When multihyphenate actor Joel Edgerton gets recognized, he can’t always predict what role or project someone might know him from. From collaborations with master filmmakers like Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Paul Schrader (Master Gardener), and Barry Jenkins (The Underground Railroad) to his genre-spanning work in the Star Wars universe, the surreal medieval tale The Green Knight, and the apocalyptic thriller It Comes at Night, Edgerton has stepped into the shoes of quite a collection of commanding characters. “I’m quite often surprised by it,” Edgerton said on a recent episode of Skip Intro with Krista Smith. “I think usually I can assess, like, ‘Oh, this is a Warrior guy,’ or if you’re in America, say Boston, you know, ‘This’ll be a Black Mass moment.’ It’s kind of beautiful to try and predict and then realize how wrong you are. Like, someone that you think is gonna say, ‘Warrior is my favorite film,’ says, ‘I just love Kinky Boots.’ ”
The Australian actor, director, writer, and producer continues his streak of memorable performances with his Golden Globe– and Critics Choice Award–nominated work in Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams. As Robert Grainier, Edgerton finds the extraordinary in an ordinary man’s life shaped by love, loss, and the awe-inspiring nature that surrounds him.
Co-written by the Academy Award–nominated Bentley and Greg Kwedar (Sing Sing), Train Dreams continues to spellbind audiences, but don’t expect Edgerton to press play anytime soon. “I don’t really go back and watch my own movies,” Edgerton said on Skip Intro. “Recently, I went back and watched Animal Kingdom, because it’s been more than 10 years. Just kind of curious to see how it held up, and I was happy to say it held up really well. But I’m not at home in my spare time rolling through my catalog.” While he might not be diving into his own filmography, read on for a look at just some of the standout moments in Edgerton’s enviable career.
In this prequel installment of the space saga from George Lucas, Edgerton appears as Owen Lars, stepbrother of Anakin Skywalker and a farmer on Tatooine. Edgerton returned to the role in Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005) and the limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), in which Ewan McGregor, who also co-starred opposite Edgerton in the Western Jane Got a Gun, reprised his role as the legendary Jedi master.
Edgerton is heartbreaking in this family drama set in the world of mixed martial arts. In the film by Gavin O’Connor, a pair of brothers — Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Edgerton) — both enter the same MMA tournament, seeking the same $5 million prize to support their families and friends. Years of intergenerational trauma and conflict come to the surface as the younger Tommy is trained by their estranged father, a recovering alcoholic played by Nick Nolte, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.
Following her Academy Award–winning wartime film The Hurt Locker, Bigelow returned to familiar subject matter with the political thriller Zero Dark Thirty, which chronicled the US government’s extensive manhunt for Osama bin Laden. Amid a star-studded ensemble cast that featured Oscar winner Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, and Chris Pratt, Edgerton played Patrick Grayston, the fictional leader of SEAL Team Six, which led the raid that killed bin Laden.
Throughout the 20th century, there might not be a more iconic literary antagonist than Tom Buchanan, the arrogant husband of Daisy, the object of Jay Gatsby’s affection and devotion. While playing the cruel millionaire with a wandering eye, Edgerton reveals cracks in Tom’s facade, exposing a shrouded vulnerability underneath in this dazzling fantasia of an adaptation.
Edgerton made his directorial debut with this chilling thriller. In the film, married couple Simon and Robyn, played by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, move back to Simon’s hometown. They have a chance encounter with his former classmate, Gordo (Edgerton), who begins to give them a mysterious series of gifts. His arrival in their lives leads to an unwinding of closely kept secrets with a relationship-shattering impact. For his work in the film, which he also wrote and produced, Edgerton was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award for First-Time Feature Film Director.
In a star-studded ensemble cast, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Jesse Plemons, and Kevin Bacon, the life and reign of organized crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp) is chronicled as he becomes an informant for FBI Agent John Connolly (Edgerton). As Connolly’s partnership with the criminal deepens, Edgerton captures how access to unique power can cross the line from complicity to courtroom in the blink of an eye.
Based on a true story, Loving follows a married couple in Virginia, Richard (Edgerton) and Mildred Loving (Oscar nominee Ruth Negga), as they become the plaintiffs in the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case that overturned the ban on interracial matrimony. Edgerton would be nominated for his first Golden Globe for his performance in the Jeff Nichols film.
Edgerton delivers an unnerving turn in this poignant drama, which he also wrote and directed, inspired by Garrard Conley’s memoir. In the film, a young gay man named Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges) is sent to a gay conversion therapy program led by therapist Victor Sykes (Edgerton) by his devoutly religious parents (played by fellow Aussies Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe). Edgerton had just wrapped Boy Erased when he was first given the novella Train Dreams, a story that would linger with him for almost a decade until fellow filmmaker Bentley entered his life.
The King was co-written by Edgerton and director David Michôd, a frequent collaborator dating back to the 2010 crime drama Animal Kingdom. This film, which also stars Timothée Chalamet, Robert Pattinson, and Ben Mendelsohn, is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s three plays that chart the rise of Henry V (Chalamet) after the death of his father, Henry IV (Mendelsohn). As Sir John Falstaff, Edgerton is a beacon of trust and allyship for the young king as he wades into politics and war.
In this haunting crime thriller, Edgerton plays an undercover cop going by the name of Mark Frame tasked with striking up a friendship with a man (Sean Harris) suspected of kidnapping and murdering a teenager. As their bond intensifies, Mark tries to get a confession, but the case consumes him, affecting his relationship with his young son.
As a longtime fan of Denis Johnson’s beloved novella, Edgerton had longed to make a cinematic version of Train Dreams when Bentley entered the picture. In the book and the film, laborer Robert Grainer and the fascinating characters who enter and affect his life — his wife, Gladys; a fellow logger, Arn Peeples; and a widowed forestry worker, Claire (played by Academy Award nominees Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, and Kerry Condon) — move through the spectrum of human experience. “It’s a celebration of an ordinary life that reminded me of the things I’ve heard about but never knew personally about my descendants, who were all farmers and workingmen,” Edgerton said about the source material on Skip Intro. “To me, [it’s] a philosophical exploration of just life lived.”
