Where You Know The Cast Of Babylon From

From "La la Land" director Damien Chazelle comes another film that pulls back the curtain on the movie making industry. Set in the 1920s, "Babylon" follows Jack Conrad, played by Brad Pitt, a leading man with much of his career in the rear-view mirror, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), a Hollywood star on the rise, and Manny Torres (Diego Calva), an aspiring filmmaker who works his way up the show business ladder.

As silent films were being replaced by "talkies," a whole new world of opportunities and threats emerged. "I wanted to capture just how big and bold and brash and unapologetic that world was," the Oscar-winning director told Vanity Fair. "It was really a wild West period for these people, this gallery of characters, as they rise and fall, rise, fall, rise again, fall again."

And what a gallery of characters, indeed. "Babylon" boasts an ensemble that features some newcomers, such as breakout star Diego Calva, but the roster also includes some Hollywood veterans, such as a Marvel superhero, a TV legend, a horror film favorite, and a Grammy-winning musician. The stars are so bright that you'll wish you had a clapperboard handy to shield your eyes.

Brad Pitt first caught Tinseltown's attention as a hunky con man in 1991's "Thelma and Louise." "After 'Thelma & Louise' I was offered hitchhiker roles, which is no surprise — but you would be surprised at how many hitchhiker roles there were," he told The New York Times. "A River Runs Through It" and his turn in "Interview with a Vampire" proved he was destined for stardom. In the 2005 spy thriller "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," Pitt went toe-to-toe with his now-estranged wife Angelina Jolie.

The Hollywood A-lister also starred alongside Edward Norton in 1999's "Fight Club." In "Moneyball,' he played Oakland A's manager Billy Beane. "I'm a sucker for injustice stories and wanting to right the injustice," Pitt said to The Hollywood Reporter in 2011 about the sports drama. The actor who portrays a matinée idol in "Babylon," won his first Academy Award in 2020 for his performance in another Tinseltown drama, playing movie stuntman Cliff Booth in "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood."

"He's one of the last remaining big-screen movie stars," Quentin Tarantino, who directed the film, said of Pitt in GQ. "And frankly, I don't think you can describe exactly what that is because it's like describing starshine," Tarantino added. In 2022, Pitt unleashed his killer instinct, playing an assassin named Ladybug in the action-packed thriller "Bullet Train," facing off with the likes of Bad Bunny and Brian Tyree Henry.

In "Babylon," Jovan Adepo plays a jazz trumpet player named Sidney Palmer. Getting his start as a professional actor in 2015, Adepo has already amassed an impressive list of credits. He played Hooded Justice in the HBO limited series "Watchmen," was one of the main characters in the 2020 adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand," and acted opposite Viola Davis and Denzel Washington in the critically acclaimed adaptation of August Wilson's play "Fences." 

While many up-and-coming actors cut their teeth in the indie film world or low budget TV shows, Adepo's career officially began with a prestige series. As he shared in The New York Times Style Magazine, "My first job was 'The Leftovers' [from 2015-17]. That was with no résumé, but the creator of the show, Damon Lindelof, saw my audition and was like, 'That guy.' He took me out of Inglewood, working at Sunglass Hut."

Becoming an actor wasn't always Adepo's plan. As he told Interview, he moved to Los Angeles in 2011 to try to pursue a writing career, but one thing led to another, and he switched gears. "I had taken a couple acting workshops—commercial workshops—here and there, and every time I had taken one the teachers told me that I should take it seriously," he recalled. Safe to say, that pivot worked out.  

"Babylon" actor Eric Roberts is among the most prolific character actors in the business, with more than 700 credits on his IMDb profile. "The way I look at it is that I'm one of the luckiest guys in Hollywood," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. 1978's "King of the Gypsies" was his first film, alongside relative newcomer Susan Sarandon. "I was a 21-year-old kid who was scared to death," Roberts said in Vanity Fair in 2018.

His vast list of credits includes a small-time hustler slash killer in Bob Fosse's "Star 80" and a wannabe mobster named Paulie in "The Pope of Greenwich Village." In the 1996 film "It's My Party," Roberts portrayed Nick, a man dying from AIDS as he plans one final hurrah. The actor, who also appeared in 2010's "The Expendables," explained to Uproxx that he tries to find the lighter side of darker stories. "You have to find a way to relieve the audience. They have to be relieved from the constant bang, bang, bang. This is serious. This has meaning." 

In recurring roles, Roberts played Robert Avery (Jesse Williams' on-screen dad) on "Grey's Anatomy," as well as Junior in HBO's "The Righteous Gemstones." "I've seen the whole planet. I've seen the whole thing," the "Suits" alum said to Uproxx. "All of the Arctics. I've seen everything. I've seen everybody. We have the best jobs on the planet."

