Top 50: Best movie performances by Australian actors
FROM obvious big names and works that were quite rightly recognised, to glorious one-offs that captured lightning in a bottle, here’s our list of the greatest movie performances by Australian actors. HAVE YOUR SAY: VOTE IN OUR POLL.
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JUST last month, while witnessing a staggering new career-best display from Toni Collette in Hereditary, it got me wondering — what would a list of the greatest performances by Australian actors look like?
And where would you even start in daring to frame such a line-up?
So I set up some simple parameters.
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Each actor that made the final cut would be reaching for something higher, better, and beyond anything they had done before. Something unique. Something not absolutely of its time, but something that would completely stand the test of time.
There are some obvious big names on the list, along with works that were quite rightly recognised far and wide for their clear and undisputed greatness.
However, there are also some smaller names to be found here too, glorious one-offs that captured lightning in a bottle that still gives off a dazzling flash.
If we are indeed a nation that has punched above its weight when the cameras have started rolling, then these are the performances that have hit audiences all over the world between the eyes.
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50. MICHAEL CATON in LAST CAB TO DARWIN (2015)
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”
49. BRENDAN COWELL in NOISE (2007)
“What you remember of your life, that’s the eternity everyone’s talking about.”
48. COLIN FRIELS in MALCOLM (1986)
“It’s a getaway car. Like on TV.”
47. HUGO WEAVING in THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT (1994)
“You can make a fine living in a pair of heels.”
46. BILL HUNTER in MURIEL’S WEDDING (1994)
“You reap what you sow. You’d think I’d learn that growing up on a farm.”
45. HUGH JACKMAN in PRISONERS (2013)
“Pray for the best, but prepare for the worst.”
44. HUGO WEAVING in THE INTERVIEW (1998)
“What do you call 40 lawyers at the bottom of Port Phillip Bay? A good start.”
43. MARGOT ROBBIE in I, TONYA (2017)
“America. They want someone to love, they want someone to hate.”
42. CATE BLANCHETT in THE AVIATOR (2004)
“Men can’t be friends with women ... they must posses them or leave them be.”
41. ESSIE DAVIS in THE BABADOOK (2014)
“ I have moved on. I don’t mention him. I don’t talk about him.”
40. RACHEL GRIFFITHS in HILARY & JACKIE (1998)
“If you think being an ordinary person is any easier than being an extraordinary one, you’re wrong.”
39. NOAH TAYLOR in THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE (1987)
“We’d always been close. We’d always been sweet and gentle with each other.”
38. ABBIE CORNISH in BRIGHT STAR (2009)
“Touch has a memory. I know it.”
37. JOEL EDGERTON in LOVING (2016)
“Tell the judge I love my wife.”
36. ALEX DIMITRIADES in HEAD ON (1998)
“I’m no scholar, I’m no worker, I’m no poet.”
35. CATE BLANCHETT in CAROL (2015)
“Please believe that I would do anything to see you happy. So, I do the only thing I can... I release you.”
34. SAM WORTHINGTON in AVATAR
“Out there is the true world, and in here is the dream.”
33. RUSSELL CROWE & DANIEL POLLOCK in ROMPER STOMPER (1992)
“The only thing here for you is pain.”
32. MEL GIBSON in GALLIPOLI (1981)
“Sir, I don’t think you’ve got the picture. Men are being cut down before they can get five yards.”
31. JUDY DAVIS in MY BRILLIANT CAREER (1979)
“Don’t you ever dream that there’s more to life than this? Don’t you want to meet people who talk about books and words and have visions?”
30. PAUL HOGAN as MICK DUNDEE
CROCODILE DUNDEE, 1986
“That’s not a knife … THAT’S a knife.“
Purely comedic performances are often looked down upon, and almost as often, unfairly so. Let the record show that Hoges’ effort here is a grand achievement, and not just because the right bloke found the right role for his belated screen debut (at age 46!). The endearing way the leathery larrikin captured a uniquely Australian sense of humour for the entire world to enjoy should never be underestimated.
29. ABBIE CORNISH as HEIDI
SOMERSAULT, 2004
“Am I your girlfriend? … I think you’re just too scared to say it.”
For her first lead role, Cornish anchored the most confronting coming-of-age film shot within these borders. Her portrayal of a troubled teen coming to terms with both her sexuality and identity is raw, moving and utterly authentic. Though the movie itself is a bit of a riddle, but Cornish comes up with her own powerful statement about the fragility of youth.
28. GUY PEARCE & RUSSELL CROWE as ED EXLEY & BUD WHITER
LA CONFIDENTIAL, 1997
“Some men get the world. Others get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona.”
