The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008 Film) - Cast

Cast

• Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, an alien messenger in human form. Reeves dislikes remakes, but was impressed by the script, which he deemed a reimagining. He enjoyed the original film as a child and became fonder of it as an adult when he understood how relevant it was, but prefers this version because it lacked the contradictory message of Klaatu "laying down the law almost as though the alien had the bigger stick." Reeves acknowledged his Klaatu is "inverted" from the original, starting "sinister and tough" but becoming "more human," whereas the original was "more human than human" before revealing his "big stick" in his ending speech. He compared the remake's Klaatu to the wrathful God who floods the world in the Old Testament, but is gentle and forgiving by the time of the New Testament. He spent many weeks revising the script, trying to make Klaatu's transition from alien in human form to one who appreciates their emotions and beliefs subtle and nuanced. Derrickson, the director, said that although Reeves would not use actions "that are highly unusual or highly quirky", he nevertheless "keeps you aware of the fact that this being you're walking through this movie with is not a human being." At Reeves' insistence, the classic line "Klaatu barada nikto" was added to the script after initially being omitted. The line was recorded many times, and it was decided to combine two recordings: one where Reeves said it normally, and a reversed version where he said the line backwards, creating an "alien" effect.
• Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson, a famed astrobiologist at Princeton University who is recruited by the government to study Klaatu. Connelly was Derrickson's first choice for the part. She is a fan of the original film and felt Patricia Neal's original portrayal of Helen was "fabulous", but trusted the filmmakers with their reinterpretation of the story and of Helen, who was a secretary in the original. Connelly emphasized that Helen is amazed when she meets Klaatu, as she never believed she would encounter a sentient alien like him, after speculating on extraterrestrial life for so long. Connelly was dedicated to understanding her scientific jargon, with Seth Shostak stating she did "everything short of writing a NASA grant application".
• Jaden Smith as Jacob Benson, Helen's rebellious eight-year-old stepson. His conflict with his stepmother was worsened by the death of his father, and he initially dislikes Klaatu, believing him to be a potential stepfather. Jacob replaces the character of Bobby (Billy Gray) in the original, and his relationship with Helen was written as a microcosm of how Klaatu comes to see humanity – the alien sees their cold and distant relationship as normal human behavior, and their reconciliation forces him to change his mind. Smith had met Keanu Reeves before - on the set of The Matrix sequels, which featured his mother Jada Pinkett-Smith - although he was only three years old at the time.
• John Cleese as Professor Karl Barnhardt, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who specializes in the evolutionary basis of altruism. Helen takes Klaatu to him to further change his mind. The role was the most difficult to cast, and eventually the filmmakers decided to approach Cleese, noting "Who would you rather make the argument for mankind than John Cleese?" Stoff, a producer, had met Cleese a few times beforehand and had noted his intellect. The actor was surprised the filmmakers were interested in him, and decided playing a dramatic role would be easier than to play a comedic one at his age. He was often reminded to speed up his dialogue so that Reeves would not appear in synchronity with normal human speech patterns. Cleese said he is not interested in extraterrestrial life because he often philosophizes about the purpose of life and why humans are distracted by trivial matters. Cleese spoke about portraying abilities outside his own experience in the scene in which Klaatu corrects a formula Barnhardt has written on a blackboard: "The trouble is, I had to be able to write the equation, because Barnhardt has been working on it for 60 years. I learned to carefully copy things down that mean nothing to me at all. In A Fish Called Wanda, I spoke a lot of Russian without having any idea what it means." The crew enjoyed working with Cleese and were sad when he finished filming his part.
• Jon Hamm as Dr. Michael Granier, a NASA official who recruits Helen into his scientific team investigating Klaatu. Granier is fascinated by Klaatu, but is torn between his official obligation to detain the alien and protect his country. Hamm acknowledged science fiction was a niche genre when the original film was made, and that it used science fiction to make topical issues more approachable. Hamm had the same feelings for this remake. Originally, Hamm's character was French and named Michel. Although he is interested in math and science, Hamm found his technical dialogue difficult and had to film his lines repeatedly.
• Kathy Bates as Regina Jackson, the United States Secretary of Defense. Bates only had two weeks to film her scenes, so she often requested Derrickson act out her lines so she would directly understand his aims for her dialogue, rather than interpret vague directions.
• Kyle Chandler as John Driscoll, an official in the US Government, who goes down to check out the research on Gort, where his actions lead to the deaths of everyone in the base including himself, as the base is put into a lockdown.
• James Hong as Mr. Wu
• Brandon T. Jackson as Target Tech