Jeremy Shamos

In Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), Jeremy Shamos plays Ralph, an inept stage actor. We laughed at Ralph’s bad acting, and at the care Shamos takes over getting it wrong. His theatre experience makes the casting a good joke before he has done much at all. Michael Keaton makes the film funny and unexpectedly painful, and the restless camerawork is another attraction. Shamos’s brief appearance gives the backstage comedy something smaller and agreeably foolish to attend to.

His collaborators include director Pam MacKinnon and playwright Bruce Norris, and his stage work includes dual roles in Clybourne Park (2012). Film and television appearances increased from the mid-2010s, while he continued to work on stage. We would be cautious about judging his abilities by the size of his film parts. The stage work is a useful reminder that brief appearances are only part of what he does.

Craig Kettleman, the milquetoast embezzler in Better Call Saul (2015–2022), fits his familiar casting as timid men, pedants and moral cowards. We like Shamos’s willingness to take on these unflattering people without demanding a larger share of the film or programme. That is valuable ensemble work, though repeated assignments of this kind can make an actor’s arrival predictable. There is a limit to how much another variation on weakness can tell us about him.

Disclosure Day (2026) gives him another supporting role, Claypool, in Spielberg’s alien conspiracy chase. We found it decent, with fluent staging and Emily Blunt a pleasure to watch, but the second-hand mystery and excessive length are substantial drawbacks. Shamos’s presence is no reason to set those objections aside, and we would not choose it as the introduction to his work. Birdman earns our recommendation for its performances, despite the screenplay’s insistence on explaining its ideas about fame. Start there, and pay attention to the man playing the actor who cannot act.