Mark Ivanir

In Emilia Pérez (2024), Mark Ivanir’s surgeon, Wasserman, asks whether changing the body changes the soul. Jacques Audiard’s film never returns to the question, treating transition chiefly as a way of moving the plot along. We were uncomfortable with how readily it asked that question and then abandoned it. It is frustrating to see a supporting actor given something consequential to say when the script has no further use for it.

The international breakthrough was Schindler's List (1993), in which he played Marcel Goldberg for Steven Spielberg. We find Spielberg’s drama harrowing and humane, despite the stretches that press too hard for tears, and Ivanir is part of the ensemble that gives it force. Spielberg cast him again as the cab driver Goran in The Terminal (2004). Work with Robert De Niro on The Good Shepherd (2006) brought further attention, but supporting and guest parts continued to define much of his screen career.

The familiar assignments are Russian or Eastern European characters, intelligence men and people whose motives are doubtful. Those parts have kept him working, but they also encourage us to notice the accent before the actor. His clowning and stage experience feed into his physical acting, and we value his interest in finding humanity in tough characters. Larger parts would give us more time to see what he can do with that preparation.

A Late Quartet (2012) is the obvious place to look beyond the smaller assignments: Daniel Lerner is one of his largest screen roles. That matters in a career so often sustained by Russian or Eastern European casting. We would like more opportunities to see what he does when an accent is not the first thing the part requires. Start there if Emilia Pérez has left you wondering what else its surgeon might have been allowed to do.