What's your favorite actor-director pairing?

Peele and Kaluuya. Gerwig and Ronan. The Coen brothers and, well, lots of actors. Here are the tandems serving up today's best cinematic synergy

Jack Smart,

Gil Macias,

Mary Kate Carr,

Hattie Lindert,

and Emma Keates

7/15/22 4:00AM

Comments (138)

(Clockwork L to R): Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig attend SiriusXM’s Town Hall on December 09, 2019. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for SiriusXM), Willem Dafoe and Robert Eggers attend The Lighthouse UK on October 05, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for BFI), Rachel Weisz and Yorgos Lanthimos attend the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon on February 4, 2019 in Beverly Hills. (Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images), Daniel Kaluuya and Writer/Director/Producer Jordan Peele on the set of NOPE (Glen Wilson/Universal Pictures). — (Clockwork L to R): Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig attend SiriusXM’s Town Hall on December 09, 2019. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for SiriusXM), Willem Dafoe and Robert Eggers attend *The Lighthouse* UK on October 05, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for BFI), Rachel Weisz and Yorgos Lanthimos attend the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon on February 4, 2019 in Beverly Hills. (Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images), Daniel Kaluuya and Writer/Director/Producer Jordan Peele on the set of *NOPE* (Glen Wilson/Universal Pictures).

While filming the Oscar-winning Get Out, Jordan Peele told Daniel Kaluuya, “You’re my De Niro.” Meaning that just as Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro collaborated on film after film, so too would this filmmaker and his muse. It’s why they’ve reunited for Peele’s third horror feature, the upcoming Nope, and it’s why here at The A.V. Club we started wondering what is it about certain movie stars that makes a director want to cast them again and again? What’s at the heart of that synergy on either side of a camera? Then we decided to go a little deeper, as we’re wont to do, and come up with our favorite actor-director duos. So here’s the question: Which current actor-director pairing is your favorite and why? For the answers, just read on.

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Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan

Little Women (2019) - I Want to Be Loved Scene (7/10) | Movieclips

Saoirse Ronan is—unsurprisingly, given her talent—an actor who directors keep coming back to. She’s worked multiple times with Wes Anderson and Joe Wright (the latter in her Oscar nominated debut performance in Atonement). But her collaborations with Greta Gerwig (both of which earned her Oscar noms) are a cut above. It’s impossible to imagine Gerwig’s directorial debut Lady Bird with anyone other than Ronan at the center, and though there have been many Jo Marches on screen, Ronan perfectly understood and conveyed Gerwig’s take on the passionate authoress in 2019’s Little Women.

In fact, their director-muse relationship can be summed up with that film’s prominent meme, Ronan’s choked up line delivery of: “I just feel like, women ...” Seriously, though, their collaboration is defined by a fierce tenderness towards girlhood and the particularities of the female coming-of-age story. Gerwig’s protagonists are weird, angry, creative, searching, unfinished young adults who feel real and alive through Ronan’s portrayals. (And a brief shout out to Timothée Chalamet for being Ronan’s perfectly imperfect male foils.) Ronan probably won’t be fitting all that complexity into her rumored cameo in Barbie, but luckily, she and Gerwig have promised to keep collaborating until they’re “old ladies together making movies about old ladies.” [Mary Kate Carr]

3 / 13

Robert Eggers and Willem Dafoe

The Lighthouse Exclusive Movie Clip - Dance, Winslow! (2019) | Movieclips Indie

Who could have predicted that the key to some of the most original, mind-melting cinema of the past five years would be Willem Dafoe farting (or training others to fart)? In two separate movies, no less! Well, apparently Robert Eggers could, which is why he’s the visionary director, and I’m just the lucky fan who gets to watch it all unfold. There’s nothing I love more than a weird movie, and when these two get together, dear God, do things get weird. The Northman was bonkers, and I’m not sure a single performance has rewired my brain quite like Dafoe’s turn as prickly keeper Thomas Wake in The Lighthouse. It’s like his face was tailor-made in a lab just to deliver the line, “Hark, Triton, hark! Bellow, bid our father the sea king rise from the depths full foul in his fury!” No other actor could have made that nonsense so earnest—and so terrifying!—and I’m not sure any other director could have pulled it out of Dafoe. Here’s hoping the pair reunite if Eggers’ long-rumored Nosferatu remake ever happens (preferably with Dafoe’s Lighthouse co-star Robert Pattinson, who knows a thing or two about vampires). [Emma Keates]

