Ever since Miles Teller’s breakout performance in The Spectacular Now, he has skillfully and consistently avoided typecasting. From playing the lead in romantic comedies to embodying the soul of an obsessive musician, in his brief career so far, Teller has more than proven his eclectic acting abilities. In the long-awaited Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick, Teller joins returning cast members Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Jennifer Connelly in a thrilling and action-packed aviation adventure. In the television realm, Teller heads the star-studded cast of The Offer, a show about the behind-the-scenes making of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. The show is an eye-opening drama about how one of the greatest and most celebrated films of all time almost failed to get made. Beyond these projects, let’s look at seven essential performances from Miles Teller so far in his career.
Martin Jones in Too Old To Die Young (2019)
Starting the list is this limited series directed by Nicholas Winding Refn. The story follows Martin Jones (Miles Teller), a police detective who moonlights as a hitman for Los Angeles’s criminal underbelly. Refn is known for his stylish and violent works, and Too Old To Die Young absolutely delivers on that front. When his partner is shot dead out of the blue, Jones struggles with his split allegiance to the force and the criminal underworld that he believes would deliver real justice. Teller plays his torn identity extremely well, with the majority of his internalized struggle coming from the expressions on Teller’s face or his body language. As Jones digs deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld, the tension inside him grows too. Refn and Teller excel at wringing the most out of the central tension and take the story in wholly unpredictable directions.
Peter in The Divergent Series (2014-2016)
A year after they played coupled high school seniors in The Spectacular Now, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley reunite for this dystopian science fiction franchise. Teller plays one of the central antagonists of the series, Peter Hayes. Cruel and ill-tempered, Hayes eventually grows to be a bit of a sympathetic character. After becoming aware of his more toxic traits, Hayes makes a conscious decision to try and repair himself from the ground up. Tris (Woodley) eventually learns to like Hayes, and the two develop a bond after saving each others’ lives. While the overall story of the Divergent series understandably focuses more on the plight of the heroes, Teller makes every second that he’s onscreen count. Hayes is a complicated villain, and Teller effortlessly portrays his complex morality.
Vinny in Bleed For This (2016)
In the mid-2010s, it seemed like every rising star was getting their chance at a boxing movie. Michael B. Jordan had Creed, Jake Gyllenhaal had Southpaw, and Miles Teller got Bleed for This. Based on the life of former world champion boxer Vinny Pazienzia, the film follows one of the most remarkable comeback stories in all of sports. After a near-fatal car crash, Vinny suffers a critical neck injury and is unsure if he will ever be able to walk again, let alone fight. Teller is terrific in the role and delivers a fiercely committed performance of a broken man fearlessly committed to piecing his life back together. Director Ben Younger’s gritty style deepens Teller’s performance. Younger and Teller know they don’t have to embellish the already unbelievable true story, so the emotions that are drawn out from the film feel real.
Brendan McDonough in Only the Brave (2017)
Before his upcoming work with Joseph Kosinski for Top Gun: Maverick, the pair made this heartbreaking adaptation of a true story about a group of firefighters. Hailing from Prescott, Arizona, the Granite Mountain Hotshots are an elite crew of firefighters. Teller plays Brendan McDonough who, after being arrested for larceny, has been kicked out of his mother’s house, is unemployed, and suffers from drug addiction. When he first approaches the Hotshots, Brendan is laughed out of the building. However, with persistence and grit, Brendan eventually finds a spot for himself among the elite crew and earns the respect of his fellow firefighters. In the film, Teller is playing a character unlike anything he had done up until that point in his career. Sporting blonde hair and heavy makeup, Teller’s look in combination with his performance perfectly transform him into the scrappy and hot-headed McDonough. It’s not all heat though, as the story unfolds, the emotional core of the film is also placed onto Teller’s shoulders, and he handles the responsibility with grace.
David Packouz in War Dogs (2016)
Another film based on a true story, Todd Phillips directs this one about a pair of young men, David Packouz (Miles Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), who score a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America’s allies in Afghanistan. Car chases, betrayal, seas of money, this is a story that has it all. David begins the film working in a massage parlor in Miami. When Efraim approaches David one day asking if he wanted to join him in his business venture, David is immediately thrown into a world way over his head. Playing the reluctant partner to Jonah Hill’s unpredictable wild card, Teller imbues a surprising amount of pathos for a character that spends the majority of the film looking completely bewildered by his surroundings. David takes the job after learning that his girlfriend is pregnant, so there is always a sympathetic quality to David doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons. Phillips balances his two leads well, and while Hill has the showier performance, Teller puts in great work as well.
Sutter Keely in The Spectacular Now (2013)
In this romantic comedy directed by James Ponsoldt and written by the duo behind 500 Days of Summer, Miles Teller plays Sutter, a hard-partying high school senior. When he meets Aimee (Shailene Woodley), an introvert who finds Sutter one morning asleep on a neighbor’s lawn, he begins to see the world in a new way. At a time when high school films often romanticized the teenage experience, The Spectacular Now earns points for its honesty. Teller and Woodley are excellent as opposites attracted to one another and the arc of their relationship never takes any turns that feel inauthentic. Despite only being high school seniors, Sutter and Aimee are plenty complicated. After seeing the world from Aimee’s perspective, Sutter becomes determined to dig himself out of his past in order to pave a path for his future. Teller plays this struggle with a surprising amount of vulnerability. The film doesn’t go for the big emotions, but it excels at nailing the small nuances of adolescence.
Andrew in Whiplash (2014)
While J.K. Simmons was the actor from the film that took home the Oscar, Miles Teller not even being nominated for Whiplash is one of the biggest snubs of the 2010s. Teller plays Andrew Neiman, a jazz drummer who aspires to be one of the greats. Beginning the film performing as a second-string drummer at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory, Andrew (Teller) quickly catches the eye of Terence Fletcher (Simmons), the conductor and bandleader of the school’s even more exclusive studio band. Not knowing what to expect from the studio band, Andrew finds himself at the whim of a tyrannical Fletcher, who spends the majority of his band practices belittling and attacking band members. However, instead of cowering in fear, Andrew is determined to earn the respect of Fletcher, and he practices drumming for hours on end, often until his hands bleed. Teller, who had been drumming since he was 15, took additional lessons four hours a day, three days a week to prepare for the role. He plays Andrew’s obsessive mindset in a way that is both understandable and distressing. Whiplash is a film that questions if glory is worth the price paid, and Andrew’s experience can easily be seen as a cautionary tale. Either way, the film remains a deeply enthralling descent into obsession, featuring easily the best performance of Teller’s career.