10 Actors Whose Highest Movie On Rotten Tomatoes Isn't What You'd Expect

Summary

Rotten Tomatoes can rank an actor’s best movie strangely due to the way it aggregates reviews.
Michelle Yeoh’s 1985 “Yes, Madam” & Jeff Goldblum’s “Annie Hall” are two examples.
Lesser-known films like Tilda Swinton’s “Edward II” can gain 100% scores, even if many people haven’t heard of them.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating system occasionally produces some strange results, meaning that an actor’s highest-rated movie isn’t one that audiences typically associate with them. This has a lot to do with the way that Rotten Tomatoes aggregates reviews to come up with its scores. Lesser-known movies can score 100% if they have unanimously positive reviews, while more popular movies which naturally generate more reviews can fall down the rankings if one or two critics dislike them.

The other main reason why Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t always accurately reflect an actor’s best movie is that it doesn’t take into account the size of an actor’s role. A momentary cameo in a highly-rated movie can eclipse an award-winning performance in a movie with a 99% rating. Rotten Tomatoes delivers some strange results sometimes, proving that scoring movies with a single number has its problems.

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10 Michelle Yeoh

Yes, Madam (1985)

Michelle Yeoh has recently been enjoying a career resurgence in Hollywood blockbusters, but she has been making great movies for decades. She first made a name for herself in Hong Kong action movies, and Yes, Madam gave Yeoh her first starring role. Almost 40 years later, it remains her only movie on Rotten Tomatoes with a perfect 100% score, although this is also because it has so few reviews.

Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar-winning performance in
Everything Everywhere All At Once
produced one of her best movies.

Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar-winning performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once produced one of her best movies. She’s also well known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and some other martial arts films. Some of her other movies with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes include the Jackie Chan thriller Supercop and Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but despite having so many massive hits, none have surpassed Yes, Madam on Rotten Tomatoes.

9 Tilda Swinton

Edward II (1991)

Tilda Swinton is one of the most interesting and talented character actors working in Hollywood. Her classical training allows her to approach even the strangest characters and find what makes them human. This has given her the qualities needed to excel in sci-fi and fantasy movies, but she has also played many more traditional roles to great acclaim, such as in the Christopher Marlowe adaptation Edward II.

Swinton still appears in independent movies, but she has long since left behind such low-budget dramas.

In Edward II, Swinton plays the wife of the English king as he engages in a gay affair with a nobleman. Swinton still appears in independent movies, but she has long since left behind such low-budget dramas. Tilda Swinton’s best movies include big-budget sci-fi thrillers such as Snowpiercer and Doctor Strange. None of these movies, nor her comedy work or intense dramas, have matched Edward II’s 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.

8 Sean Connery

Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)

Sean Connery shot to fame when he started the James Bond franchise off in style. He became synonymous with Ian Fleming’s secret agent, starring in some of the franchise’s best movies, such as From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. However, his only movie with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes is the little-known 1959 Disney fantasy movie Darby O’Gill and the Little People.

Even without the
James Bond
movies, Connery has plenty of other contenders which could easily be his highest-rated movie instead of
Darby O’Gill and the Little People
.

Darby O’Gill and the Little People is a story about leprechauns and wishes that doesn’t have the general appeal of many of Sean Connery’s best movies. Even without the James Bond movies, Connery has plenty of other contenders which could easily be his highest-rated movie instead of Darby O’Gill and the Little People. He found a new wave of success in later years in dramas such as The Untouchables and The Rock.

7 Matthew McConaughey

Kubo and the Two Strings (2018)

After establishing himself as a romcom leading man, Matthew McConaughey reinvented himself and turned to more prestigious dramatic roles. His Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club came around the same time that he starred in Interstellar and Mud, and he also produced an unforgettable cameo in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street as an obnoxious broker.

McConaughey’s Oscar-winning performance in
Dallas Buyers Club
came around the same time that he starred in
Interstellar
and
Mud.

Despite this impressive string of critical and commercial successes, Matthew McConaughey’s top-ranked movie on Rotten Tomatoes came a couple of years later when he starred in Kubo and the Two Strings. People may not identify McConaughey with this movie for a couple of reasons. The first is that it’s only a voice acting performance, and the second is that Kubo and the Two Strings was a box office failure, so it never reached the audience it deserved.

6 Jeff Goldblum

Annie Hall (1977)

Jeff Goldblum’s highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is a surprise because it’s easy to forget that he was ever in it. Goldblum has a small part in Woody Allen’s comedy movie Annie Hall. Although he is only in the movie for a brief moment, he helps himself to one of the best quotes, as he tells his therapist over the phone “I forgot my mantra.” This also captures Annie Hall‘s social commentary on phony enlightenment techniques.

Jeff Goldblum has an impressive number of movies with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, most of which give him bigger roles than
Annie Hall.

