While most people may recognize Juno Temple from her role in the Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso, her acting career actually spans more than two decades. Temple is the child of film producer Amanda Pirie and film director Julien Temple so frankly, she was raised to be in the film industry. Temple began acting at a very young age, appearing in several small roles before the age of ten, but her first major performance was in 2007’s Atonement. While she was able to show off her acting chops and work with some major talent, her career did not drastically take off, though she was able to expand the area she worked in. Temple had shown that she could take on serious acting roles and more were being given to her. Temple was able to expand her acting repotoire and eventually was able to get some bigger roles, leading the pack in Kirsten Dunst’s acclaimed short film Bastard.
Juno Temple’s most well-known and possibly most acclaimed performance to date is clearly in Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, but she was always a dramatic actor before this big success, having never done much comedy. Mastering the role of Keeley Jones allowed Temple to yet again expand her repertoire of possible roles and has catupulted her into international fame. Temple’s portrayal of Keeley is not only beloved but also a role model for many, and the actor’s ability to shift from dramatic roles to comedy may be a challenge for many, but she makes it look easy. Here are her best performances.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
5 Magic Magic
In Magic Magic, Temple plays Alicia, a young girl leaving the U.S. for the first time to visit her cousin studying in Chile. Once she arrives, she accompanies her cousin Sara and a group of friends (including Michael Cera) on a road trip to an island off the coast of Chile. Throughout the trip Alicia grows increasingly paranoid and starts behaving oddly, suffering vertigo and hallucinations, and eventually experiences a mental breakdown. Temple portrays mental health issues as humanely as possible, replicating the challenging experience of descending into madness. Temple is perfect here, and director Sebastian Silva allows (or even forces) the audience to feel exactly what she feels.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
4 Vinyl
This role was not only Temple’s television debut but one in which she became a breakout star. In Vinyl, Temple may have starred alongside Bobby Cannavale and Ray Romano, but she was still able to make herself seen as Jamie Vine, an assistant desperate to make a name for herself in the patriarchal music industry of the ’70s (a scene Temple’s father was immersed in). Jamie is pushed into the role of coffee runner instead of a real record company employee, though, so she hand-picks a band she believes is the key to her success. Temple is truly able to hold her own amidst the fashion, music, stars and gaudy excitement of the series, and really matures here. Not only is this her first television role, but it’s Temple’s first role where she actually plays her age– up until this point, Temple had regularly portrayed younger girls due to her youthful looks (despite being in her thirties). She has said that her acclaimed role in Vinyl felt like a coming of age for her because of this, joking to The Guardian, “I’ve finally hit puberty on camera.” This role was a true standout for Temple as it not only gave her a platform to work with large names, but made her known all over the world. While her role in Vinyl may not be Temple’s most well know, it is one of her best.
3 Palmer
Apple TV+
Temple does not play the largest role in this film but her acting is some of the most powerfully impactful on audiences in this heartbreaking film. In Palmer, Temple plays drug abuser named Shelly who struggles to care for her son, Sam. Eddie Palmer (played by Justin Timberlake in his most affecting performance) begins to help Shelly care for Sam and eventually fully takes over Sam’s parental role. When Shelly leaves town with her abusive boyfriend, Eddie is forced to care for Sam full-time. Movieweb writer Julian Roman explains how Temple and the director take a character with less screen time and turn her into a powerhouse part of the film:
This role shows off Temple’s skills of playing serious characters with challenging circumstances, but giving them empathy and humanity.
2 Atonement
Atonement is Temple’s most well-known unknown role– the film was very well-received by audiences and Temple played a pivotal role in it, but she’s almost unrecognizable (both in personality and with her Annie-like curly, red hair) and thus many are unable to connect her and the role itself. In Atonement, Temple plays Lola Quincey, cousin to the central family in the film. Lola is a 15-year-old who is raped, and the man who is convicted for the crime is innocent. The man who raped Lola eventually marries her, and the confused child doesn’t understand the devastating trauma she’s both endured and participated in. Temple plays this role perfectly and, as usual, was much older and wiser than her character. She’s able to capture the fear and angst that Lola feels at the time of the rape, yet she is also able to express the hesitant joy Lola feels when she marries her rapist (played by a slimy Benedict Cumberbatch in one of his earliest film roles). Temple encapsulates this troubling, complicated character’s range of emotions perfectly.
1 Ted Lasso
Ted Lasso is Juno Temple’s most well-known role, and her most delightful. Temple plays the girlfriend of one of the Richmond players, Jamie Tartt. At first, Keeley seems like the girl who dates football players for the associated fame but over time viewers learn that Keeley is very kind, resourceful, and intelligent. Eventually, Keeley ends her relationship with Jamie because she realizes his childishness and wants a mature relationship, something which could be seen as an adequate metaphor for the maturation of Temple’s career. The performances from Temple and Brett Goldstein (playing her future partner Roy Kent) make the couple even better than they appear on the page; if the role of Keeley had been played by anyone but Temple, she would have come off very differently, perhaps even naive or ditzy. Temple plays Keeley as a young woman who is self-aware and able to recognize something about herself and change it when she wants to. Temple’s performance here is so welcoming and wholesome, and fashion juggernaut Marie Claire has called it “one of the sunniest character’s on TV’s warm-and-fuzziest show.” Even people who may not directly understand Keeley as a character can relate to her because of Temple’s performance, which brings the person to life in tender, humorous ways. It’s exciting to think of what may come of Keeley (and Juno Temple) in season three.
