Scott Eastwood

Nepotism is the first word anyone reaches for here, and the filmography is essentially a long argument with it. Born Scott Clinton Reeves, he appeared in four of his father's films, Flags of Our Fathers, Gran Torino, Invictus and Trouble with the Curve, in parts small enough that nobody could claim much for them either way, then went out on his own with Texas Chainsaw 3D in 2013.

The career since has settled into a specific Hollywood job: the second-billed American serviceman or cop inside an ensemble action film. Fury, Suicide Squad, Snowden, Pacific Rim Uprising, The Fate of the Furious and Fast X, Wrath of Man, The Outpost. He is good in the ones that ask him to be a functioning professional within a group, because the flat, unfussy delivery reads as competence and the physicality is real. He is markedly less good carrying a picture alone. The Longest Ride is a lead role that the film keeps having to tell you is charming.

The Outpost is the strongest case for him: a true-story combat film where nobody gets to be a star, the dialogue overlaps, and the acting has to serve logistics rather than personality. He is completely convincing in it. Recent years have been busy and mostly low-profile, working steadily in mid-budget action and thrillers, from Overdrive and Dangerous to the 2024 heist picture 1992.