In "Babylon," TV icon Jean Smart plays a fictional celebrity gossip columnist. Smart first became a household name in the 1980s playing the ditzy Charlene Frazier on the beloved female-centric sitcom "Designing Women." She won back-to-back Emmys for her guest-starring turn on "Frasier," as Lana, an old flame with a rather short fuse. "The character was just so much fun, just her, the way she'd turn on a dime with her anger issues," Smart told Parade. She earned another Emmy as Christina Applegate's self-centered mom in ABC's comedy series "Samantha Who?"

Smart is known for playing more than just comedic roles. She took on the role of Floyd Gerhardt, the head of a North Dakota crime family, on Season 2 of "Fargo." Speaking to Fox News in 2016, the actor said of the part, "She is not an easily intimidated person, but she's a mother so that's her weak spot." In 2021, Smart played Kate Winslet's sarcastic mother in HBO's critically acclaimed crime drama "Mare of Easttown."

In 2022, Smart picked up yet another trophy for her role on HBO's hit series "Hacks," playing Deborah Vance, a sharp-tongued comic trying to revive her fading career. In an interview with The Guardian, Smart admitted she and her character have a few things in common. "We both like leopard print and sequins," she said. But there's more to the connection than a fondness for flashy fashion choices. "I'm a smarta** like her – sarcasm is in my arsenal," she added.

"Babylon" actor Jeff Garlin is the co-star and executive producer of HBO's long-running comedy series "Curb Your Enthusiasm," alongside Larry David. "The fact that it's gone on to be a big success, I am shocked. Because it truly was something that was organic, that we did to make ourselves laugh," Garlin told The Guardian in 2011. 

Garlin teamed up with Steve Zahn and Eddie Murphy in the 2003 film "Daddy Day Care," playing three out-of-work dads who start up their own daycare center. The comedic actor also played Marvin on "Mad About You," alongside Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt. You may also remember him as Mort Myers on Netflix's "Arrested Development." But his best-known role to date is playing Murray Goldberg in ABC's "The Goldbergs," a popular sitcom about a Philadelphia-area Jewish family in the '80s.

Based on series creator Adam F. Goldberg's dad, Murray is a crusty father of three who loves his family, but really likes his peace and quiet. When Goldberg approached him about the role, Garlin told Parade there were two things that sealed the deal: "The script I really liked, and I saw Adam's home movies, and I thought, "Oh, this is something that could be really fun and something I could do."

Katherine Waterston's breakout role came in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2014 film "Inherent Vice" as Shasta Fay, Joaquin Phoenix's hippie girlfriend. "Paul really did pluck me from obscurity," the daughter of "Law & Order" actor Sam Waterston told Indiewire in 2021. "I was making my way like a scrappy underdog actor in New York does, job to job." You also may remember her as Michael Fassbender's other half in "Steve Jobs."

Needless to say, obscurity is a thing of the past for the "Babylon" actor. After first appearing alongside George Clooney and Tilda Swinton in the legal drama Michael Clayton back in 2007, she moved onto roles in "Boardwalk Empire," "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her," which stars Jessica Chastain, and the sci-fi action flick "Alien: Covenant." In 2016, Katherine took on the role of Tina, the well-intentioned, though not always welcomed, wizard in 2016's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," and its sequels.

"I have played a lot of [dark characters]," she acknowledged to Refinery29 in 2020. "One of the pleasures with [HBO's series] 'Third Day' was just not being the person going through hell, you know?" In the 2020 period drama "World to Come," Katherine and Vanessa Kirby star as two women in traditional marriages hopelessly in love with each other. Katherine, who provides the narration for the film, told Indiewire, "What really excited and struck me about it right away was how intimate, how deeply interior that voiceover read on the page."

Before "Babylon," Olivia Wilde launched her career on TV, playing Alex Kelly, a bisexual teen on "The O.C." On the show, Alex had relationships with both Seth and Marissa, played by Adam Brody and Mischa Barton respectively. Looking back at her character's arc on the primetime soap, she told Elle in 2019, "We thought we were so woke in 2003! So much has changed, it's incredible." The actor's signature TV role is Dr. Remy Hadley, a.k.a. "Thirteen," in the medical series "House," which starred Hugh Laurie.

"My work has gotten so much better from being on the show and learning from Hugh and all the other actors," Wilde shared with E! News in 2011. "My film career is thanks to 'House.'" In the 2011 sci-fi action film "Tron: Legacy," Wilde plays sexy sword-wielding warrior Quorra, a role she described to Den of Geek as "the biggest departure from myself that I've played in a long time." The actor also appeared alongside Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks in the 2012 dramedy "People Like Us."

In 2018, Wilde teamed up with Oscar Isaac on "Life Itself." Alas, the film, which was directed by Dan Fogelman ("This is Us"), was panned by critics and flopped at the box office. Wilde also both acted in and directed 2022's "Don't Worry Darling," which stars her now ex-partner Harry Styles.