Hope Davis' 10 Best Movies And TV Shows

The best Hope Davis movies and TV shows include genre television, a cameo in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, and appearances in several indie films. At 26, Davis made her acting debut in the Joel Schumacher psychological horror film Flatliners. This led to one of the biggest movies of her career, although it was a small role as an airport receptionist in Home Alone. What followed next were Broadway roles with David Mamet and movie roles in films like The Daytrippers, American Splendor, and Arlington Road.

However, Hope Davis found her biggest success on the small screen. In 2000, she got a main role in the drama series Deadline and then starred in shows like Six Degrees, In Treatment, Mildred Pierce, and The Newsroom. Her biggest success in those early main TV roles came on In Treatment, where she received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She later went on to pick up Primetime Emmy nominations for The Special Relationship and Succession. Her best movie role came in Synecdoche, New York, where she won an Independent Spirit Award.

10 Your Honor (2020-2023)

Gina Baxter

In 2020, Bryan Cranston moved into his post-Breaking Bad career with the lead role in the television drama Your Honor. In the Showtime series, Cranston plays a New Orleans judge named Michael Desiato who begins to travel down a road of criminal activity to protect his son from the head of an organized crime family. His son killed another teen in an accidental hit-and-run, and the deceased teen was the son of a ruthless crime lord. Hope Davis played the crime lord's wife, someone more ruthless than even her husband.

Bryan Cranston as Michael Desiato in Your Honor with eyes in the background

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It was Davis as Gina Baxter, who was the main antagonist of the second season and the one who set out to destroy anyone and everyone around her as she took over the rule of her husband's crime organization. The series only lasted for two seasons, but there have been rumors that a third could eventually arrive thanks to Your Honor's success on Netflix.

9 Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Maria Stark

Hope Davis got a chance to play a character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it was only in flashback scenes for someone who has been long dead. However, it was a very important role as she played Maria Stark, Tony Stark's (Iron Man) mother. In Captain America: Civil War, Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier) is hypnotized and programmed as an assassin, and he chases down Howard Stark and his wife Maria, runs them off the road, and guns them down in their car.

This murder led Iron Man to seek out the Winter Soldier to kill at the end of Captain America: Civil War, which led to his ultimate battle with Captain America. This was the only movie that Davis appeared in for the MCU, while John Slattery played her husband, Howard Stark. Slattery was one of two men to play Howard (Dominic Cooper played him as a younger man), but Maria's only appearance was in this film.

8 Home Alone (1990)

French ticket agent

Before she became an award-nominated television star, Hope Davis had early roles in some famous movies. In 1990, her career caught fire thanks to roles in the Brat Pack thriller Flatliners (she played William Baldwin's girlfriend) and the smash Christmas hit film Home Alone. The second movie was the most notable, even though she had no actual character name. Davis played the young woman working the French ticket counter at the airport who told Kevin's mom there were no immediate flights back to Chicago.

Home Alone was an incredible success, making $476 million on an $18 million budget and spawning a franchise. It is also referred to today as one of the most beloved holiday movies ever made and was entered into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2023. While Davis's character had no name, she remained memorable, and it helped launch her to superstardom in the years to come.

7 Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Madeleine Gravis

Hope Davis has been on more successful TV shows than movies, but she enjoyed great success in her role in the Charlie Kaufman film, Synecdoche, New York. This movie saw the acclaimed screenwriter take the director's chair, and what he created was as bizarre as his fans might have expected. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Caden Cotard, a theater director whose wife left him and took his daughter. He then received a MacArthur Fellowship and chose to make a play based on the realism and honesty of the mundane human life experience.

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He put together an ensemble cast to star in the film. However, Hope Davis stars as Madeleine Gravis, Caden's therapist, who seems to be more interested in promoting her best-selling book than she is in counseling her patients. The film won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast, and the cast also won the Robert Altman Award for their performance at the Independent Spirit Awards.

6 The Newsroom (2012-2013)

Nina Howard

Premiering in 2012 on HBO, The Newsroom stars Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy, the anchor and managing editor of News Night, a cable news show. Mostly playing out as an office drama, the series follows the behind-the-scenes events that happen while Will and his staff attempt to put on their news show despite the corporate and network interference creating obstacles along the way. Aaron Sorkin created the series, and it features his lightning-quick and witty dialogue in the newsroom setting.

