Watchmen (film) - Cast and Characters

Cast and Characters

Production for Watchmen began casting in July 2007 for look-alikes of the era's famous names for the film — something Snyder declared would give the film a "satirical quality" and "create this ’80s vibe" — including Richard Nixon, Leonid Brezhnev, Henry Kissinger, H. R. Haldeman, Ted Koppel, John McLaughlin, Annie Leibovitz, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein, Norman Rockwell, John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Elvis Presley, Mao Zedong, Larry King, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Lee Iacocca, and the Village People. Snyder said he wanted younger actors because of the many flashback scenes, and it was easier to age actors with make-up rather than cast two actors in the same role. Snyder's son cameos as a young Rorschach, while the director himself appears as an American soldier in Vietnam. Actor Thomas Jane was invited by Snyder, but declined to work in the film due to being too busy.

• Jackie Earle Haley as Walter Kovacs / Rorschach: A masked vigilante who continues his extralegal activities after they are outlawed.
  Unlike the other five principal actors, Haley had read the comic and was keen to pursue the role when he heard he had become a favorite candidate among fans. Rorschach wears a mask with ink blots: motion capture markers were put on the contours of Haley's blank mask, for animators to create his ever-changing expressions. Haley has a black belt in Kenpō, but described Rorschach's attack patterns as sloppier and more aggressive due to the character's boxing background. Rorschach appears several times in the movie without his mask before he is apprehended, carrying a placard sign proclaiming, "The End is Nigh", but not until he is unmasked by the police is it made apparent that the sign bearer is Rorschach.
• Patrick Wilson as Daniel Dreiberg / Nite Owl II: A retired superhero with technological expertise.
  Snyder cast Wilson after watching 2006's Little Children, which also co-starred Haley. Wilson put on 25 lbs. to play the overweight Dreiberg. He compared Dreiberg to a soldier who returns from war unable to fit into society.
• Billy Crudup as Jon Osterman / Dr. Manhattan: A superhero with genuine superpowers who works for the U.S. government.
  Crudup plays Osterman in flashbacks as a human and is replaced for his post-accident scenes with a motion-capture CG version of himself. During filming, Crudup acted opposite his co-stars, wearing a white suit covered in blue LEDs, so he would give off an otherworldly glow in real life, just as the computer-generated Manhattan does in the movie. His body was modeled on that of fitness model and actor Greg Plitt. The crew then 3D-digitized Crudup's head and "frankensteined it onto Greg Plitt's body." Snyder chose not to electronically alter Crudup's voice for Manhattan, explaining the character "would try and put everyone as much at ease as he could, instead of having a robotic voice that I think would feel off-putting".
• Malin Åkerman as Laurie Juspeczyk / Silk Spectre II
  Åkerman described her character as the psychology and the emotion of the film due to being the only woman among the men. The actress worked out and trained to fight for her portrayal of the crime fighter.
• Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias: A retired superhero who has since made his identity public.
  Snyder said Goode was "big and tall and lean", which aided in bringing "this beautiful ageless, Aryan superman" feel to the character. Goode interpreted Veidt's back-story to portray him with a German accent in private and an American one in public; Goode explained Veidt gave up his family's wealth and traveled the world, becoming a self-made man because he was ashamed of his parents' Nazi past, which in turn highlighted the themes of the American Dream and the character's duality. Snyder said Goode "fit the bill.... We were having a hard time casting, because we needed someone handsome, beautiful and sophisticated, and that's a tough combo".
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Edward Blake / The Comedian: A superhero who is commissioned by the U.S. government.
  When reading the comic for the part, Morgan stopped when he saw his character was killed off three pages in. When telling his agent he did not want the part, he was told to continue reading it and find out how important his character was. Morgan found the role a challenge, explaining, "For some reason, in reading the novel, you don't hate this guy even though he does things that are unmentionable. My job is to kind of make that translate, so as a viewer you end up not making excuses to like him, but you don't hate him like you should for doing the things that he does." Of his casting, Snyder said, "It's hard to find a man's man in Hollywood. It just is. And Jeffrey came in and was grumpy and cool and grizzled, and I was, like, 'OK, Jeffrey is perfect!'".
• Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter / Silk Spectre: A retired superheroine, mother of Laurie Juspeczyk, former member of The Minutemen, and the first Silk Spectre. Gugino's character ages from 25 years old in the 1940s to 67 years old in the 1980s, and the 37-year-old actress wore prosthetics to reflect the aging process. Gugino described her character's superhero outfit as "Bettie Page meets Alberto Vargas".