With his Oklahoma drawl, lived-in face, and knack for playing both the fool and the philosopher, Tim Blake Nelson is one of the most distinctive character actors of his generation. Whether he’s leading a scrappy indie, popping up in a blockbuster, or stepping behind the camera, Nelson always brings a rare combination of humor, gravitas, and unpredictability.
That said, Nelson also works behind the camera on occasion, writing and directing projects of his own. This list looks at the ten best projects he’s been involved with to date, from cult westerns to Coen Brothers comedies to his own directorial triumphs.
10
‘Eye of God’ (1997)
«That’s all we are, Lord, if you’re out there at all.» Nelson’s directorial debut is a haunting small-town tragedy. Set in rural Oklahoma, this crime drama weaves between timelines to explore the murder of a young woman and the moral decay hiding beneath wholesome exteriors. Nelson directs with an almost literary patience, letting moments of silence speak as loudly as the bursts of violence. His screenplay is deeply empathetic, refusing to turn characters into archetypes or stock figures.
Martha Plimpton delivers one of her most quietly devastating performances here, while Hal Holbrook adds weight as a weary lawman. As a first feature, Eye of God already contains many of the themes Nelson would return to: morality under pressure, faith as both salvation and delusion, and the way small communities can nurture darkness as easily as light. Lean and mean, the movie crams a lot into its 84 minutes.
9
‘Nightmare Alley’ (2021)
«When a man believes his own lies, starts believing that he has the power.» Guillermo del Toro‘s lush, sinister noir is packed with intricate design work and morally compromised characters, but Nelson makes his brief screen time count as Carny Pete. In just a few scenes, he adds grit and authenticity to the carnival world, speaking with the casual authority of someone who’s been on the midway his entire life. Del Toro’s vision is grand and stylized, yet Nelson makes sure it never overwhelms him. He comes across like a real person rather than set dressing.
His weathered voice and unhurried delivery are finely tuned here. As a result, you believe this man has seen every kind of scam and sorrow the carnival has to offer. While Bradley Cooper‘s arc drives the story, Nightmare Alley thrives on its ensemble, and Nelson’s contribution is proof that even a small role, in the right hands, can be essential in building a believable, immersive world.
8
‘Just Mercy’ (2019)
«We can’t change the world with only ideas in our minds.» In this powerful legal drama based on Bryan Stevenson‘s memoir, Nelson plays Ralph Myers, a man whose false testimony sends an innocent Black man to death row. At first, Myers comes across as jittery, unreliable, and self-serving, almost pitiable in his cowardice. But Nelson gradually peels back the layers, revealing a man haunted by his lies and suffocated by the corruption around him. His courtroom confession scene is one of the film’s most affecting moments, a mixture of shame, fear, and moral clarity breaking through for the first time in years.
Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx dominate Just Mercy‘s emotional center, both turning in strong performances, but Nelson provides a critical turning point, proving that even deeply flawed people can be pushed toward the truth. His character also shows how corrupt people can use the weak to their advantage, pressuring them into lies and unfounded accusations.
7
‘The Grey Zone’ (2001)
«We can’t know what we’re capable of, any of us.» With The Grey Zone, Nelson wrote and directed one of the most morally harrowing films about the Holocaust ever made. Based on the real Sonderkommando revolt at Auschwitz, it explores the impossible choices faced by Jewish prisoners forced to help operate the gas chambers. With this i sincredibly challenging material, and the film refuses sentimentality or easy moral binaries, instead confronting viewers with the horror of survival under such conditions.
Starkly lit and tightly paced, The Grey Zone doesn’t try to make its audience feel good about courage in the face of evil. Instead, it demands that we sit with the truth of what survival can cost. Nelson directs with unflinching honesty, aided by an ensemble including David Arquette, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, and Mira Sorvino. His script acknowledges both the heroism and the compromises of its subjects, making it impossible to watch without questioning how you might act in their place.
6
‘Minority Report’ (2002)
«The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn’t change the fact that it was going to happen.» This high-concept, sleek sees Tom Cruise on the run in a future where crimes are stopped before they happen. But nestled between the chases and moral debates is one of Nelson’s most memorable cameos. He appears as Dr. Solomon Eddie, the eccentric, unsettling surgeon who replaces Cruise’s eyes to keep him off the grid. The sequence is both grotesque and absurd, with Nelson walking a razor’s edge between comic relief and genuine menace.
He’s cheerful one moment, threatening the next, and entirely unpredictable. When he warns Cruise’s character not to take off his bandages too soon or he’ll go blind, he almost sounds entertained by the possibility. Spielberg uses the encounter as a tonal pivot, shifting Minority Report from a clean futuristic aesthetic into something messier and stranger. Nelson, with his knack for creating fully-formed characters in minutes, ensures that this bizarre detour is one of the film’s highlights.
