Edward Norton was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his first film, Primal Fear, which requires him to perform a deception on the audience as well as the characters.
American History X earned a Best Actor nomination, and he gained substantial muscle for it. Fight Club gave him the narrator, and the performance is deliberately unremarkable so the other one can be.
He has a persistent reputation for involving himself in editing and rewriting, which has cost him relationships with several productions including The Incredible Hulk.
Birdman and Moonrise Kingdom show a comic register, and he directed Motherless Brooklyn from a novel he spent twenty years adapting.