Jeff Goldblum has an impressive number of movies with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, most of which give him bigger roles than Annie Hall. He also shows a wide range of genres in his best movies, from the sci-fi horror of The Fly to the animated comedy of Isle of Dogs. However, nothing he has done since 1977 has managed to eclipse the 97% rating of Annie Hall, which was one of his very first movie roles.

5 Margot Robbie

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Margot Robbie was one of the few positives in 2016’s Suicide Squad, so she returned for James Gunn’s sequel even when the rest of the cast consisted of new faces. The Suicide Squad boasts a Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%, which is a remarkable improvement on Suicide Squad‘s 26% score. Still, it’s a little surprising that this is ranked as her best movie according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Margot Robbie has some exciting upcoming movies. It’s possible that
The Suicide Squad
won’t be her highest-rated movie for much longer.

Robbie’s breakthrough performance in The Wolf of Wall Street established her star power from early. Critically-acclaimed performances in I, Tonya and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood soon followed. After the billion-dollar success of Barbie, Margot Robbie has some exciting upcoming movies. It’s possible that The Suicide Squad won’t be her highest-rated movie for much longer.

4 Uma Thurman

Hollywood Stargirl (2022)

Uma Thurman delivered one of the best performances in a Quentin Tarantino movie when she starred as Mia Wallace in 1994’s Pulp Fiction. She pulled the same trick again in 2003 as the main character in Kill Bill. It would be natural to assume that one of these movies would be her highest-rated on Rotten Tomatoes, but that particular honor goes to Hollywood Stargirl instead.

It would be natural to assume that one of Thurman’s collaborations with Tarantino would be her highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes.

Even discounting her collaborations with Tarantino, Thurman has a few other big hits that would be much less surprising to see ranked as her best movie. Dangerous Liaisons, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Gattaca all managed to win over critics, but none more so than Hollywood Stargirl, a teen romcom in which Thurman has a supporting role as a musician and producer.

3 Gary Oldman

Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

English actor Gary Oldman has had supporting roles in dozens of critically acclaimed movies. He recently popped up as President Harry Truman in Oppenheimer, but he has also delivered memorable performances in the Dark Knight franchise, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Léon: The Professional, and countless other movies. He has been nominated for Best Actor three times, but of all his movies, it’s the final entry in the Harry Potter franchise which is ranked the highest on Rotten Tomatoes.

Oldman has been nominated for Best Actor three times, but of all his movies, it’s the final entry in the
Harry Potter
franchise which is ranked the highest on Rotten Tomatoes.

Gary Oldman is characteristically superb as Sirius Black, Harry Potter’s godfather, but he doesn’t have the biggest role in The Deathly Hallows: Part 2. He is at his best in the third movie, The Prisoner of Azkaban. If any Harry Potter movie should be rated as Oldman’s best, it should be this one. Critical consensus claims that The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the best Harry Potter movie, although fans of the franchise will all have their own favorites.

2 Sigourney Weaver

Dave (1995)

Sigourney Weaver is a sci-fi icon, thanks to her role as Ellen Ripley in the Alien franchise and her part in Ghostbusters. However, her highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is the 1993 political comedy Dave, in which she plays the First Lady of the United States when her husband is substituted for a lookalike. Dave is a charming comedy with a sweet romantic element, but it’s far from the first movie anyone would associate with Weaver.

Dave
‘s 72% Audience Score shows that it isn’t close to being as popular with fans as
Aliens, Ghostbusters
or even
Galaxy Quest.

Sigourney Weaver has been nominated for three Oscar, for Aliens, Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl. Any one of these movies might be more appropriate as her highest-rated movie. Weaver is a rare star whose most commercially popular movies are also her most critically lauded. Dave‘s 72% Audience Score shows that it isn’t close to being as popular with fans as Aliens, Ghostbusters or even Galaxy Quest.

1 Anthony Hopkins

The Dresser (2015)

If Anthony Hopkins must be associated with one role, it would surely be that of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins created one of the most intriguing and disturbing villains in the history of cinema in the 1995 psychological drama, and it won him an Academy Award. Despite the lasting influence and popularity of The Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins’ highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is currently 2015’s The Dresser.

His Merchant-Ivory dramas, his award-winning turn in
The Father
and his part in David Lynch’s
The Elephant Man
would all seem more likely contenders for his highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Dresser is a TV movie which stars Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen as a Shakespearean actor and his dresser during the Second World War. It’s a showcase for the talents of two fine British actors, but it is far from Hopkins’ most popular movie. His Merchant-Ivory dramas, his award-winning turn in The Father and his part in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man would all seem more likely contenders for his highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes.

10 Actors Whose Highest Movie On Rotten Tomatoes Isn’t What You’d Expect