Peter Sarsgaardthe guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporterhis Prize talk podcast — which was recorded in front of an audience at Newport Beach Film Festivalwhere Sarsgaard was honored with the Film Performance of the Year Award – is an outstanding character actor enjoying the biggest year of his career. He shines so in the new Paramount film September 5playing Roone Arledge while ABC Sports covers the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack and in the new Apple TV+ drama series Presumed innocentas a prosecutor tasked with convicting a former colleague of a murder.

The 53-year-old, who has a distinct voice and a sleepy look, has been acting professionally on stage and on the big and small screens for 30 years. Early in his career, it was fashionable to describe him with some sort of dubious compliment—for example, New York Times noted in 2004 that he has a “tendency to turn minor roles into major performances”, while Rolling Stone in 2005 he called it “the best second banana in the business”. More recently, however, given his consistently strong work in roles and projects of all sizes, almost everyone has gotten on the same page with AP, who in 2015 simply called him “one of the best of his generation.”

During this conversation, the actor reflects on his accidental path to acting; early groundbreaking roles in films such as Dead Man Walking (1995), Boys don’t cry (1999) and Broken glass (2003), for which he received a Golden Globe; being led by his wife, Maggie Gyllenhaalon The Lost Daughter (2021), and working with his brother-in-law, Jake Gyllenhaalon Jarhead (2005), Rendition (2007) and Presumed innocent; and the evolution of some of the most acclaimed films he has been a part of, including Kinsey (2004), for which he received a Critics Choice nomination, An Education (2009), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and Memory (2023), which won him the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival.

He also discusses the popcorn films he has made such as Green Lantern (2011) and the batman (2022); sharing the screen with stunning Oscar winning actresses in Blue jasmine (2013), with Cate Blanchett, jack (2016), with Natalie Portmanand Memorywith Jessica Chastain; switching to long-form TV from Hulu’s The looming tower (2018), for which he received a Critics Choice nomination and Dopeack (2021), for which he received an Emmy nomination, en route to Presumed innocent; what he is particularly proud of September 5; plus more.