Can’t split ‘em. So why should we? Both are brilliant as polar-opposite police detectives working an uncrackable case in a gritty, grimy LA of the 1950s. Amazing to reflect so much was on the line for both of these young talents at the time. Pearce was making his Hollywood debut, while a disillusioned Crowe was on the verge of returning home. Each held their nerve and held together one of the greatest crime films of the modern age.
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27. KEISHA CASTLE-HUGHES as PAIKEA APIRANA
WHALE RIDER, 2002
“I’m not a prophet, but I know that our people will keep going forward, all together, with all of our strength.”
Come on now. If that kinds-Kiwi Russell Crowe is readily claimed as one of our own, then West Australian-born Castle-Hughes makes the elite cut as well. She was just 11 years of age — with no prior acting experience whatsoever — when plucked from obscurity to play the wise-beyond-her-years Pai. Rarely has someone so young exuded such assurance and majesty … and won a Best Actress Oscar nomination for an amazing effort.
26. JACK THOMPSON as MAJOR J.F. THOMAS
BREAKER MORANT, 1980
“The barbarities of war are seldom committed by abnormal men. The tragedy of war is that these horrors are committed by normal men in abnormal situations.”
Australian cinema experienced a number of key turning points as it came of age from the mid-1970s onwards. So it was absolutely fitting that one of the stalwarts of that era should supply one of its finest acting displays. Thompson had so many different notes to hit with his performance — anger, defiance, sorrow, intellect, nobility, and empathy — and he did not miss a single one.
25. MEL GIBSON as MAX ROCKATANSKY
MAD MAX 1 & 2, 1979-1981
“I’m just here for the gasoline.”
When stretched across these two classic movies, a stark and brutally basic performance from Gibson — at odds with his usual frenetic style — gets quieter and yet more intense with each passing minute. He wasn’t just playing a man here, but a myth. One look at Max and we see the ravages of a fossil-fuel-dependent future we’d rather not contemplate.
**KEEP READING - LIST CONTINUES AFTER THE POLL**
24. NICOLE KIDMAN as GRACE STEWART
THE OTHERS, 2001
“Whoever took the curtains wants to kill my children.”
This sublimely haunting thriller set in a sprawling mansion has one hell of a hidden trapdoor ending, and it is Kidman’s job to lure all of us to step on it. In a demanding role, Kidman is an unworldly, worrying presence as a solitary mother whose three children have contracted a rare condition that makes them allergic to natural light.
23. RUSSELL CROWE as JOHN NASH
A BEAUTIFUL MIND, 2001
“I’ve made the most important discovery of my life. It’s only in the mysterious equation of love that any logic or reasons can be found.”
Yet another pitch-perfect portrayal of a complex real-life character from Crowe as gifted mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr., who triumphs over a lengthy battle with schizophrenia to win the Nobel prize. An acutely sensitive and refreshingly unsentimental exploration of a debilitating mental illness landed Rusty his third Best Actor Oscar nomination in three years.
22, DANIEL HENSHALL as JOHN BUNTING
SNOWTOWN, 2011
“You ever shot a gun off before? You wanna know how to shoot it? I’ll show you.”
Based on the true story of a terrifying series of murders in South Australia, Snowtown stands as one of the most devastating works of Australian cinema. So much of the film’s unfiltered take on the evil one man can perpetrate passed through Henshall’s commandingly intimidating performance. The achievement becomes all the more impressive when you reflect Henshall (aged just 28 at the time of shooting) had never played a lead role in a film before.
21. PETER FINCH as HOWARD BEALE
NETWORK, 1976
“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
In 1971, Finch was the first Australian to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar (for Sunday Bloody Sunday). Five years later, he became our first winner in the category, and sadly, also the event’s first-ever posthumous victor. Finch’s swan song as a newsreader who loses his mind on-air and becomes a ratings sensation is mesmerising, incendiary stuff. The manic glint in his eye is that of a man about to be swallowed whole by the media.
20. TONI COLLETTE as MURIEL
MURIEL’S WEDDING, 1994
“Since I’ve met you and moved to Sydney, I haven’t listened to one Abba song. That’s because my life is as good as an Abba song. It’s as good as Dancing Queen.”
So many people were duped by the light and frothy exterior of this unorthodox Australian comedy-drama. However, beneath the surface was a dark and disturbing social satire. That the movie was able to course so deep was all down to Collette’s selfless performance in the title role, an astute combination of the appealing, the appalling and the admirable.
19. BEN MENDELSOHN as ’POPE’ CODY
ANIMAL KINGDOM, 2010
“If you don’t wanna do anything … because you’re scared? That’s alright. Just tell me about it.”
