The Reader (2008 Film) - Cast

Cast

• Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz. Entertainment Weekly reported that to "age Hanna from cool seductress to imprisoned war criminal, Winslet endured seven and a half hours of makeup and prosthetic prep each day."
• David Kross as Michael Berg when he is 15 and falls in love with Hanna, and when he is a 23-year-old law school student.
• Ralph Fiennes as Michael Berg as an adult. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly writes that "Ralph Fiennes has perhaps the toughest job, playing the morose adult Michael — a version, we can assume, of the author. Fiennes masters the default demeanor of someone perpetually pained."
• Alexandra Maria Lara as young Ilana Mather, a former victim of the concentration camp where Schmitz worked as a guard.
• Bruno Ganz as Professor Rohl, a Holocaust survivor and one of Michael's teachers at Heidelberg University.
• Lena Olin as Rose Mather (Ilana's mother) who testifies alongside her daughter at Hanna Schmitz's trial. She also plays the older Ilana Mather, whom Michael visits at the end of the film.
• Vijessna Ferkic as Sophie, Michael's friend at high school.
• Hannah Herzsprung as Julia, Michael Berg's daughter.
• Karoline Herfurth as Marthe, Michael's love interest at university.
• Burghart Klaußner as the judge at Schmitz's trial.