Children of Men

Cast

Clive Owen (pictured at the films premier in Mexico City, 2006) was cast as the lead role
  • Clive Owen as Thelonius "Theo" Faron, a former activist who was devastated when his child died during a flu pandemic.[12] Theo is the "archetypal everyman" who reluctantly becomes a saviour.[13][14] Cast in April 2005,[15] Owen spent several weeks collaborating with Cuarón and Sexton on his role. Impressed by Owen's creative insights, Cuarón and Sexton brought him on board as a writer.[16] "Clive was a big help", Cuarón told Variety. "I would send a group of scenes to him, and then I would hear his feedback and instincts."[17]
  • Clare-Hope Ashitey as Kee, an asylum seeker and the first pregnant woman in eighteen years. She did not appear in the book, and was written into the film based on Cuarón's interest in the recent single-origin hypothesis of human origins and the status of dispossessed people:[18] "The fact that this child will be the child of an African woman has to do with the fact that humanity started in Africa. We're putting the future of humanity in the hands of the dispossessed and creating a new humanity to spring out of that."[19]
  • Julianne Moore as Julian Taylor. For Julian, Cuarón wanted an actress who had the "credibility of leadership, intelligence, [and] independence".[16] Moore was cast in June 2005, initially to play the first woman to become pregnant in 20 years.[20] "She is just so much fun to work with", Cuarón told Cinematical. "She is just pulling the rug out from under your feet all the time. You don't know where to stand, because she is going to make fun of you."[16]
  • Michael Caine as Jasper Palmer, Theo's dealer and friend. Caine based Jasper on his experiences with friend John Lennon[16] – the first time he had portrayed a character who would fart or smoke cannabis.[21] Cuarón explains, "Once he had the clothes and so on and stepped in front of the mirror to look at himself, his body language started changing. Michael loved it. He believed he was this guy".[21] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune notices an apparent homage to Schwartz in Orson Welles' film noir Touch of Evil (1958). Jasper calls Theo "amigo"—just as Schwartz referred to Ramon Miguel Vargas.[22] Jasper's cartoons, seen in his house, were provided by Steve Bell.[23]
  • Pam Ferris as Miriam
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor as Luke
  • Charlie Hunnam as Patric
  • Peter Mullan as Syd
  • Danny Huston as Nigel, Theo's cousin and a high-ranking government official. Nigel runs a Ministry of Arts programme "Ark of the Arts", which "rescues" works of art such as Michelangelo's David, Pablo Picasso's Guernica, and Banksy's Kissing Coppers.
  • Paul Sharma as Ian
  • Jacek Koman as Tomasz
  • Juan Gabriel Yacuzzi as 'Baby' Diego, the world's youngest surviving human, born shortly before the global infertility incident.
  • Ed Westwick as Alex, Nigel's son

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