James Ransone

In Generation Kill (2008), James Ransone’s Josh Ray Person makes profane talk funny without disguising how irritating it can be. He does not tidy Person up for our approval. We laughed at the Marines’ banter, then felt uncomfortable because the jokes had drawn us into accepting their ugliness. David Simon and Ed Burns let the jokes establish the men’s closeness while leaving the unpleasantness audible.

He had already found a conspicuous outlet for that volatility as Ziggy Sobotka, the dockworker’s son in The Wire (series two, 2003), his breakthrough role. The edgy or desperate supporting parts that followed risked making him predictable. But nervousness in his performances often comes with vulnerability, which gives us something to consider beyond how much trouble a character might cause. In Generation Kill, Alexander Skarsgård’s restraint as Brad Colbert gives that chatter a useful contrast, so Ransone need not soften Person to make the scenes bearable.

Horror made regular use of his anxious energy, from Deputy So-and-So in Sinister (2012) to the adult Eddie Kaspbrak in It Chapter Two (2019). Sean Baker’s Tangerine (2015), in which he plays Chester, sits between them; this was no clean departure from independent film. The horror parts can make it easy to forget that he kept working in independent film.

Scott Derrickson was another recurring collaborator; Ransone appears in The Black Phone (2021) and Black Phone 2 (2025). The sequel’s grainy dream sequences are more persuasive than its explanations and sermonising, and his presence is not a reason to overlook that. We would not make a stronger case for the film simply because he is in it. Start with Generation Kill, if the dense military language does not put you off; Ransone makes even the aggravation worth attending to.