Ben Whishaw

In Passages (2023), Ben Whishaw's Martin listens while his husband tells him about a night spent with someone else. Martin's tired face suggests he has heard this sort of thing before. We laughed at the husband's nerve, then stopped as Ira Sachs held on Whishaw's face. He plays the exhaustion first, which gives the anger force when it comes. Sachs gives him enough time for that small reaction to change how we feel about the scene.

Early roles included Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) and John Keats in Jane Campion's Bright Star (2009). His slight frame and gentle voice made vulnerable young men a natural casting choice. Skyfall (2012) gave those expecting more anguish a useful correction: his Q makes intelligence brisk and practical. Sam Mendes gets welcome impatience from him in a film whose other principal characters already have plenty to brood over.

In Sarah Polley's Women Talking (2022), the same restraint serves a different purpose. His schoolteacher August takes the minutes at the edge of the women's discussion, trying to occupy as little space as possible. Whishaw makes that physical reticence clear without making the scene about his own sensitivity. We recommend the film for the women, but his willingness to stay out of their way matters.

Voicing the bear in Paddington (2014) gave his softness a use beyond distress. He can convey kindness without making the character weak, and make a familiar thought sound newly discovered. Paddington in Peru (2024) relies too heavily on that second gift, returning to its stated lesson about home until the feeling wears off. We were touched the first time; repetition did what Whishaw could not undo.

He has played troubled men often enough for the hurt to feel expected before a scene has begun. We prefer the parts that give him something to resist. Start with Passages, allowing for Sachs's frustrating preference for the man causing the trouble over the people living with it.