Lou Taylor Pucci

Pucci's entry into film came via Rebecca Miller's *Personal Velocity: Three Portraits* in 2002 (TMDB) — a small role, but a real one, in a well-regarded independent production. It's the kind of credit that doesn't make headlines but tells you something about where an actor's instincts are pointed from the start. The breakthrough was *Thumbsucker* (2005). Directed by Mike Mills and premiering at Sundance, the film gave Pucci a lead role that required him to carry nearly every scene — playing a teenager who can't quite fit into his own skin, let alone the world around him. The performance won him a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival (Wikipedia). That's not a minor distinction. The Silver Bear puts him in company with some of the most respected actors working in world cinema. He was nineteen or twenty when he shot it. The thing nobody mentions is how rare it is for an American actor that young to win at Berlin — it's a festival that doesn't hand those out lightly. The years that followed were a sustained run of independent and ensemble films: *The Chumscrubber* (2005), Richard Linklater's *Fast Food Nation* (2006), *The Go-Getter* (2007), *Explicit Ills* (2008), and *Carriers* (2009), the latter a post-apocalyptic thriller that gave him a slightly wider audience. None of these were blockbusters. All of them were interesting choices. By 2013, he'd moved into genre territory with a prominent role in the *Evil Dead* remake — a film that earned strong reviews for its practical effects and committed performances — alongside *The Story of Luke* (2013) and the Italian-set genre hybrid *Spring* (2014). A career built on craft over profile. That's the short version.