Matt Smith’s Movie Roles Ranked: Worst To Best

While Matt Smith became popular thanks to TV show roles in Doctor Who and House of the Dragon, he also has several movies to his name, some more notable than others. Smith got his start acting in 2006, and four years later, he starred as the Doctor in one of sci-fi television’s most iconic shows.

For his movie roles, he mostly worked in smaller films before getting a small supporting role in the Terminator franchise. Since then, he has starred in several genre offerings, from fantasy comedies and superhero flicks to horror movies and even a Darren Aronofsky dark crime thriller. However, some of his films failed to hit the mark.

Patient Zero (2018)

In 2018, Matt Smith starred in the sci-fi horror movie Patient Zero, and it ended up as one of the most hated films of his career based on its reviews. The movie has an 11% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, four points lower than Morbius, and a 28% audience score, 10% lower than Lost River.

The story follows a super-virus that turns humans into highly intelligent killers. However, Matt Smith plays Morgan, an asymptomatic victim who can communicate with the infected and is expected to lead the survivors until they find a cure. Despite the movie’s poor reception, at least Smith delivers a memorable performance.

As one of the few surviving humans who is not a mindless zombie killer or a frightened survivor in hiding, he is the only actor who has the chance to deliver any sort of human-like performance in the movie. Sadly, as good as he is, Patient Zero does not offer anything surrounding him to make it worth recommending.

Lost River (2014)

Matt Smith’s second big-screen movie role came in Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, Lost River. This was an antagonistic role, with Smith playing a character known only as “Bully.” However, he made an impression as Gosling has admitted he is a huge fan of Smith, especially after working with him on Lost River.

Before watching Gosling and Smith costarring in the upcoming Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Starfighter, fans can go back and watch their earlier effort together with Lost River. Iain De Caestecker plays the teenage Bones, someone who is fearful and avoids “Bully” at all costs.

This role had Smith deliver a very deadly and scary performance, as he is the main threat to the young man who is just trying to get by in the slums of Detroit. Lost River received poor reviews when released, but it has since been accepted by fans of the surreal fantasy genre.

Womb (2010)

One of Matt Smith’s earliest movies was the sci-fi film Womb. In Smith’s big-screen debut, he plays a clone. When the film begins, he plays Tommy, a political activist who reunites with his childhood friend Rebecca (Eva Green) before his untimely death. Rebecca is heartbroken and has the company that he protested against to clone him.

This was a complicated role, since Tommy was protesting the entire morality of this company, and now he is back as a clone, something he never would have wanted. What is most disturbing is that Rebecca has to give birth to “Tommy” and raise him as his own son.

The entire movie kind of goes off the rails when he rapidly ages and ends up dating his “mother,” which likely explains the low critic (35%) and audience scores (46%). However, Smith showed in the two roles why he would become a massive star in the years to come.

Morbius (2022)

When Sony released the Spider-Man spinoff film Morbius, it went down in history as the biggest flop of the franchise and was called the worst superhero movie ever made. However, something interesting happened after that when fans tried to rally around the movie, and Morbius became something of a cult favorite.

Matt Smith starred in Morbius as the villain, Milo, Michael Morbius’s surrogate brother, who lives with a rare blood disease. When Michael finds a cure, he wants it too, but it turns the person into a living vampire, and Lucien has to get it behind Michael’s back and then becomes his greatest enemy.

Matt Smith had one of the most meme-worthy moments in the movie with a weird dancing scene that helped create the “Morphin’ Time” memes on the internet. Smith is a big reason why fans began to defend the movie, as his performance went so over the top that it transformed the entire film into a cult sensation.

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies (2016)

In 2009, Seth Grahame-Smith wrote a parody novel based on the classic Jane Austen romance novel with a new title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This put Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Darcy, and other characters from the novel into a world where zombies exist.

Matt Smith took on the role of the minister, Mr. Collins, who wanted to marry Elizabeth. He caused even more problems for Elizabeth in this movie than he did in the original story. The film received mixed reviews, with the story fun, but the action scenes leaving a little to be desired.

