Which Actors Have Worked With Denis Villeneuve the Most?
Who are the new king of sci-fi’s favorite people to work with?
Author’s Note: You will notice that Villeneuve has far fewer repeating actors than other directors that I’ve done this kind of analysis on, such as Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson. However, I’m simply publishing this article because I have other writing about Villeneuve that I’m working on to publish in the near future, and I want to establish a precedent of doing stats on repeating collaborators for every director who I write about.
Over the course of the past decade, French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve has gone from an indie darling to one of the most important mainstream tentpole directors in the world. Although his momentous Blade Runner 2049 failed to ignite the office, the totality of his vision was enough to convince Warner Brothers to give him the keys to the most influential science fiction franchise of the 20th century: Frank Herbert’s Dune. The sequel, Dune: Part Two has been one of the biggest hits of 2024 so far, already convincing the studio to green-light a spinoff show for streaming on Max, as well as a theatrical adaptation of the (arguably more risky) sequel, Dune: Messiah.
Villeneuve is one of the most acclaimed directors in recent memory. He maintains one of the highest average ratings of any director working today on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. His distinctive visual style has earned his films four cinematography Oscar nominations in a row, including the first ever nomination for a Black Director of Photography with Arrival (2016). He currently has three Oscar nominations himself, including a Best Director nom for Prisoners (2013), and Best Director and Best Picture nominations for Dune. His 2010 drama Incendies (his final feature-length film in French before transitioning to Hollywood) was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Oscars.
Despite most of his early career being films entirely in French, Villeneuve has since worked with many of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Harrison Ford, Emily Blunt and Forest Whitaker. He helped elevate the careers of rising stars like Ana de Armas and Timothée Chalamet, while also providing established actors like Benicio Del Toro and Jake Gyllenhaal with some of their with some of the meatiest work to date.
Currently, Denis Villeneuve is tentatively confirmed for two upcoming films, both to be produced by Legendary Entertainment: Dune: Messiah and an adaptation of Nuclear War: A Scenario, which is a non-fiction book written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen. There have been conflicting reports about which will come first, but we can be fairly confident at least one of them will have some returning actors!
Rules for Inclusion
I’m only including actors who have appeared in two or more feature films. Every actor is listed in alphabetical order within their respective sections. Unlike other articles in this series, there are no data visualizations here as currently there are no actors with more than three reoccurring collaborations. In the future, whenever Denis Villeneuve releases more films and additional collaborations happen, this article will be updated and data visualizations will be added if necessary.
Three Films
Dave Bautista — Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024). Bautista also appears as his 2049 character Sapper Morton in a short film called 2048: Nowhere to Run, one of three short films created to help bridge the gap between the two Blade Runner films. One of the films is an animated short directed by Shin’ichirô Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, The Animatrix), and the other two live-action shorts (including Nowhere to Run) were directed by Luke Scott, who is the son of original Blade Runner (1982) director Ridley Scott. Luke Scott has served as assistant director on three of his father’s films, as well as directing extra short films for Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017), which were in a similar vein as the 2049 shorts.
David Dastmalchian — Prisoners (2013), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Dune (2021)
Josh Brolin — Sicario (2015), Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024). Josh Brolin also reprised his role as Matt Graver in Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018). Although Denis Villeneuve didn’t return to direct, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan did, along with actors Brolin, Benicio Del Toro and Jeffrey Donovan.
Two Films
Babs Olusanmokun — Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024)
Charlotte Rampling — Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024)
Jake Gyllenhaal — Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013)
Javier Bardem — Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024)
John Dunn-Hill — Maelstrom (2000), Incendies (2010)
Maxim Gaudette — Polytechnique (2009), Incendies (2010)
Rebecca Ferguson — Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024)
Stellan Skarsgård — Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024)
Timothée Chalamet — Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024)
Zendaya — Dune (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024)
Special Mentions
Sean Young — Although actress Sean Young didn’t actually reprise her role as Rachael from Ridley Scott’s original Blade Runner, a young version of her was recreated using VFX in Villeneuve’s 2049. In a 2021 interview, Young expressed dissatisfaction with how the digital ‘cameo’ turned out, but claimed ‘They did give my son Quinn a job on ‘[Blade Runner] 2049’ in visual arts, and I said all was forgiven. He’s got great skills.’ Sean Young also famously played the role of Chani in David Lynch’s adaptation of Dune (1984), a franchise which Villeneuve also rebooted. In Villeneuve’s Dune films, Chani is played by actress and singer Zendaya. In 2021, the same year the first Villeneuve Dune was released, Young also starred in a low-budget knockoff called Planet Dune.
Other Frequent Collaborators
Greig Fraser — While Rogue One cinematographer is often credited as one of the early adopters of “The Volume” video screen technology that he and Jon Favreau pioneered on The Mandalorian, Villeneuve was adamant on shooting Dune in real locations filmed in-camera as much as possible. Fraser won an Oscar for his cinematography on Dune, and returned for Part Two, for which he is almost certain to be nominated for again.
Jóhann Jóhannsson — Before his tragic and unexpected passing in 2018, Icelandic composer scored three of Villeneuve’s pictures, Prisoners (2013), Sicario (2015), and Arrival (2016). He was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Sicario.
Hans Zimmer — Twelve-time Oscar Nominee Hans Zimmer composed the score for Blade Runner 2049 along with It composer Benjamin Wallfisch. Zimmer returned for both Dune films, the first of which was his second ever Oscar win, and his first for a live-action film. He had previously only won for The Lion King (1994).
Roger Deakins — The famed Coen Bros. cinematographer Roger Deakins was nominated for a whopping 13 Oscars before finally winning for Blade Runner 2049 at the 2018 Academy Awards, his third collaboration with Villeneuve. Deakins also shot Prisoners (2013) and Sicario (2015), both of which he was nominated for. It’s unclear why Deakins was not asked to return for the Dune films, but some people speculate it may have been a scheduling conflict with Sam Mendes’ WWI action-drama 1917, which Deakins also won his second Oscar for in 2020.
Tanya Lapointe — Denis Villeneuve’s wife is the documentary director Tanya Lapointe, and has also worked on several of his recent films. She was Villeneuve’s assistant on Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, and a producer on both Dune films. It’s been reported that she would also be a part of the production of the upcoming adaptation of Nucelar War: A Scenario.
Up Next
Which actor(s) would you like to see brought back in a future Denis Villeneuve film? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Coming Soon: the most common collaborators of directors Zack Snyder and Paul Thomas Anderson!
Previous lists:
Related:
The Next-Level Musical Easter Eggs of Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ Films
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