5 Best Movies & TV Shows Starring Stephen Graham to Watch After Adolescence
A heartbreaking drama about the traumas of the past, a Martin Scorsese's masterpiece, and the main mob series of the 2010s.
Over the past few decades, Stephen Graham has found the strength and talent to showcase different facets of his acting abilities – and still surprises everyone every time.
That's what happened with the new series Adolescence: watching Graham in the role of a devastated father, many were once again amazed at how deep and complex an actor he is.
We recalled the actor's other outstanding roles on the big and small screen.
1. Boardwalk Empire, 2010-2014
In Boardwalk Empire, Graham appears as a young Al Capone – and not as a clichéd mobster, but as a real person. He doesn't try to look like a photograph of a man with a cigar, but is revealed as an ambitious man with complexes and worries about his sick mother.
The viewer does not see Capone at the top of the criminal Olympus. He's not a gangster, he's a kid trying to become a man and choosing the most destructive and bloody way to do it.
2. Time, 2021-2023
Stephen Graham's character, Eric McNally, a security guard with 20 years of experience, is the kind of guy who always lives by the rules – strict but fair. Everything would be fine except that his son ended up behind bars and is now serving time.
And the local crime boss offered McNally a deal: Either you turn a blind eye to certain things, or your son will be in trouble. The story is built on seemingly insignificant details, each of which adds color to the picture Graham creates.
3. The North Water, 2021
The ship Brownlee captains is falling apart at the seams, both literally and figuratively. The story takes place in 1859 as the whaling ship Volunteer heads to the Arctic in a last-ditch effort to make a buck in a declining whaling industry.
At first, the story seems like an extravagant adventure on ice floes, but it soon becomes clear that this is not an expedition, but a scam – the ship must sink so that its owner can collect on the insurance.
4. The Virtues, 2019
The Virtues is one of the highlights of Graham's acting career. In this miniseries he plays Joseph, a man on the edge, a lost alcoholic with a ruined life who goes to the Irish countryside to deal with the ghosts of his past.
It's clear from the start that this is not a character who can be redeemed. This is not a story of rehabilitation, but a slow descent into darkness, with the occasional flicker of light.
5. The Irishman, 2019
When Martin Scorsese invites you to act in his movies, only the crazies turn him down. So Stephen Graham found himself next to giants: Al Pacino, De Niro, and Pesci.
The actor carefully watched how Pacino worked on a scene, how De Niro used silence to build a character, how Pesci refused to shout and played a dark, silent force – and learned. Graham got the role of Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano – a temperamental, explosive, slightly comical and quite dangerous mobster.