Muppets, Her, American Hustle, Superman, Sharp Objects, Vice, Big Eyes, Trouble with the Curve, On the Road, 

It seems silly to call Adams underrated. She’s been nominated for six Academy Awards and starred in countless high-profile projects, after all. But, purely on an anecdotal level, I rarely hear people single her out as one of the best actors working today. Let’s change that. Cause she is.

9. MERYL STREEP
Noteworthy performances: Big Little Lies, August Osage County, The Post, The Iron Lady, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, The Laundromat, Mary Poppins Returns, Florence Foster Jenkins, Suffragette, Ricki and the Flash, Into the Woods, The Giver, The Homesman, Hope Springs,  

Surely no explanation is needed for Streep being on this list. A note on why she’s not higher though: she wasn’t in any great films. (Plenty good, no great.) 

8. SALLY HAWKINS
Noteworthy performances: The Shape of Water, Blue Jasmine, Paddington, Maudie, X+Y, Great Expectations, 

Not the most prolific actress, but her performance in Shape of Water is one of the decade’s best. Between that film, Blue Jasmine and Paddington, she was also in several of the decade’s best films, and she delivered stand-out performances (that were very different from one another) in each film.

7. BRIE LARSON
Noteworthy performances: Room, Short Term 12, Captain Marvel, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 21 Jump Street, The Spectacular Now, Don Jon, Kong: Skull Island, Free Fire, The Glass Castle,

If you primarily associate Larson with Captain Marvel (a role she’s great in), check out Room and Short Term 12, where she flexes her dramatic muscles. Then re-watch 21 Jump Street and Scott Pilgrim to remind yourself how funny she can be.

6. CHARLIZE THERON
Noteworthy performances: Mad Max: Fury Road, Young Adult, Tully, Atomic Blonde, Long Shot, Prometheus, Snow Man and the Huntsman, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Fate of the Furious, Bombshell, Dark Places, 

When I wrote the first draft of this list, Theron was had the top spot. But if I were to write a list of the 30 best performances by an actress this decade, she wouldn’t be on it. There’s a reason she was #1 in my first draft though. Theron was everywhere the last ten years, and she was consistently great, whether as a bad-ass action star in Mad Max, a silly villain in Fast & Furious, or layered everyday women Young Adult and Tully.

5. JENNIFER LAWRENCE
Noteworthy performances: Winter’s Bone, mother!, The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, X Men, Joy, Red Sparrow, Passengers, Serena, House at the End of the Street, Like Crazy

In 2010, Winter’s Bone heralded the arrival of Jeniffer Lawrence. A star was born. In six years, Lawrence went from unknown to 3 Oscar nominations, 1 win and leading roles in two of the decade’s biggest blockbuster franchises. Lawrence’s career stagnated slightly after Hunger Games ended (which happened a year after her last collaboration with David O. Russel), but her work in Red Sparrow and especially mother! proves she’s still one of Hollywood’s biggest talents.

4. TILDA SWINTON
Noteworthy performances: Only Lovers Left Alive, We Need To Talk About Kevin, A Bigger Splash, Doctor Strange, Hail Caesar!, Snowpiercer, Moonrise Kingdom, Okja, The Souvenir, The Dead Don’t Die, Suspiria, War Machine, The Zero Theorem, 

A chameleon if there ever was one. Few things make me more excited to see a film than Swinton being in it. In Only Lovers Left Alive and We Need To Talk About Kevin she proved she can carry a film like the best of them, but she’s equally good in the supporting roles she often pops up in, where she seems to have endless fun.  

3. EMMA STONE
Noteworthy performances: La La Land, The Favourite, Birdman, Easy A, Crazy Stupid Love, The Help, The Amazing Spider-Man, Magic in the Moonlight, Irrational Man, Battle of the Sexes, Maniac, Gangster Squad,

Stone was already one of my favourite actors before I saw La La Land. Which was, of course, way before I saw The Favourite. Stone can do everything. She seems adamant to prove that, one character at a time.  

2. CATE BLANCHETT
Noteworthy performances: Carol, Blue Jasmine, Truth, Thor: Ragnarok, Ocean’s Eight, Hanna, The Hobbit, Robin Hood, Where’d You Go Bernadette, Song to Song, Cinderella, Knight of Cups, The Monuments Men, 

With her performances in Carol and Blue Jasmine, Blanchett is the only actress to have two of my top-top-top performances this decade. She was also a whole lot of fun in the blockbusters though.

1. SCARLETT JOHANSSON
Noteworthy performances: Marriage Story, Under the Skin, Captain America, Her, Jojo Rabbit, Hail, Caesar!, Don Jon, Lucy, The Jungle Book, Isle of Dogs, Hitchcock, We Bought a Zoo, Rough Night, 

Black Widow is an iconic action hero, but this past decade, Johansson wasn’t just the queen of superhero movies. In Marriage Story and Under the Skin respectively, she played a normal woman, and, um, a less normal woman, outstandingly well. Add to that her brilliant performances in Hail, Caesar!, Don Jon and Jojo Rabbit, and her outstanding voice-performance in Her, and you’ve got a prolific actress who’s one of her generation’s brightest talents in every conceivable category.