Posterized: Tye Sheridan
Friday, May 27, 2016 at 12:32PM 
They grow up so fast *sniffle*. Tye Sheridan, the child actor revelation from Terence Malick's The Tree of Life (quite a debut) and Mud is already 19 years old and in major demand. What accounts for his mutant super power of aging rapidly is that Tree of Life actually began shooting when Tye was just 11. Malick takes forever in post production, don'cha know. Male stars don't tend to really come into their A list own until their late 20s or early 30s. DiCaprio is the grand exception to the rule but usually the ones that break out in their late teens or early 20s more commonly have career trajectories, like, oh, Chris O'Donnell. That's partially because the juicy roles for men tend to be the ones that require a 30 or 40something actor. So it's anyone's guess as to whether or not Sheridan can build on his rather solid first five years in the movies. Are you that anyone? Care to take a guess?
While Sheridan isn't the star of X-Men Apocalypse -- the movies are STILL obsessed with making it all about Magneto, Xavier, Wolverine, and Mystique (sigh) even though we've seen that dynamic five times already (fwiw Wolverine is reduced to a cameo this time but he takes over the movie for a couple of minutes). If the franchise can ever reach for the ensemble magnificence of its source material, Sheridan would be in a great position to collect more than just a paycheck as Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, one of the most enduring and important characters in the books. (He's also onscreens right now in Last Days in the Desert which stars Ewan McGregor as both Jesus and Satan.)
How many of his 10 pictures to date have you seen?
Next up for Sheridan, if it gets distribution, is Detour (reviewed at Tribeca), presumably more X-Men features as well as more leading roles including Friday's Child, the crime aftermath drama Grass Stains, the Iraq war soldier drama The Yellow Birds (which he co-leads with Alden Ehrenreich), and Spielberg's sci-fi flick Ready Player One. 2017 could be the star-making year for him if two of those break out strong.
Reader Comments (15)
I've seen four: his first three and The Stanford prison experiment. He's definitely a solid actor, but still haven't seen enough to think he'll become really big.
As far as child performances go, what ever happened to the actor who played the eldest brother in The Tree of Life? He had the best performance in the movie (which is saying a lot).
0 (as in zero).
Paul -- whaaaa? Not even Tree of Life?
Tree of Life, Mud and Joe. I think he could be a huge star*.
*The Jake Gyllenhaal type.
I really like him. I agree with Peggy Sue on the Gyllenhaal comparison. He has the dramatic heft and the good looks. He's the best thing in X-Men: Apocalypse, but I do worry he'll get sucked into a vortex of "next big thing".
I think it's only me that thinks the "new stars" are less and less interesting.
So far, I've seen him in The Tree of Life (his best film so far), Mud (which he's great in), and Joe (he's awesome in that one) as he's definitely got a bright future.
Nathaniel -- it slipped through the cracks that year, I'm embarrassed to say. And I hate watching Malick on small screens, I just can't.
Same as Paul: 0
Tree Of Life and X-Men: Apocalypse, so basically his first film and his most recent. Don't remember much about Tree Of Life beyond the cinematography and he was solid in XMA. Unfortunately, though, it's really not much of a sample size to go off of.
Tree of Life, Mud, and Joe
I don't see him hitting Superstar status, but then again, the way the film industry is evolving, not a lot will. But I could see him developing into a well-respected, risk-taking actor. I think the Jake Gyllenhaal comparison is an interesting one. The fact that he's getting good roles while flying under the radar bodes well for longevity.
2: Tree of Life and Mud, probably X-Men this weekend.
If Ready Player One is anything like the book, it should be a great star-making opportunity for him. It's a good role in what could be a huge blockbuster. I'm excited to see what he does next.
this is the first posterized subject i have never even heard of
Someone to keep an eye on but hasn't convinced me he is in it for the long haul yet. He was great in Mud but not all that memorable elsewhere. I can't imagine getting stuck in these X-Men films is a good move for his career.
With that said he is very young. So if you are looking for a super young 20 or 21 year old actor who has shown talent in film (television is altogether another story!) the list is pretty short. I'd say you'd look at:
>Tye Sheridan (1996)
> Asa Butterfield (1997)
> Tom Holland (1996)
> Anyone else? Maybe Kodi-Smit McPhee (1996) who I always confuse with Butterfield for some reason?
Now of course if you shoot for someone just a little older, then the field gets a whole lot more competitive.
3: Tree of Life, Mud and Dark Places. He was good in ToL and Mud but kind of wooden in DP, but that was such a weird movie, full of talented actors and yet the quality of the performances was all over the place, that maybe that wasn't so much Sheridan's fault.