Acting Up: Michael Stuhlbarg

Welcome to ACTING UP, the place where we celebrate standout performances in TV, streaming and film. Other than spotlighting exceptional work from recent projects, this feature also shines a light on how certain actors got where they are today. Have a peek and then check out these notable performances to help hone your craft.

The Snapshot:

Michael Stuhlbarg plays the head of a vicious crime family hellbent on revenge after his son is accidentally killed in a hit-and-run in the Showtime drama Your Honor. (The 10-episode limited series premiered on December 6th and is available on Showtime On Demand.)

The Performer:

Michael Stuhlbarg

The Series:

Your Honor

The Performance: 

In a nutshell, Your Honor is a show about what fathers will do for their sons. The lengths they’ll go to — and I do mean lengths — to protect or honor the flesh and blood they love most.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your POV, that amounts to some rather grim things and more than a few cringeworthy moments in Showtime’s drama Your Honor.

It starts in episode one, which opens with a resounding WTF. In the show’s first hour, the world of status quo is shattered for two men. One is Judge Michael Desiato (Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston), whose asthmatic son accidentally incites a head-on collision mid-panic attack, hitting Rocco Baxter on a motorcycle before leaving him to die on the side of the road.

The other is Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg), the patriarchal head of a New Orleans crime family and father of the deceased teenager — who, by the way, just happened to be riding the motorcycle dad gave him as an early birthday gift moments before meeting his demise.

That’s when we watch Jimmy go from proud papa to predictably destroyed in ten pilot minutes flat. It’s not long after this when Jimmy’s grief morphs into something a little more rage-like — as he becomes dead set on exacting revenge on said murderer of his son in a few grueling episodes.

Luckily, Jimmy Baxter’s character is safely in the hands of accomplished — yet tragically underrated — actor Stuhlbarg. Thanks to a blessed combination of great writing (from Peter Moffat) and a super-gifted cast, Stuhlbarg soars as Baxter. He plays him as anything but stereotypical, juggling the unimaginable pain of losing a child with an alpha wife (Hope Davis) who starts calculating moves on behalf of the family. Much to Jimmy’s chagrin. At first.

It’s through this loss of control in the face of devastation where Stuhlbarg owns this character, oscillating between grief-stricken father and cold-blooded criminal. Watching Stuhlbarg play out Baxter’s volatility is a lesson in acting. His placid stares into darkness deserve applause on their own, balanced out by tantrums that involve him taking a golf club to a birdcage in a fit of rage.

With the bird inside.

As I said, it’s complicated.

Still, this is how we know Stuhlbarg is a master at his craft. Even as his world unravels, and as he becomes intertwined with the “honorable” Judge Desiato, it’s hard not to feel empathy for him. Despite horrific crimes Baxter has clearly committed, like Cranston’s Walter White in Breaking Bad, Jimmy Baxter is sympathetic, a bad guy who must use his power to affect all sorts of no good. It all makes for an entertaining show, if not a study in human sacrifice. As the series goes on, show creator Moffat clearly knows how to give two of the more gifted actors on the planet in Cranston and Stuhlbarg more than a few scenes together to sink their teeth into.

That alone is worth the price of admission.

The Career:

The 52-year-old Stuhlbarg has one of those faces you know, but maybe can’t place at first. But once you realize what you know him from, you’re like — oh yeah, that guy is really good.

The Long Beach-born Stuhlbarg started his career on stage in the early ’90s with roles on and off-Broadway, after attending UCLA undergrad where he was awarded a scholarship to study legendary French actor and mime Marcel Marceau. After that, it was off to the Juilliard School in New York City. His time in theater was prolific; he starred in plays such as Cabaret, Hamlet and The Pillowman, which also garnered him a Tony Award nomination in 2005. 

Then Hollywood came calling when he landed the lead in the Coen Brothers film A Serious Man (2009). In it, Stuhlbarg played tortured college professor Larry Gopnik, which showed us rather adeptly what a midlife crisis looks like on film. For the role, Stuhlbarg was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical.

That’s when Stuhlbarg’s career took a turn, landing him many notable roles in Lincoln (2012), Hitchcock (2012), Steve Jobs (2015) and Trumbo (2015), where he played Edward G. Robinson to Cranston’s Trumbo in the story about The Hollywood Ten. Not only did Stuhlbarg reunite with Cranston in Your Honor, but also with Amy Landecker who played Stuhlbarg’s insanely tan neighborly fling in A Serious Man.

If you’re saying, no, I still can’t place where I know him from… it’s probably Boardwalk Empire, where Stuhlbarg played cold-blooded gangster Arnold Rothstein from 2010-2013.

Now, given he’s played another iconic “bad guy” in Baxter, you can call him by his name. Incidentally, another one of Stuhlbarg’s great performances to date alongside Timothée Chalamet in 2017 — a year Stuhlbarg starred in three Oscar-nominated films for Best Picture including The Post, Call Me by Your Name and The Shape of Water, which went on to win.

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