4 / 13

Yorgos Lanthimos and Rachel Weisz

The Favourite Clip - Look At Me (2018) Rachel Weisz

The award-winning alchemy between Yorgos Lanthimos and Rachel Weisz was best summed up by the actor herself when she said, “There is a high level of the unknown and mystery in his process, but there is a lot of fun.” That’s the experience of watching The Lobster or The Favourite: squint through the mystery and you’ll see the fun, or at least find yourself cracking up while also feeling utterly unsettled. Why does Weisz deliver her every Lobster line in such an awkward, unshakeable deadpan? Is she truly heartbroken, or is she diabolically manipulative opposite Olivia Colman’s Queen Anne? Does Lanthimos want us to laugh or cry? The Greek director has worked multiple times with Colman, Colin Farrell, and Emma Stone—the latter set to star in Lanthimos’ Poor Things later this year—but it’s the tough, tantalizing Weisz I’d be most eager to see in front of his lens again. [Jack Smart]

5 / 13

Yorgos Lanthimos and Colin Farrell

The Lobster | Excellent Choice | Official Clip HD | A24

Like Jack, I remain utterly fascinated by the way actors transform under Lanthimos’ alien care—none more so than Colin Farrell, who cheerfully obliterates 99 percent of his movie star charisma every time he gets in front of the director’s camera, to shocking and unsettling effect. In films like The Lobster and The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Lanthimos renders melodramatic, ludicrous premises—a government program to turn unmarried people into animals; an insidious curse masquerading as cosmic justice—utterly banal. And Farrell is his perfect mouthpiece for these twisted-but-boring worlds, delivering the most anguished and absurd declarations imaginable in the matter-of-fact tone of a man commenting idly on the weather. Farrell could go big. We know he could go big. But instead, he chooses to be the king of Lanthimos’ kingdom of broken, stilted robots. [William Hughes]

6 / 13

Edgar Wright and Nick Frost

Hot Fuzz (2/10) Movie CLIP - Fence Jumping (2007) HD

Simon Pegg is funny and charming enough to be a movie star in his own right, most notably in those Star Trek movies, but Edgar Wright is especially good at tapping into something special with Pegg’s regular co-star Nick Frost, a lifelong buddy of Pegg and Wright. Shaun Of The Dead doesn’t work without the emotional hook of Frost’s character, both his off-putting personality that hides some inner loneliness and his eventual undeath. And his playful enthusiasm basically accounted for all of the fun of Hot Fuzz, since he was the platonic love interest figure for Simon Pegg’s personality-free protagonist. It’s not that Wright should start making movies with just Frost and not Pegg, but he’s a hell of a fun tool to hold onto. [Sam Barsanti]

7 / 13

Zoya Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar

Farhan Akhtar Stands Up For Priyanka Chopra Jonas | Dil Dhadakne Do | Netflix India

If you’ve just watched Ms. Marvel and want to expand your Farhan Akhtar filmography, consider this your starting guide. The ace Bollywood actor, director, and singer has carved an expansive space for himself in the two decades he’s worked in the industry. And he’s found an excellent teammate in his sister, prolific director Zoya Akhtar. In her capable hands, Farhan reached a peak in only his second film, 2009’s Luck By Chance, which offers a wry, honest look into the Indian film industry. Their next two films together—2011’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and 2015’s Dil Dhadakne Do—deftly balance being entertaining blockbusters with intense, sentimental beats. Most of all, Zoya is able to churn out that same energy from Farhan here, who quickly eclipses his co-stars each time he’s on screen in both those megahits. ZNMD is an especially strong reflection of how the duo works well together. [Saloni Gajjar]

8 / 13

The Coen brothers and Frances McDormand

Burn After Reading | Frances McDormand reinvents herself as Linda Litzke

There’s a lot to be said about the Coen brothers’ work with plenty of stars, but for me cinema doesn’t really get better than when the siblings team up with Frances McDormand. The quality, quantity, and variety of films they’ve made together is absolutely staggering. Blood Simple is an absolute banger and McDormand straight up steals the show in Raising Arizona. Then, of course, there’s her Oscar-winning work in Fargo, one of the best black comedies of all time. Her performance in Burn After Reading is both endearing and absolutely hilarious. No matter how big or small the role, McDormand always seems to fit right into a Coen brothers’ film. [Peter Scobel]

9 / 13

The Coen brothers and George Clooney

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (7/10) Movie Clip - Big Dan Teague (2000) HD

