A BELOVED CHARACTER ACTOR
JESSE
PLEMONS
By Lee Parham
The Power of the Dog star Jesse Plemons has worked in major Hollywood productions for over two decades but isn't a household name. Let's take a look back on the career of the character actor.
Before his breakout role in Friday Night Lights, Jesse Plemons was born in Texas in 1988. He starred in a Coca-Cola ad at age 3, and by 8 years old he was doing regular extra work for television.
The young performer then bounced around TV shows in small parts, including roles in Walker, Texas Ranger, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, NCIS, and Grey's Anatomy.
In the meantime, Plemons found work in film as well, primarily typecast in supporting roles. Highlights included sports movies like Varsity Blues and Like Mike.
Sports stories continued to be a significant outlet for Plemons. The actor found himself in another epic Texas tale in Friday Night Lights as Landry Clarke, a nerdy teenager turned football player.
His television career only skyrocketed from there. First, Plemons was cast as the infamous Todd Alquist in Breaking Bad, which he reprised in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
Jesse was also one of the leads in the second season of the anthology series Fargo. His TV wife was played by Kirsten Dunst, and the pair eventually got engaged in real life.
Plemons was also a standout in another anthology series; this time Black Mirror. He starred in the episode "USS Callister," a spin on Star Trek with some extremely dark twists.
Meanwhile, Plemons assembled an impressive catalog of performances on film, and eventually re-teamed with Friday Night Lights creator Peter Berg for board game adaptation Battleship.
Plemons continued to get jobs with acclaimed directors, including working with Steven Spielberg twice. First, in the cold war thriller Bridge of Spies, and then in 1970s-set press story The Post.
He additionally was part of the ensemble cast of both Paul Thomas Anderson's psychological drama The Master, and Martin Scorsese's decade-sprawling epic crime drama The Irishman.
The actor has bridged over into other genres beyond just drama. He's made an impact in comedy, featuring in the alien film Paul, Adam Mckay's political flick Vice, and Game Night.
Plemons’ most recent genre of choice has been horror, with roles in Charlie Kaufman's mind-bending I'm Thinking of Ending Things and the supernatural film Antlers.
2021 has been a big year for Plemons, with supporting roles in the Best Picture-nominated Judas and the Black Messiah, Jungle Cruise, and finally in Netflix’s The Power of the Dog.
While Jesse Plemons might not be a household name, he's established himself as one of the industry's most prolific character actors with no signs of slowing down.