Joining Daniels in the impressive cast are Emily Mortimer, Alison Pill, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, Sam Waterston, Jane Fonda, and Hope Davis. In her role in The Newsroom, Davis plays Nina Howard, a gossip columnist for the network's tabloid magazine, and she appears in the first two seasons of the series. The HBO series ended after three seasons and 25 total episodes, with Daniels winning a Primetime Emmy Award for his performance.

5 Wayward Pines (2015-2016)

Megan Fisher

Wayward Pines was a Fox science fiction series based on the novel trilogy by Blake Crouch, with the pilot directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The series followed Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon), a U.S. Secret Service agent searching for two missing agents in the town of Wayward Pines. However, when he arrives, he realizes there is something ominous about the small, secluded town and soon realizes that when people arrive there, they no longer have the freedom to leave.

The series has a similar setup as Lost, with the mystery of what this town really is at the forefront, but the characters in the town are at the heart of the story. Hope Davis stars as Megan Fisher, a recurring character in the first season and a main cast member in the second. She was a former teacher who became the Director of Research on the Wayward Pines mountain and one of the few people who knew the truth about what happened to the world.

4 In Treatment (2009)

Mia

Hope Davis joined the cast of In Treatment on HBO in 2009. This was the second season of the series when Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) moved to Brooklyn, leading to a mostly new cast around him. Paul is a psychologist, and most of the episodes deal with his therapy sessions with a variety of different patients. Hope Davis is Mia Nesky, a successful malpractice attorney and a former patient of Paul's from two decades prior. She now blames him for her status as an unmarried workaholic who makes poor relationship choices.

The series was unique, as episodes aired daily based on the day of each therapy session's meeting. Davis's character was a Monday session, with seven episodes dedicated to her story. In her impressive television career, Davis received her first-ever Primetime Emmy nomination for her role in In Treatment, picking up the nod for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Her time on the show ended after one season.

3 About Schmidt (2002)

Jeannie Schmidt

About Schmidt is a 2002 movie starring Jack Nicholson. In it, he plays a man named Warren Schmidt, who retires from his job at a life insurance agency and suddenly finds no meaning in his life. He soon starts to sponsor an African child and sends letters to the boy about his life. However, when he realizes his successor at the life insurance agency is not interested in his help and then his wife dies, he realizes something has to change.

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Hope Davis plays his daughter, Jeannie, who blasts her dad for not appreciating her mother more while she is still alive. Jeannie is also marrying a man who tried to convince Warren to join in a pyramid scheme, and when he disapproves of his daughter's choice of a husband, it further hurts their relationship. The film earned two Oscar nominations for acting (Nicholson and Kathy Bates), while Davis was recognized by the New York Film Critics Circle with a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

2 Succession (2021-2023)

Sandi Furness

Succession has gone down as one of the best television shows of this century, the tale of a family who runs a global media and entertainment conglomerate who are in a constant battle for control. The series stars Brian Cox as the patriarch Logan Roy and the story focuses on his declining health and his children's battle to figure out who will succeed him as the head of the company after his passing. The cast was strong from top to bottom, with Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, and Alan Ruck as the Roy siblings.

As for Hope Davis, she plays Sandi Furness, a recurring character in the third and fourth seasons of the show. She is the daughter of Sandy Furness, the owner of Furness Media Groups, who previously planned a hostile takeover of Waystar. She was an important part of the cast, as she worked with Shiv to protect the Roys' place in Waystar. Davis ended up earning another Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2022.

1 American Splendor (2003)

Joyce Brabner

American Splendor

Biography

Comedy

Documentary

Drama

Release Date: August 15, 2003
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Writers: Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Cast

Chris Ambrose
Joey Krajcar
Josh Hutcherson
Cameron Carter

Arguably, Hope Davis's best performance of her career came in the 2003 biopic American Splendor. This movie stars Paul Giamatti as cartoonist Harvey Pekar, an artist who created the American Splendor comic book series, which ran from 1976 through 2008. Hope Davis stars as Joyce Braber, a comic book writer who wrote Our Cancer Year with Pekar and won the Harvey Award for Best Original Graphic Novel in 1995. She also married Peckar in 1994 and remained with him until his death in 2010.

The film was a massive critical success, with a 94% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. For her work on the movie, Davis received praise from critics and was nominated by the Village Voice Film Poll while winning Best5 Actress at both the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and Seattle Film Critics Society Awards. She also earned her first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress.

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