Josh O'Connor: The New King of the Hollywood Screen
- Jacob Hollingsworth Network Corporation
- Dec 22, 2025
- 3 min read
Introducing the new king, Josh O'Connor. This is not an "all of a sudden" revelation. Josh has been dominating the film world for nearly 10 years with mega roles and performances. It's pretty cool to see Josh put on untouchable performances throughout the last 10 years and to finally brace the eyes of commercial audiences with the same energy and tenacity. So let's get into his masterful performance in the new Rian Johnson sequel, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
With the aging of some of Hollywood's elites such as some of my personal favorite male actors in Leonardo DiCaprio & Denzel Washington, this has opened the door for the next generation of phenomenal talents such as Josh O'Connor to take his stand as the new elite. But, Josh is not an American born actor. Yet he's found his way into hearts of Americans with masterful performances in The Crown and Challengers. With his latest Rian Johnson casting, Josh O'Connor has officially and instantly become a new household name. So why is this?
Josh O'Connor was probably the pivotal cornerstone to the reason behind another successful Knives Out Sequel. To say, "Josh O'Connor carried..." wouldn't be a stretch. In every scene of this film, he was the foundation to emotional connection and reality. The Knives Out series is known for having a whimsical aura that let's you know you're watching a movie that feels like a theater production rather than a blockbuster film. In this performance, Josh balanced realism of a dramatized actor with the satirical variants of Knives Out. This allowed him to show a strength in his game we've seen from him in EMMA (2020). But we've never really seen him blend these 2 styles together in one movie. This was his performance in 'Wake Up Dead Man'. To be completely honest, he displayed quite clearly why he's a Top 5 Actor in the world. In my eyes, at this point, he's #1.
The Inheritance of the Stanislavski, Josh O'Connor
With all due respect to our greats, as mentioned above, there comes a time where the crown (no pun intended) must be transferred to a rightful inheritance. There was suspicion before, but with him finally providing a magical essence to a major commercial franchise, that may have been the final puzzle piece to the crowning of a new king. The only case against Josh's new title as king was that he didn't have enough eyes on him to be considered the best as you have to probably have a greater appeal to the masses to be considered. As a basketball fan, it's kind of like having to play 65 games in an NBA season to be considered for major awards. This applies here.
O'Connor seems to be using Stanislavski's style, and he appears to have a deep understanding of the fundamentals of the style. This can generally be determined by his ability to rebuttal emotion of other actors he's in scenes with by seemingly remembering feelings and intentions of the character he is portraying with great intent and determination within seconds of naturalism. To sum it up, his co-stars seemed to be acting, while he was "embodying".
You can watch Josh O'Connor's performance in 'Wake Up Dead Man' on Netflix with a subscription.
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