Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in the Knives Out franchise, was just released this weekend, and if you’re like me, then you’re probably on a Josh O’Connor high and itching to watch his other movies.
In the latest whodunnit, O’Connor plays Father Jud Duplenticy, a boxer-turned-priest whose turn to faith was driven by an immense guilt, which then inspires him to free the local parishioners from the grasp of the tyrannical but charismatic Monsignor Jefferson Wicks.
The English actor, known for his Golden Globe-winning performance as Prince Charles in Netflix’s The Crown, also appeared in the latest Saturday Night Live (SNL) episode, where he quipped about looking like characters from animated movies such as Flushed Away and Ratatouille during his monologue.
Beyond his lookalikes, however, O’Connor knows how to completely disappear into a character, and his portrayal of Father Jud in Wake Up Dead Man is only one of his many other great performances. In 2026, we’re set to see him in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi film, Disclosure Day, starring alongside Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, and Eve Hewson. Also in the works is Joel Coen’s Jack of Spades, which stars O’Connor, Frances McDormand, Lesley Manville, and Damian Lewis.
As we wait to see Josh on the silver screen again, here are five other movies you should watch if you want to bask in his brilliance, or if you just want to look at him.
‘Emma’
This is not the first time O’Connor has played a priest. In Autumn de Wilde’s candy-colored adaptation of Emma, O’Connor takes on the role of Mr. Elton, the vicar of Highbury, and the failed matchmaking project of the titular character, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. In the 2020 film, O’Connor’s Mr. Elton is charming, ambitious, and hilariously sycophantic. Totally not the soft boy that O’Connor is.
‘Challengers’
Good news for those who liked watching Josh kiss comedians Ben Marshall and Bowen Yang in separate skits on SNL: the actor has also kissed other men on screen. In fact, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers sets the stage for O’Connor’s horniest role yet: Patrick Zweig, disgraced tennis player and the contentious third in the marriage of Mike Faist’s Art Donaldson and Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan. Here, he seems to play side-piece to both characters, the shared chip on their shoulders, and it’s so pathetic, it’s hot.
‘God’s Own Country’
Another entry in O’Connor’s homoerotic canon is Francis Lee’s 2017 film God’s Own Country. In the film, he plays the young sheep farmer Johnny, who literally gets down and dirty with the migrant worker Gheorghe, played by Romanian actor Alec Secăreanu. Johnny is roughened by his work, the grayness of the British countryside, and the drinking he does to cope with it all, but Gheorghe, gentler and full of bright ideas, shows him a better way. It’s like a bleaker but ultimately more hopeful Brokeback Mountain.
The National Theatre’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’
It’s easy for an adaptation or staging of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to feel cloying and cliché, but the National Theatre of Great Britain’s 2021 production, a TV film shot onstage, manages to feel new and be arresting. Here, O’Connor and co-star Jessie Buckley refuse the titular characters’ naivety for maturity, but O’Connor still brings a tenderness to his Romeo that makes the heart burn and melt.
‘La chimera’
Step aside Indiana Jones and Lara Croft; there’s a new archaeologist-tomb raider in town, and he’s a bit of a loser, but it’s endearing. In Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera, O’Connor plays Arthur, a British archaeologist who uses his uncanny gift of sight to dig graves in Italy. Inarguably one of his best performances yet — if not the best — he excellently portrays a character fraying at the edges, as we meet him at the end of a long train ride after serving time and whilst coping with a lost love. Also, he speaks Italian here.
