Garret Dillahunt is known to many mainstream audiences for his work on the sitcom Raising Hope, Terminator: The Sarah Conor Chronicles and HBO’s Deadwood (still need to see it!), but for us movie fans he has been a character actor for many years popping up in a number of great films.
He is one of many familiar faces to pop up in 12 Years a Slave this fall and like always he makes an impact no matter what kind of screen time he is given. He gets no more than a few minutes of screen time, but is a pivotal role in Solomon’s journey at a crucial moment in his slave life. Lesser actors wouldn’t be able to create such a fully realized character in such a short amount of time, subtle depth needed to make Solomon and Epps’ incredible night conversation so affective.
12 Years a Slave is just Dillahunt’s latest role in a great movie as he seems to pop up in some of every year’s best. Last year he had a brief turn in the great Looper and was the centerpiece of the film’s most gruesome moment. In 2010 he was a vital part of Winter’s Bone and setting that story into motion. 2009 he was part of the very underrated The Road, playing a nameless character in what ended up being one of the most tense scenes in the film. 2007 he found himself in No Country for Old Men, widely considered by many to be the best film of the year, and also was one of the main supporting players in the actual best film of 2007, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Jesse James was the first time I remembered seeing him on the big screen, but he has a face you can’t forget and I get excited every time I see it pop up on the big screen. Turning 49 today, Dillahunt has found his way to success later in life, but I think I speak for all movie fans in saying that we hope he has a long career as a character actor in front of him. Thankfully, some of the world’s best directors seem to agree.
