Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve seen the Australian actor Jason Clarke in many movies, as he's the perfect supporting actor. Right now, he’s doing the most outlandish version of real-life NBA player Jerry West in HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Here are his 10 best performances, ranked.
10 Terminator: Genysis (2015)
Terminator: Genisys was the second-to-last attempt to resuscitate the Terminator franchise. This time, Sara Connor is played by Emilia Clarke, and she’s already a badass when Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) goes to the past to help her, as she’s been trained by “Pops” (an older, wiser Arnold Schwarzenegger). Clarke plays the hero of the resistance, and Sarah Connor’s son, John Connor.
The role has been important in every film, and this time, it’s no different, although with a twist, as John Connor becomes part robot (nanobots are involved), and it's their new enemy. The film was a box office disaster, but Clarke was able to show two sides of Connor, the charismatic leader and the devilish robot trying to convince his mother that this is a better, less exhausting way to survive in the future.
9 First Man (2018)
First Man is all about astronaut Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and how he ended up being the first man to walk on the moon, while showing how much loss and death he had to see and suffer to get to that historic event. Clarke plays Ed White, an engineer who becomes Armstrong’s best friend, as he helps him and his family settle into the community, helping the astronaut feel more at home, and becoming his confidant.
Unfortunately, his character is killed in a fire during the launch of the Apollo 1. The actor is so good at showing his kindness and friendship with Gosling’s character, that the death of Ed White is still felt during the rest of the film, even if history is about to be made.
8 Oppenheimer (2023)
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is the most recent movie on this list. The actor has spent more than a decade playing supporting characters for movie stars, and making them look good, so it’s no surprise he appears in this film; one that’s more relevant than ever.
The actor appears in the second half of the film as attorney Roger Robb, who is trying to discredit Oppenheimer and the rest of the team, while looking for his connections with the Communist Party. About Clarke’s performance, Matt Damon told Entertainment Weekly: “I was genuinely surprised with Jason Clarke. The first time I sat in that room and was cross-examined by him... [he was] intimidating. It was great."
7 Everest (2015)
Everest is based on a real tragedy; the one that happened on the tallest mountain in the world, when 20 climbers and rescuers were killed, because of a storm. This true story gave Clarke one of his first chances at being the lead actor, as he plays camp guide Rob Hall. The film has great cinematography and a cast full of excellent actors, including Keira Knightley, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Sam Worthington, and Emily Watson, to name a few.
Clarke plays the role of a boy scout, the good camp guide, with empathy, courage, and intelligence, who wants every climber to get to the top of the mountain and have their great moment, while also thinking about his pregnant wife at home, and he nails every second of it.
6 Mudbound (2017)
Two soldiers and friends, one white, one Black, return home to Mississippi from service during World War II, and that’s the start of Mudbound. The film tells the stories of Jamie (Garret Hedlund), and Ronsel (Jason Mitchell), and how hard it is to adapt to civil life after what they’ve seen and done; and at the same time, it is a story about racism and how things really were back then.
Clarke plays Henry, Jamie’s brother-in-law, a man who, because he has Black people living on his property, expects them to do everything he says, without asking questions. The film shows, in a nuanced way, all the microaggressions the white characters have with the Black ones, and it’s never better reflected than in Clarke’s character. His Henry is a racist, but the film doesn’t judge him for it, and the performance shows he’s like this because of his upbringing and how the society was in 1940s Mississippi. It’s a great supporting role for the actor, one that, in someone else’s hands, could’ve been a one-note, hateful character.
5 Lawless (2012)
Lawless tells the story of the Bondurant brothers, Forrest (Tom Hardy in one of his best performances), Jack (Shia LaBeouf), and Howard (Clarke), as they earn money as bootleggers in Prohibition-era Franklin County. They have some confrontations with the sheriff, not because he wants them to abide by the law, but because he wants a part of their earnings.
Clarke has always been able to complement and make the other actors shine brighter, and that’s exactly what he does here. Both Hardy and LaBeouf have the better and bigger parts, but Clarke uses every moment he has on screen to create his character, and make him a unique person, who is always trying to help his two brothers.
4 The Great Gatsby (2013)
The Great Gatsby adapts the book of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in a way only iconoclast Baz Luhrmann could; with Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby, and every scene feeling like a million dollars. This is one of the best films about the American dream, and has an incredible stacked cast, including not only DiCaprio, but also Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Joel Edgerton, Elizabeth Debicki, and Jason Clarke.
The actor plays George Wilson, the poor owner of the gas station that all the rich protagonists use, and the husband to Myrtle, Isla Fisher’s character, who is having an affair with Joel Edgerton’s character. Clarke’s Tom could be an evil, dumb man, but the actor is able to give him much more richness and layers, making him more sympathetic and in love with his wife, so that audiences understand his actions and horrible ending a bit more.
3 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the second installment in the Caesar (Andy Serkis) story and the first step of the apes becoming the dominant species in their world. Clarke plays Malcolm, the leader of a human colony who meets Caesar and his ape community, and decides to work together with them to get the best future for both their people.
Clarke and motion-captured Andy Serkis are a great pairing, as they elevate each other's acting games, creating two characters who are trying to improve the lives of those they lead, but there’s still too much anger between the species, creating trouble and killing between the humans and the apes. In every Planet of the Apes movie, there’s a human with whom Caesar and the apes interact, but Clarke’s role might be the best of them all, showing how it's easier to collaborate than to hate and kill.
2 Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Zero Dark Thirty is the film that showed why Jessica Chastain is one of the best actors working today. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and with the actress as the lead, this movie tells the story of how the CIA found and killed Osama bin Laden. Clarke plays Dan Fuller, Maya Harris’ (Chastain) superior officer, and his appearance in the film starts with a bang, as he’s seen interrogating a possible 9/11 participant in a future terrorist attack, and the Geneva Convention is the last thing he's worried about.
The actor shows a mix of resolution to get answers, cruelty, and disgust, while also being able to justify all his actions under the idea that he’s being patriotic and avoiding a greater evil, showing there’s a person behind those methods, and one who believes this is the best way to extract the information needed.
About the film, Clarke told Esquire: "I think it's a much-loved film, and I think rightly so. I think there's just that difference of the broader community and then the film community. What the film community missed was that a topic was taken and put in celluloid before even the writers and the journalists got hold of it, and it came out."
1 Chappaquiddick (2017)
Chappaquiddick tells the real-life story of Senator Ted Kennedy (Clarke) and the incident where he crashed a car while drunk driving, and killed a young woman named Mary Jo (Kate Mara), who was working as a volunteer in his campaign for president. This movie shows how much power the Kennedy family had, and opens up the idea of how much different that presidential race and the country afterward could have been if Ted Kennedy didn’t get into the driver’s seat that night.
Clarke’s performance as Ted Kennedy is great, as he’s able to imbue the real-life person, and use his same mannerisms and accent. This film is proof that Clarke should be the lead actor in more projects, as this is one of his biggest opportunities ever, and he didn’t waste it. So much so, that when the movie premiered, there was talk of the possibility of an Oscar nomination for his performance.
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