The classically trained Sir David Mark Rylance Waters, better known simply as Mark Rylance is unquestionably one of the best British actors currently operating in the film industry. Having trained at London’s renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he turned his hand from theatrical shows to the big screen after his breakthrough performance in John Healy’s low-budget, The Grass Arena. The Other Boleyn Girl actor slowly but surely began to gain traction and notice from Hollywood casters, and soon he began to collaborate with some of the most highly-regarded filmmakers in the sector, specifically Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, and most recently, Luca Guadagnino. Rylance stars in the latter’s film, Bones and All, which received its theatrical release just last week, Nov. 23.
With new movies Inland and Way of the Wind now in post-production and poised for release on a 2023 date yet to be confirmed (at the time of writing), Mark Rylance is a man in high demand, especially as a character actor, so let’s take a look at his best performances in a supporting capacity…
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6 The Trial of the Chicago 7
Netflix
Aaron Sorkin followed up his 2017 directorial debut with 2020’s The Trial of the Chicago 7. The star-studded film is based on the real 1969 trial which saw seven people charged with conspiracy by the US government, following anti-Vietnam war protests in Chicago. Mark Rylance stars as William Kunstler, a defense attorney who represents all but one of the seven defendants.
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5 Ready Player One
Warner Bros.
Following his critical success under Steven Spielberg’s directorship, Rylance teamed up with the veteran director again for his 2018 sci-fi action movie, Ready Player One. Adapted from novelist Ernest Cline’s 2011 book of the same name, the film explores the world of virtual reality and 2045’s dystopian society, as Wade Watts goes on the hunt for an Easter Egg in a virtual reality game, which would consequently lead Wade to inherit a substantial fortune. Mark Rylance features as tech-tycoon and OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) creator, James Halliday.
4 Dunkirk
Dunkirk was one of the best movies of 2017, and that was in no small part down to director Christopher Nolan and cinematographer Roger Deakins’ eagle-eyed filmmaking camaraderie. The film details the iconic rescue mission, the biggest of its kind both in scale and in sheer importance in determining the outcome of World War 2. In a race against an impending Nazi barrage, the UK, and its allies must evacuate half a million troops from the Normandy beaches of Dunkirk.
The war epic depicts a three-dimensional scene; birds-eye view (Fighter Jets), Lands-eye-view, and Sea-eye-view (Boats), with the latter where Mark Rylance’s Mr. Dawson comes into play, as he fearlessly guides his humble fishing ship toward enemy territory in order to pick up stranded British and allied troops.
3 Don’t Look Up
As Donald Trump is reintroduced to Twitter, cue the vast influx of climate change-denying bots that, despite consolidated scientific evidence that mankind is, indeed, destroying the planet, continue to believe their own, deluded narrative. Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up presents us with a satirical spin on the utter absurdity of the aforementioned, through the medium of three scientists who raise the alarm that the world is in imminent danger from an asteroid heading right into a collision with Earth.
However, regardless of their determined protestations, the scientists in Don’t Look Up face an arduous task in getting the government, and the public to actually sit up and take immediate action. Rylance is Peter Isherwell, a crazed Elon Musk-type tech CEO, whose outlandish character is concealing something typically self-indulgently sinister. It’s a wonderfully weird performance.
2 Bones and All
MGM
From critically acclaimed director, Luca Guadagnino comes his latest release, Bones and All. After the fruits that 2017’s Call Me by Your Name brought the Italian, his subsequent movie, Suspiria was somewhat of a misfire. Looking to bounce back in emphatic fashion, Bones and All is a startling coming-of-age horror, that has cannibalism at its very heart.
Guadagnino reunites with previous collaborator, Timothée Chalamet, who assumes the role of Lee alongside Taylor Russell as Maren. Mark Rylance is sensational as the petrifying Sully, a fellow cannibal, who is seemingly out to get them.
1 Bridge of Spies
DreamWorks Pictures
In Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, Mark Rylance claimed his first and only Academy Award to date, scooping the prize for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his take on Rudolf Abel, an accused KGB spy during the Cold War. Starring Tom Hanks in the lead role, Bridge of Spies is a true story of lawyer, James B. Donovan (Hanks) who represents an alleged Soviet spy before being tasked with instigating an exchange with the Russians.
Rylance as the bespectacled Rudolf Abel is of a gentle, unassuming nature, with his high-pitched voice and unthreatening demeanor is a peculiar antagonist, if you can even call him that… with the audience positioned on the American side of the negotiating table, Rylance’s portrayal garners both sympathy and respect, despite his ties with the soviets.