However, Smith was on point in the movie, and the humor was what critics liked the most about the film. Out of all of Smith’s movies, it was this one that showed his humor as he purposefully delivered the period dialogue with a modern slant.

Terminator Genisys (2015)

Matt Smith took on a very important role in one of the most underrated and over-criticized films in the Terminator franchise. Fans had been wanting something fresh from the franchise, and Terminator Genisys tried to offer it with some brain-twisting time travel and alternate dimension storytelling. However, most fans rejected it.

Matt Smith played one of the most advanced Terminator models in any of the franchise’s films. However, he was more than that, since he was actually the living embodiment of SkyNet (named Genisys in the new timeline). Smith had a big job ahead of him, portraying SkyNet as a hologram that was inhuman and robotic.

However, Smith was great in the performance, adding a touch of intense hatred to what was otherwise a computer with no other personality traits. He delivers a nuanced performance that was a highlight of the film.

Charlie Says (2018)

Matt Smith takes on the role of one of the most infamous cult leaders in American history in the 2018 movie, Charlie Says. In this film, Smith plays Charles Manson, which gave him a chance to take on the role of one of the most charismatic yet evil men ever to live, showing why so many people followed his every word.

Smith delivers a fantastic performance as Manson, giving him a chilling attitude while also getting a visual makeover that is frightfully uncanny in its similarity to the cult leader. It was quite shocking how an actor who looked nothing like Manson could transform his appearance into something that was so familiar.

Seeing an actor who had become so familiar to television fans of Doctor Who and House of the Dragon turn himself into Charles Manson was astonishing. The movie received mixed reviews, but Smith’s performance was widely praised by critics and fans alike.

The Forgiven (2021)

Matt Smith has a role in the ensemble movie The Forgiven, a John Michael McDonagh film released in 2021. The film follows a married couple, played by Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain, who accidentally kill a teenager during a trip to Morocco, where they were trying to salvage their relationship.

Matt Smith plays one of their friends, Richard Galloway. He gets involved when they bring the teen’s body to his house. While the movie follows Jo and David’s plight, and how each of them deals with it, Richard is a little more complex, as Smith plays him as a hedonistic billionaire who doesn’t seem to have any cares other than his own pleasures.

It is a wildly uneven movie, and Smith’s debauchery rubbing off on Jo while David tries to deal with the aftermath of the accident is only part of it. Smith is brilliant in the performance, showing there is something deeper than what viewers see on the surface, and it is one of many roles where Smith plays someone who always seems dangerous.

Mapplethorpe (2018)

In 2018, Matt Smith stars as real-life photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the movie Mapplethorpe. Unlike his role as Charles Manson in Charlie Says, Smith doesn’t look anything like Mapplethorpe in this movie, so he has to rely on his acting and performance to honor the man’s life.

Mapplethorpe picked up fame and controversy when he took photographs featuring gay sex, Satanism, and bondage, and released them as black-and-white photographs. Smith delivered such a remarkable performance as Mapplethorpe that the film received several awards despite a lower 60% critics’ RT score.

On top of a much higher 83% audience score, Mapplethorpe also received six Audience Awards at several film festivals, and director Ondi Timoner won Best Director at the Long Beach Int’l Film Festival.

Starve Acre (2023)

In 2023, Matt Smith starred in the folk horror movie Starve Acre, working alongside Morfydd Clark. This was an interesting pairing, as Smith stars in House of the Dragon as Daemon Targaryen and Clark stars as Galadriel in Rings of Power. This movie is very different from either of those series.

Smith and Clark star as a husband and wife whose son, Owen (Arthur Shaw), starts acting strangely. Soon, they investigate and find a myth connecting dark forces to a tree on their land. The movie streams on Shudder and remains one of the better folk horror movies of the last decade.

Critics loved the film, awarding it an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score, and critics mostly praised the performances above all else. Smith and Clark both deliver great performances, particularly in their portrayal of fear and grief.