Something changed in Mendelsohn — as did the world’s appreciation of his rare talent — when he landed upon the dead-eyed malevolent beast that was hard-bitten crim Pope Cody. Some actors can suggest the idea of menace. Very few can personify actual menace. Just look at Mendelsohn’s wordless scene set to the Air Supply ballad ‘All Out of Love’ (it’s on YouTube). You’ll never hear the song the same way again.
18. NAOMI WATTS as CRISTINA PECK
21 GRAMS, 2003
“Katie died with red shoelaces on. She hated red shoelaces. And she kept asking me to get her some blue ones. And I never got her the blue ones.”
As a grieving mother who resumes a dormant drug habit upon the loss of her child, Watts opens the floodgates holding back a reservoir of deep personal pain. The ferocity with which she attacks the role — and the vulnerability she exposes — is astonishing to witness.
17. RUSSELL CROWE as MAXIMUS
GLADIATOR, 2000
“Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife … I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
The performance that won Crowe his much-coveted Best Actor Oscar isn’t quite his best. However, when it comes to aggressively anchoring an epic action blockbuster and then selling the whole entertainment package as high dramatic art, Crowe’s resolutely crafted effort as the indefatigable Maximus has few peers in motion picture history.
16. GEOFFREY RUSH as LIONEL LOGUE
THE KING’S SPEECH, 2010
“You don’t need to be afraid of the things you were afraid of when you were five.”
Rush is the best-spoken actor this country has ever produced. Nobody can take a single line of dialogue and spin it to any point of the communication compass. So it is apt that in a fine feature film about the healing power of finding one’s own voice that Rush’s impeccable vocal phrasing is subtly, yet potently to the fore at all times. Next time you watch this movie, listen intently to Rush.
15. ERIC BANA as MARK ‘CHOPPER’ READ
CHOPPER, 2000
“Why would I shoot a bloke — BANG! — then whiz him off to the hospital at a hundred miles an hour? It defeats the purpose of having shot him in the first place.”
Upon reports of his casting as notorious Melbourne hitman Mark Brandon Read, many wondered if former TV funnyman Bana was up to the job. Not only did he silence his detractors with an imposing depiction of a complex real-life character. Bana also took the role to dramatic and comic places nobody could have foreseen. A master class in both method and madness still held in high esteem by many actors (Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling included).
14. TONI COLLETTE as ANNIE
HEREDITARY, 2018
“I never wanted to be your mother. I was scared. I didn’t feel like a mother. But she pressured me.”
The freshest performance on this list could prove to be Collette’s most enduring (especially if credible chatter of a possible Oscar nomination continues to mount). This depiction of a woman on a one-way trip to the end of her mind is an expressive tour de force from Collette. It takes real bravery and considerable skill to shine a light on the dark psychological places visited here.
13. NICOLE KIDMAN as VIRGINIA WOOLF
THE HOURS, 2002
“My life has been stolen from me. I’m living in a town I have no wish to live in... I’m living a life I have no wish to live... How did this happen?”
Kidman’s landmark Best Actress Oscar win — an Australian first — was tainted slightly at the time by snipes she only won because of an extreme make-up job (including a face-altering fake nose). However, Kidman’s deeply nuanced and unapologetically bleak portrayal of novelist Virginia Woolf has stood the test of time very well indeed. Evidence of the greatness of her work — Kidman was a clear cut above two all-time-great co-stars in Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore.
12. DAVID WENHAM as BRETT SPRAGUE
THE BOYS (1998)
“We all make mistakes … sometimes.”
One of the great ‘lost’ performances of Australian cinema. Barely seen at the time of release, but never forgotten by those who did. Wenham creates a black hole of overwhelming, immovable evil, playing a violent killer raking over the remnants of his broken family in the 24 hours after his latest release from prison.
11. ROWAN McNAMARA & MARISSA GIBSON as SAMSON AND DELILAH
SAMSON & DELILAH, 2009
These two amateurs (in their only screen appearance) are utterly spellbinding together as Aboriginal teens from a tiny outback community who fall in love, and are forced to flee to Alice Springs. A combined effort that speaks out about (and to) indigenous Australia with an honesty no film had dared dispense before.
10. CATE BLANCHETT as TRACY HEART
LITTLE FISH, 2005
“The past is right here. It is right here.”
An incredible (and unfairly overlooked) work by Blanchett, playing a former slave to heroin who has hopes for a bright future despite a dark past. This haunting Australian drama never quite declares whether Tracy is a recovered or a recovering junkie — there is a difference — and Blanchett exploits this grey area in our reckoning with great feeling, cunning and soul.
