Today on Jewcy: From ‘A Serious Man’ to ‘Call Me By Your Name,’ the Jewish actor is a star to watch.
A jobbing actor toils in near-obscurity on the stage until two of the top filmmakers of the age choose him as the lead of their next semi-biographical, highly Biblical, ultra-Judaic dark comedy. It sounds like a Hollywood story itself (and, as with all Hollywood stories, is a little exaggerated—said actor had already been recognized for acclaimed turns in the likes of Long Day’s Journey into Night and Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman), but Michael Stuhlbarg is a man who invites cliché: one scene wonder.
Keep an eye on this guy. There are no small parts, only small actors. Everywhere you turn lately, it seems there’s another screen showing Stuhlbarg’s face—expressive, kind, put-upon, dangerous—and with his end-of-year burst of Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water, and The Post in quick succession, it seems his star is finally burning brightly.