Margaret Qualley has been quietly racking up a mega-impressive resume in Hollywood over the past decade. She is a total movie star, whether she’s playing a supporting role or taking the lead, and she isn’t afraid to be way more offbeat than your average ingenue. If you are looking for your next watch, here are the best Margaret Qualley movies to check out ASAP.
The actor has three movies out in 2025 that are highly anticipated in different ways; One is Honey Don’t, her second collaboration with Ethan Coen and a mystery. The second, Blue Moon, is a Richard Linklater movie about the one guy who wasn’t celebrating on the opening night of the musical Oklahoma! And the third, of course, is Happy Gilmore 2! In all likelihood, they will be added to this list in due time. But for now, here’s what we’ve got:
Drive-Away Dolls
The star-studded film stars Margaret and Geraldine Viswanathan as lesbian besties on a road trip. But, since this is a Coen brother (singular) film, it’s not just any road trip. The two accidentally “rent” a car with a very important briefcase in the backseat. Will they escape the criminals chasing them? Will they find love on the road, or with each other? Classic stuff, if you ask me!
The Substance
From the memes to the Oscar buzz, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance has to be one of Margaret’s most well-known films at this point. Her role as the younger version of Demi Moore’s Elizabeth Sparkle is supportive in almost every sense of the word… until she isn’t. She’s a villain. She’s a dancer. She’s everything women are told to be, plus the absolute gremlin that hides inside. It’s brilliant.
Poor Things
Margaret does not show up until nearly the end of Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist fairy tale that also stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter. She plays the second of Dr. Godwin Baxter’s experiments, Felicity. As a baby in a grown woman’s body, Margaret’s dance background is also on display here for great physical comedy moments. Given Poor Things‘ themes, and not necessarily body horror but certainly body stuff, it’s wild that this movie and The Substance were essentially back-to-back. The history books are really going to wonder what we were going through as a culture.
Novitiate
In this coming-of-age drama directed by Margaret Betts, Margaret Qualley plays one of the titular novitiates at a convent in the 1960s while the Catholic church is undergoing reforms. Her character, Cathleen, is looking for stability at a time when the church finally started to loosen some of its practices and traditions. If that contradiction wasn’t conflict enough for one movie, Cathleen is also undergoing a queer awakening whilst surrounded by nuns.
Stars at Noon
One thing that’s gratifying about Margaret—as a highly in-demand actor with a lot of auteurs clamoring to work with her—is that she has many films directed by women in her resume. That includes Claire Denis’ Stars at Noon, a romance between Margaret’s journalist character and a businessman played by Joe Alwyn. The film won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, a feat!
Kinds of Kindness
Margaret plays multiple roles in the Yorgos Lanthimos anthology movie, including a housewife, one half of a polyamorous couple, and identical twins who become the target of a sex cult. Each of the three stories are weird, graphic, and loosely linked. But the cast, which includes Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, and Hong Chau in addition to Margaret, is endlessly watchable.
This film, directed by Gia Coppola, stars Emma Roberts, James Franco, Nat Wolff, Val Kilmer, Talia Shire, Chris Messina, and Margaret of course. It’s based on a series of short stories written by Franco himself. It’s about bored suburban teenagers and the horrible things they get up to, and Margaret plays one of Emma’s character’s soccer teammates. However, spoiler alert: the soccer coach is grooming both girls. Awesome…
Once Upon A Time… in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s epic about Los Angeles in 1969 has a veritable army of stars in the cast. Margaret plays Debra Jo Hillhouse, or “Pussycat,” a hitchhiker whom Brad Pitt’s character drives to a hippie commune on a ranch where he used to do stunt work. The commune turns out to be the Manson family. Pussycat is inspired by a few historical Manson girls including Ruth Ann Moorehouse, who was charged with attempted murder. Ruth Ann, like Margaret’s character in the film, would leave the ranch and lure men with money back on Manson’s orders.
The Nice Guys
Margaret really gives good ’60s/’70s face as we see in many of these movies (as well as Seberg and the bonus mini-series) including The Nice Guys. She plays Amelia, a classic “missing girl” and a person-of-interest in the case that a private detective (and the detective’s precocious daughter) has been hired to solve. This movie is a favorite for cinephiles, Ryan Gosling fans, and everyone in between.
Sanctuary
Margaret plays a dominatrix and Christopher Abbott plays her client who, after one last night together, wants to fire her. Given the nature of their relationship though, he might not be in the best position to do so… Trust us, it’s best to go into this one knowing as little as possible. The twists and turns keep coming until the bitter end!
Maid
As for television, Margaret’s Netflix series Maid was a mega-success with audiences, critics, and awards bodies. The show explored mental wellness, domestic violence, and the cyclical nature of poverty even under government assistance. Not only is Margaret ingenious in the role of a young aspiring writer and single mother who cleans houses to support her family, but she got to act alongside her IRL mother Andie MacDowell!
Fosse/Verdon
This is a mini-series and perhaps not as well known amongst casual Margaret fans as Maid, but it deserves a shout. (Both projects earned her Emmy nominations, after all.) Margaret is so charming and heartbreaking as the dancer/choreographer Ann Reinking. There’s a scene inspired something that actually happened IRL, where she is auditioning for a character in one of Fosse’s films that is based on herself and an argument she had with Fosse himself, that is so maddening and good it might kill you. And Margaret gets to use her own talents as a dancer, which IMHO she doesn’t get to do often enough.