9. JACKI WEAVER as ‘SMURF’ CODY
ANIMAL KINGDOM, 2010
“Just because we don’t wanna do something, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
Weaver would never again be remembered for her sunny disposition after this terrifying, carefully calibrated show of matriarchal intimidation. It is a supremely sinister performance that came from out of nowhere, then (after a surprise Oscar nomination) put the ever-improving veteran on the fast-track to a Hollywood career.
8. RUSSELL CROWE as JEFFREY WIGAND
THE INSIDER, 2001
“I have to put my family’s welfare on the line here. What are you putting up? You’re putting up words.”
The crowning achievement of Crowe’s career to date brings us up close and personal to a man with his finger hovering above the self-destruct button. In this true story of nicotine whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, Crowe fully disappears inside the character, upping the authenticity with extra weight, grey, thinning hair and the cautiously sharp movements of a beaten-down dog.
7. GUY PEARCE as LEONARD SHELBY
MEMENTO, 2000
“I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can’t remember them.”
A virtuoso performance from Pearce, executed under a degree of difficulty that would daunt and damn most actors. Not only does he play a character whose memory is erased daily. The film’s unconventional plotting (an early work from future master Christopher Nolan) also moves backwards through time. An embodiment of a contradictory man so in control of being out-of-control, it’s terrifying.
6. ENSEMBLE CAST
LANTANA, 2001
“This is not an affair. It is a one-night stand … that happened twice.”
Lantana remains mighty close to being the finest feature film ever shot on Australian soil. It is certainly the most perfectly cast movie we’ve ever produced, with every player applying themselves with a combined intelligence, eloquence and emotion that won’t be denied. Australia has rarely made a worthwhile contemporary drama to match this before or since. So take a bow, Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Armstrong, Geoffrey Rush, Rachael Blake, Glenn Robbins and the rest …
5. GEOFFREY RUSH as DAVID HELFGOTT
SHINE, 1996
“You must play as if there is no tomorrow.”
While the makers of Shine could not have found a more inspiring and moving true story — piano prodigy David Helfgott and his journey back from near-oblivion — they could not have found a better (and then-unknown) actor to play him. Rush has a field day with Helfgott’s fractured vocal mannerisms and physical fragility, but never forgets to convey the plight of the man, nor the promise of a better life he finds by reconnecting with music. Still amazing to think the Oscars gave immediate seal of approval to a no-name bloke in a low-budget Aussie flick.
4. HEATH LEDGER as ENNIS DEL MAR
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, 2005
“All them things that I don’t know could get you killed if I come to know them. I ain’t jokin’.”
Ledger’s rare talent for X-raying a character — identifying a trait nobody else would have thought of — is poignantly to the fore here. In Ennis, Ledger found a modern-day cowboy doomed to never understand his ongoing attraction to another man, nor the factors that will keep driving them apart. The inner turmoil, the outward confusion and the never-ending heartache of it all is unleashed by Ledger with unrelenting accuracy.
3. DAVID GULPILIL as ‘BLACK BOY’
WALKABOUT, 1971
“Water.”
One of the most haunting and unworldly films ever shot on Australian soil extracted a performance of an extraordinarily rare calibre from a then-unknown indigenous dancer. Gulpilil was still a teenager when he debuted before the camera, quietly exuding a grace, strength and sorrow that has the viewer glued to his every move. A towering work, painted from a palette of feelings and instincts words cannot do justice to.
2. HEATH LEDGER as THE JOKER
THE DARK KNIGHT, 2008
“In their last moments, people show you who they really are. So, in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did.”
Though classified as a supporting role, the explosive creativity Ledger detonated on screen is now regarded as a major achievement in the ranks of modern acting. All at once, Ledger was frightening, funny, focused and completely out of control. Every scene he appears in carries a dangerous air of anarchy that is remarkable for a mainstream movie. This was such a breakthrough for the young Australian star that the mind boggles at what Ledger might have done by now if he was still with us.
1. CATE BLANCHETT as JASMINE
BLUE JASMINE, 2013
“Anxiety, nightmares and a nervous breakdown. There are only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming.”
At this particular point in time — in terms of both sheer career consistency and pure unbridled artistry — Cate Blanchett deserves to be recognised as the finest actor Australia has produced to date. Blanchett’s innate ability to blend immaculate technique with a raw, yet precise instinct is showcased in all its glory in this flawless performance as a woman who keeps falling apart and then picking up the pieces until there is literally nothing left. Blanchett’s devastating final moments in the role answer each and every question asked of her throughout.
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