The Coens have so many wonderful collaborators—John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, and, of course, the aforementioned Frances McDormand. But with George Clooney—a modern Cary Grant if there ever was one—their specific take on his star persona weaponizes Clooney’s natural charisma against him. Clooney has always excelled at playing hucksters willing to do anything to score. The Coens dared to ask, “Yeah, but what if he really sucked at it?” O Brother Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty mine his undeserved confidence for updates of Hollywood genres, placing Clooney at the center of a cartoonish world that he wrongly thinks he has a handle on. Burn After Reading and Hail, Caesar cemented their collaboration for turning complete idiocy into high-art, delivering two slam dunk nominees for the moron hall of fame. The Coens created the perfect Clooney character: A seemingly successful man with a winning smile, a rich dulcet voice, and absolutely nothing behind the eyes, a Bugs Bunny with the brain of Daffy Duck. [Matt Schimkowitz]

10 / 13

Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell

Evil Dead II laughter scene

If you had to think of one dynamic director/actor duo in the horror genre, Sam Raimi and Bruce “The Chin” Campbell are likely to spring to mind faster than an eyeball popping from a Deadite’s socket. With a resumé that includes “The Ultimate Experience in Grueling Horror” known as The Evil Dead, followed by its cult-classic sequels Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness, no other pair is more delightfully demented than these childhood Super-8 filmmaking besties turned Hollywood icons. They’re like the peanut butter and jelly of horror, and they deliver nothing but gooey goodness—and by gooey, we mean gallons of blood and viscera, all at the expense of Campbell, of course. Their mutual love of things like The Three Stooges and physical humor lead to a comedy-horror genre they helped define best known as “splatstick.”

Even when they aren’t directly working together, such as on the Raimi created and produced Ash Vs Evil Dead (he only directed the pilot), the director goes out of his way to come up with over-the-top gore scenes that will make Campbell’s on-set life a gut-drenched hell—gleefully torturing the actor from afar. He once told Entertainment Weekly, “I find it to be a very healthy, productive, one-with-the universe-type thing to torment Bruce, and people love to watch his tormentation.” While Campbell hasn’t been Raimi’s leading man in recent years, the director still finds ways to bring his old pal in for the occasional cameo. Even when it’s just a 45-second scene, such as Campbell’s recent cameo as Pizza Poppa in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, Raimi somehow finds an excuse to have Campbell beat the crap out of himself and get doused with mustard ... and we love him for it. [Gil Macias]

11 / 13

Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart

Personal Shopper Movie Clip #1

Ten years ago, you would be hard-pressed to imagine the surly heroine of the biggest teen franchise of the 2010s and the French director behind Demonlover as one of film’s most formidable duos. But Kristen Stewart and Olivier Assayas continually hit a frequency in their joint projects that can only be described as heavenly. (Stewart was even intended to star in Assayas’ recent Irma Vep remake—the role went to Alicia Vikander when Stewart encountered a scheduling conflict.)

Assayas and Stewart first came together in Clouds Of Sils Maria, Assayas’ 2014 semi-autobiographical drama. Stewart plays a high-strung assistant named Valentine (and a likely Assayas surrogate) who has a sensually charged relationship with her actor boss Maria (Juliette Binoche). Stewart plays Valentine with exhausting stiffness, capturing the aching tension of Assayas’ protagonist in a rare and quietly affecting fashion. After receiving critical acclaim for her performance, Stewart again embodied a hard-shelled assistant plagued by internal fragility in Personal Shopper. In the 2016 Assayas film, Stewart stars as Maureen, a stylist/medium desperately trying to communicate with her late brother’s ghost. Whatever spiritual turmoil is gnawing at an Assayas character, Stewart’s mastery of physical expression (and the director’s taste for lingering tracking shots) ensure it consumes the viewer as well. [Hattie Lindert]

12 / 13

Quentin Tarantino and Leonardo DiCaprio

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood - Special Features Clip: Hullabaloo

As a career defibrillator for performers whose creative prospects have foundered, it’s exciting to see Quentin Tarantino team up with virtually anyone. He has assembled a Mount Rushmore of megastar collaborators over the years, from Harvey Keitel to Uma Thurman to Samuel L. Jackson to Christoph Waltz to Brad Pitt. Pitt won an Oscar under Tarantino’s watch, while Waltz snagged two statuettes. But Tarantino and Leonardo DiCaprio share a bond that transcends, that makes you desperate to see their next collaboration. In Django Unchained, DiCaprio was so committed to playing a loathsome, self-important, and racist plantation owner that he once slashed open his hand while filming and still finished the scene (making the scene that much more terrifying). And in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, DiCaprio displays utter vulnerability as an actor facing obsolescence in an industry on the precipice of tremendous change. Of course, Tarantino alone would be a draw for any project he’s involved with. But with DiCaprio in the driver’s seat—or even just as a passenger while Pitt drives—that’s a picture you simply have to see on Day One. [Todd Gilchrist]

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