Cast of Inception

The 2010 science fiction action heist movie Inception was written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-produced it with his wife, Emma Thomas. In the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a professional thief who enters his victims' subconscious to steal information. He can have his criminal record erased in exchange for implanting someone else's concept into the target's mind.

The extensive cast includes Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao, and Michael Caine. Inception debuted in London on July 8, 2010, and on July 16, 2010, it was released in regular and IMAX theaters. With nearly $837 million in global revenue, Inception ranked as the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2010.

Cast of Inception

Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb

The American actor and film producer Leonardo Dicaprio portrays Dom Cobb in the movie. Dom Cobb is a skilled thief who specializes in using his victims' nightmares to trick them into disclosing secrets. Cobb has been compared to "the haunted widower in a Gothic romance" for his performance.

Known for his roles in a variety of successful films, Dicaprio has won multiple awards, including three Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a British Academy Film Award. His films have made over $7.2 billion globally as of 2019, and he has been ranked eight times on the yearly list of the highest-paid actors in the world.

Ken Watanabe as Saito

The Japanese actor Ken Watanabe portrays Saito in the movie. Cobb is hired by Japanese businessman Saito for the team's mission. Inception is the first work by Watanabe in a modern context where English is his primary language.

Watanabe attempted to highlight a distinct aspect of Saito in each dream level: "First chapter in my castle, I pick up some hidden feelings of the cycle. It's magical, powerful and then the first dream. And back to the second chapter, in the old hotel, I pick up [being] sharp and more calm and smart and it's a little bit [of a] different process to make up the character of any movie".

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur

The American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays Arthur in the movie. Cobb's partner Arthur is in charge of overseeing and investigating the operations.

Gordon-Levitt described Arthur as, "the one saying, 'Okay, you have your vision; now I'm going to figure out how to make all the nuts and bolts work so you can do your thing'". The actor claimed that the preparation "was a challenge and it would have to be for it to look real" after doing all but one of his stunt scenes.

Marion Cotillard as Mal

The French actress Marion Cotillard portrays Mal, Cobb’s dead wife in the movie. She is a portrayal of Cobb's guilt over Mal's suicide's true cause. These projections of her are out of his control, which tests his extraction skills.

French actress Marion Cotillard has starred in both European and Hollywood productions. She has won two César Awards, a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, and a British Academy Film Award. She was designated a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2016 after being made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2010. In the same year, she was upgraded to Officer.

Elliot Page as Ariadne

The Canadian actor and producer Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page) portrays Ariadne in the movie. Ariadne, an architectural graduate student, is hired to build the different dreamscapes, which are characterized as labyrinths.

Since "she's just learning about these ideas and, in essence, assists the audience in learning about dream sharing," Page explained, their character serves as a stand-in for the audience.

Tom Hardy as Eames

The English actor Tom Hardy (Edward Thomas Hardy) portrayed Eames in the movie. Eames is a sharp-tongued colleague of Cobb. He is known as a fence, his area of expertise is identity theft, or more precisely, forgery. Eames manipulates Fischer in the dream world by using his ability to impersonate others.

Wearing "campy, old money" clothing, Hardy characterized his character as "an old, Graham Greene-type diplomat; sort of faded, shabby, grandeur—the old Shakespeare lovey mixed with somebody from Her Majesty's Special Forces."

Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer

The Irish actor Cillian Murphy portrays Robert Fischer in the movie. Robert Fischer is Cobb's team's target, as the heir to a business empire.

Murphy stated that Fischer was depicted as "a petulant child who's in need of a lot of attention from his father, he has everything he could ever want materially, but he's deeply lacking emotionally". In order "to add to that the idea of living in the shadow of someone so immensely powerful," the actor also studied Rupert Murdoch's sons.

Murphy has received an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award for his theatrical and film efforts.

Tom Berenger as Peter Browning

The American actor Tom Berenger portrays Peter Browning in the movie. Peter Browning, a fellow CEO at the Fischers' company, is Robert Fischer's godfather.

Berenger highlighted that "Browning has been with [Robert] his whole life and has probably spent more quality time with him than his own father" and claimed that Browning serves as a "surrogate father" to Fischer, who refers to the character as "Uncle Peter."

Michael Caine as Stephen Miles

The retired English actor Michael Caine portrays Stephen Miles in the movie. He is Cobb's mentor and father-in-law and also Ariadne's college professor and the person who suggests her to the team.

Known for his unique Cockney accent, Caine is regarded as a British cultural icon and has starred in over 160 films during his eight-decade career. Among his numerous awards are two Academy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Golden Globes. As of 2017, Caine's roles in movies have brought in over $7.8 billion globally. Caine is among the only five male performers who have received Academy Award nominations for their work in five distinct decades. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 2000.

​​Dileep Rao as Yusuf

The American actor Dileep Rao portrays Yusuf in the movie. Yusuf is described by Rao as "an avant-garde pharmacologist, who is a resource for people, like Cobb, who want to do this work unsupervised, unregistered and unapproved of by anyone.”

Rao was chosen because he was "funny, interesting, and obviously smart," according to co-producer Jordan Goldberg, who also added that the chemist character was "particularly tough because you don't want him to seem like some kind of drug dealer."

Lukas Haas as Nash

The American actor and musician Lukas Haas portrayed Nash in the movie. He works with Cobb as an architect and betrays the crew; Ariadne eventually takes his place.

Throughout his forty-year acting career, he has acted in over fifty feature films, as well as several television series and theater productions. Witness (1985), Mars Attacks! (1996), Inception (2010), The Revenant (2015), and First Man (2018) are some of his well-known roles.

Talulah Riley

Eames disguises himself as "Blonde" in a dream, played by Talulah Riley. Even though the role was limited, Riley enjoyed it: "I get to wear a nice dress, pick up men in bars, and shove them in elevators. It was good to do something adult-ish. Usually, I play 15-year-old English schoolgirls."

Pete Postlethwaite as Maurice Fischer

Late actor Pete Postlethwaite portrays Maurice Fischer in the movie. Maurice Fischer, the dying founder of a commercial empire, is Robert Fischer's father. Pete Postlethwaite is an English artist renowned for his work as a character actor.