5
‘Old Henry’ (2021)
«It can be hard to tell who and what a man is. He’s got a mind to convince you otherwise.» This stripped-down Western features Nelson in the lead role, and it’s some of his finest work. He plays a quiet, seemingly unremarkable farmer who takes in a wounded stranger, only to find himself hunted by dangerous men. The tension lies in the slow revelation of who Henry really is: a man with a violent past and deadly skills. Nelson carries the film with subtlety, never overplaying the mystery, letting it emerge in small gestures and flashes of precision. His performance adds the perfect layer of melancholy.
In many ways, Nelson carries the film single-handedly, making the character simultaneously regretful, weary, and determined. As a result, Henry’s tale becomes a parable about identity and redemption. When the violence finally comes, it’s swift and decisive, underscoring just how much this man has kept buried.
4
‘The Thin Red Line’ (1998)
«I wondered how it’d be like when I died…» Terrence Malick‘s philosophical war epic is held together by an ensemble cast including heavy hitters like Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, and George Clooney. Nelson holds his own alongside these stars, playing Private Tills, a small but vivid role that captures the everyday soldier’s perspective. Malick’s fragmented storytelling means no single character dominates, but Nelson’s moments resonate because his character seems real and ordinary, an average Joe thrust into an extreme situation.
He inhabits the role with a mix of exhaustion, resilience, and unspoken fear, embodying the countless uncelebrated figures who make up an army. He’s the unknown soldier in microcosm. Even in brief appearances, Nelson conveys the sense that this man has an inner life beyond the battlefield. In other words, while his work here may not be showy, it is indispensable to the film’s emotional fabric. As a whole, The Thin Red Line deserves more recognition as a masterful war movie.
3
‘Lincoln’ (2012)
«See the here and now, that’s the hardest thing.» In Spielberg’s rich political drama, Nelson plays Congressman Richard Schell, one of the lawmakers working to secure the passage of the 13th Amendment. The film is a dense weave of speeches, debates, and political maneuvering, and Nelson helps make the procedural feel personal. Schell is steadfast, but Nelson plays him without self-righteousness. He’s a man who believes in the cause but understands the compromises needed to get it passed.
His interactions with Daniel Day-Lewis’s Lincoln and the rest of the Republican coalition add texture to the ensemble. Nelson has said that acting with the star was a fascinating experience, explaining: «Working with Daniel Day-Lewis was another extreme, and how he was able to commit not only himself, but the entire production to a work ethic and to aesthetic principles in terms of the process that just heightened, not only what he was up to, but what everyone around him was up to as well.»
2
‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ (2000)
«You can’t display a toad in a fine restaurant like this!» Nelson’s turn as Delmar O’Donnell in the Coen Brothers’ Depression-era odyssey remains one of his most beloved performances. Delmar is guileless, devout, and perpetually awed by the world around him, providing the film with much of its heart and humor. His wide-eyed baptism scene is pure comedic gold, and he delivers a ton of memorable lines, like «The preacher says all my sins is washed away, including that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo!» Simply iconic.
Yet Nelson ensures that Delmar is more than just comic relief. Beneath the goofiness, he’s essentially the moral compass of the trio, unshakably loyal to his companions. In a film that blends Homeric myth with Southern Americana, Delmar is the figure who keeps it rooted in simple human warmth. The Coens’ world can be cruel and absurd, but with Delmar in it, there’s always room for grace.
1
‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ (2018)
«There’s just gotta be a place up ahead where men ain’t low-down and poker’s played fair.» Nelson’s best performance of all is his quirky character in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Returning to the Coens nearly two decades later, Nelson headlines the opening chapter of this anthology western as the titular singing gunslinger. Dressed in pristine white and regularly breaking the fourth wall, Buster greets the audience with charm, wit, and the occasional burst of shocking violence. This makes Nelson’s work here a bit of a tightrope act. He succeeds in coming across as genuinely likable even as he dispatches opponents, his cheer never flagging.
The musical numbers are delivered with cowboy swagger, and Nelson’s comic timing is razor-sharp. In just 20 minutes, he creates a character as memorable as any in the Coens’ filmography, setting the tone for the stories that follow. It’s a role that perfectly distills his strengths: the ability to be both approachable and unsettling, to be absurd but not a joke, to make you laugh even as you flinch.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Release Date
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November 9, 2018
- Runtime
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133 Minutes
- Director
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Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Writers
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Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Jack London
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