Ever since making her screen debut in Gia Coppola's Palo Alto in 2013, Margaret Qualley has steadily risen to become one of the busiest young actresses in Hollywood. In 2014, Qualley joined the cast of HBO's acclaimed TV series The Leftovers, in which she appeared in 22 episodes as the character of Jill Garvey.
In 2019, Qualley had the busiest year of career to date by appearing in six films, including Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That same year, Qualley was cast as Ann Reinking in FX's Fosse/Verdon TV series. Up next for Qualley is a series called Maid which is currently filming, as well as Claire Denis' new film The Stars at Noon and Scott Cooper's horror movie A Head Full of Ghosts.
Best - Palo Alto (2013) 6.2/10
Qualley logged the first acting credit of her career in Palo Alto, James Franco's semiautobiographical indie-drama directed by Gia Coppola.
The intense character study follows April (Emma Roberts), a shy high-school virgin dealing with adolescent angst, pubescent confusion, drug abuse, crippling ennui, her lusty affections for her soccer coach Mr. B (Franco), and the perpetually stoned Teddy (Jack Kilmer). Qualley has a small role as a high-school student named Raquel.
Worst - Donnybrook (2018) 5.3/10
Written and directed by Tim Sutton, Donnybrook is a hyper-violent thriller in which two men doggedly prepare to square off in a bare-knuckle brawl for a grand prize of $100,000.
The first combatant is Earl (Jamie Bell), a former Marine who robs a gun store for money to enter the Donnybrook bare-knuckle contest. The second is a brutal meth dealer named Angus (Frank Grillo), who abuses his little sister Delia (Qualley). The two men face off in an epic hand-to-hand battle for supremacy.
Best - Novitiate (2017) 6.6/10
Qualley landed her first major breakout role as Sister Cathleen in Novitiate, a sexually charged drama in which a teenage nun tries desperately to control her lusty desires.
Written and directed by Maggie Betts, the film is set at The Vatican in 1964. Raised in a non-religious household, Cathleen Harris decides to join a Catholic convent against the wishes of her family. Under the strict tutelage of Reverend Mother Saint Clare (Melissa Leo), Cathleen struggles to tame her innermost desires on the path to righteousness.
Worst - Native Son (2019) 5.7/10
Adapted from the classic Richard Wright novel, Native Son tells the story of Bigger Thomas (Ashton Sanders), a 20-year-old African American man in Chicago's impoverished southside whose life is changed overnight.
When hired to be a live-in chauffeur for wealthy business magnate Henry Dalton (Bill Camp), Bigger's life seems to be changing for the good. But when Bigger begins to hang out with his boss' daughter, Mary Dalton (Qualley), a dramatic unforeseen incident jeopardizes his newfound success.
Best - The Vanishing Of Sidney Hall (2017) 6.9/10
Despite a paltry 18/100 Metascore, IMDb voters feel much strongly about The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, a nonlinear elliptical drama about a novelist who slowly disappears from society.
Logan Lerman stars as Sidney Hall, a young writer whose life is shown in drips and drabs at various points throughout his existence. One instance includes Sidney's affair with Alexandra (Qualley), the daughter of his agent and publisher, Harold (Nathan Lane). Sidney's self-seclusion and alcoholism prove to be his downturn.
Worst - IO (2019) 4.7/10
Qualley's first legitimate leading role came in the original Netflix sci-fi film IO, in which she plays a young scientist named Sam tasked with rescuing a moribund Earth from post-cataclysmic extinction.
Following an apocalyptic event, Sam is one of the few survivors left on Earth. Rather than spearhead an evacuation mission, Sam is forced to figure out a way to adapt to the annihilated environment when a fellow survivor named Micah (Anthony Mackie) suddenly arrives.
Best- The Nice Guys (2016) 7.4/10
Qualley made her second big-screen appearance in the Shane Black buddy-cop film The Nice Guys, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. The film traces the potential murder of a porn-star named Misty Mountains in 1977 Los Angeles.
Qualley plays a key character named Amelia Kuttner, an accomplice of Misty's who manages to temporarily scare Holland March (Gosling) off the case. Later, Amelia provides crucial intel that helps March and his unimpressed partner Jackson Healy (Crowe) find those responsible for Misty's disappearance.
Worst - Death Note (2017) 4.5/10
Despite the well-received manga series that it was adapted from, Death Note ranks as the second-worst movie of Margaret Qualley's career thus far. The live-action adaptation of the acclaimed Takeshi Obata manga failed to live up to the hype.
Directed by Adam Wingard, Death Note centers on Light (Nat Wolff), a smart high-school student who stumbles upon a supernatural book that holds the power to kill anyone whose name is etched inside. When Light decides to use the book to become a vigilant street guardian, he soon finds himself up against brilliant detective, L (Lakeith Stanfield)
Best - Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019) 7.6/10
As a member of Charles Manson's family of homicidal hippies, Margaret Qualley stole several scenes in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The revisionist Los Angeles love-letter traces Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a faded TV star struggling to adapt to the ever-changing Hollywood landscape in 1969. Rick's close pal and longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) meets Pussycat (Qualley), a hitchhiker whom he takes to the infamous Spahn Movie Ranch to confront Manson's evil minions without a flinch.
Worst - Adam (2019) 3.5/10
The worst movie Qualley has appeared in so far, according to IMDB, is the 2019 comedy called Adam. Although it boasts an abysmal 3.5 rating, Adam oddly holds a 64/100 Metascore.
The coming-of-age comedy revolves around Adam (Nicholas Alexander), a gauche high-schooler who spends his final summer under the wing of his cool older sister Casey (Qualley). As Casey becomes active in the local LQBTQ scene, Adam begins exploring his own sense of budding sexual identity.