His eclectic body of work includes such films as The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Little Nikita (1988), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), The Mudge Boy (2003), Burn After Reading (2008), Step Brothers (2008), Let Me In (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Bone Tomahawk (2015), The Last Shift (2020), The Humans (2021), and Nightmare Alley (2021).

[1] He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for the limited drama series Olive Kitteridge (2014).

His earlier film credits include Silverado (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Sea of Love (1989), Blue Steel (1990), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Flirting with Disaster (1996), and Snow Falling On Cedars (1999).

Jenkins co-starred in Guillermo del Toro's fantasy romance drama film The Shape of Water (2017), for which he received critical acclaim.

He and his castmates received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2002.

Starring alongside Evan Peters and Molly Ringwald, Jenkins appears in all ten episodes of the series created by Ryan Murphy.

[11] His performance was described in The New Yorker as "brilliant,"[12] and he was nominated for the 2023 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie.

[14][15] In 2014, Jenkins and his wife Sharon received the Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement from Trinity Repertory Company in Providence.