Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2025: Jack O'Connell in Sinners

Jack O’Connell did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Remmick in Sinners. 

Jack O’Connell plays the lead villain of the film the vampire Remmick who literally jumps into the frame to interrupt the main action with his presence, as he first sees him seek refuge from Choctaw vampire hunters via a pair of Klu Klux Klan members. Where essentially we see what is so much of O’Connell’s performance, which he excels with consistently, which is the various “sells” Remmick delivers throughout the film in an attempt to get let into different places and try to convince others to buy into him in one way or another. In this first instance basically playing a “hat in hand” southern traveler “mistreated” by the Choctaw as he pleads with his “good ole boy” southern accent for this scene to the husband and wife Klan members, which gets him in before revealing his true nature where O’Connell consistently brings the biggest of smiles of Remmick in a way loving what he does as he “invites” people to join him in his “family” so to speak. O’Connell finding the perfect kind of demonic glee as you see him loving him see the spread of himself essentially as he converts the two to his cause. 

Unfortunately for those on the first night of the juke joint, particularly inspiring musician Sammie (Miles Caton) who has given a musical performance that called upon the ancestors which Remmick could see from beyond the home, Remmick takes more than a liking to Sammie. O’Connell’s eyes in the scene of discovery are essential as you see suddenly the drive and real lust for Sammie, not sexual or even bloodlust, but just the desire for that power to connect with his ancestors which becomes his fixation. Where we get the first musical performance of O’Connell which he makes strong use of everyone that he gets, the first being presenting himself to the owner twins Stack/Smoke (Michael B. Jordan), among others, as merely a folk trio as they play “Pick Poor Robin Clean”, which is a wonderful moment where the performance, particularly O’Connell’s delivery of the song where he manages to have this combination of wholesome and creepy at the exact same time particularly in that smile of his. And O’Connell is quite charming to the point you could believe he’d convince everyone to let him in, as brings such a passive delivery and almost an “aw shucks” manner to everything he says as just a leader of the white trio who just wants a moment of equality. He manages to be creepy, charming but also naturally funny in presenting the sides of Remmick’s pitch. Two separate standout moments, one when noting Sammie, and O’Connell demeanor changes towards that lust just a bit as though Remmick can’t quite help himself, and the other moment when Smoke asks if they’re Klan members. O’Connell is hilarious in the stammering in the moment, where Remmick personally is surprised at the accusation yet also with the sense of needing to sidestep the issue because his companions were Klan members even though he was not. 

O’Connell’s presentation of Remmick is a fascinating use of essentially using good to do bad. As his second musical performance of “Will Ye Go, Lassie Go”, there is such sincere devotion to the song, just as is his overtures to Hailee Steinfeld’s Mary who just lost her mother, where O’Connell presents it less as a lie, but rather leaving out the whole truth. Presenting basically vampirism as a cure for all ills, and O’Connell in trying to pull in the mark bringing this meek earnestness to each note just as he did the song. Only when it is clear she is passing on the note, O’Connell instant switch to violence has such a remarkable ease as you see the real vicious intention who won’t give you a choice on his healing. Which then we get a domino effect of most of the patrons, Mary and Stack getting converted, and we get another aspect of O’Connell’s performance. Which is testament to some great blocking from Ryan Coogler, and the work of O’Connell in conveying this specific puppet master he is. Something we see both in his last sell to the survivors, where the formerly human people also all sell the notion of the vampire community but also as we literally see in O’Connell’s last musical performance “Rocky Road to Dublin” where the vampires are all dancing around his lead where O’Connell wonderfully dances to the tune as someone fully embracing this night. O’Connell’s movements with the other vampires is also in this calm center of power, but also with this lack of surprise to every word or movement they say. O’Connelly delivers these subtle gestures and movements that reinforce the way that everyone is under his beckon call even when they are supposedly speaking for themselves. 

O’Connell has a confidence of tone throughout the film. Where has an ease to be menacing, to find some genuine depth in certain moments but also can even be quite funny as well. As he has so many great touches throughout. One that requires mention is continuing that excitement towards converting Sammie, with his particularly fervent delivery of “SAMMIE!” when surprising poor Sammie, among others, by flying around the back of the juke joint to attack them. A moment that is funny but also alarming in equal measure. There is even remarkable attention to detail in his accent, which is how to utilize one brilliantly. Where O’Connell allows the real Irish origin of Remmick to be a hint throughout, which in itself is not O’Connell’s own accent. Allowing himself to reveal it in the most personal moment, such as when the escaping Sammie starts reciting the Lord’s Prayer only for Remmick to join in gleefully. O’Connell brings this demented quality as he mocks Sammie’s attempt, but also interwoven with a certain long dormant pain as he recounts the words from the men who took his father’s land. Even within the finale itself, which I will admit I do find a little straightforward in the actual method of the vampire’s destruction, O’Connell does his best to make it as interesting as he can. The first being when Sammie, to survive, slams the guitar against Remmick’s head where the silver of the guitar jams into Remmick’s face. O’Connell’s delivery of “Shit” is absolutely hilarious as he grants you the sense of an immortal, who is a bit taken aback by one injury he’ll survive but is going to be leading a lasting mark for quite awhile. Followed by the light burning Remmick up, which a theoretical standard moment of the vampire burning up, yet even this O’Connell makes a bit more interesting as his cries are of pain, yet there’s more to them than that, there’s a complex sorrow he brings not from the death but rather potentially finally being freed or seeing the sun after so many years. It would be easy enough just to make it “bastard gets his” moment but even that O’Connell uses to bring a bit more character to the film. As strange as it is that I might’ve preferred a Sinners without vampires, O’Connell is the best argument against this claim. As he consistently impresses in creating such a magnetic villain, who fashions an honest argument, while bringing genuine vicious menacing and just so many memorable little moments within his relatively limited screentime. The fact that he’s in the film for less than 15 minutes only speaks to the incredible impact he has on the film.