Meet the ‘Whalefall’ Cast (With Pictures)
The ‘Whalefall’ cast brings together a mix of genre veterans and rising leads for a survival thriller scheduled to reach United States theaters on October 16. The film adapts Daniel Kraus’ acclaimed novel and centers on a scuba diver who is swallowed by a sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.
Brian Duffield directs from a screenplay he wrote with Kraus, and Ron Howard serves as a producer. Here is a closer look at each actor and the role they play in the film.
Austin Abrams
Austin Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, the youngest child of Mitt and Zara. Jay dives off California’s central coast to search for his late father’s remains.
Once a sperm whale swallows him, Jay is left with just one hour of oxygen in his tank. The trailer pairs the survival struggle with the emotional weight of his father’s death, which makes the film as much a family drama as a creature thriller.
Abrams was cast in the lead role before the rest of the ensemble came together. He is also set to lead Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ after this release.
Josh Brolin
Josh Brolin plays Mitt Gardiner, Jay’s father. He arrived on the project as the star of ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘Dune’.
The casting reunites him with Abrams, who both appear in ‘Weapons’. That shared history gives the father and son pairing a familiar working rhythm before the story even begins.
A released clip shows Jay learning about sperm whales from his father, and it makes clear how condescending Mitt can be toward his son. That strained relationship plays a major role in the novel, according to Dread Central.
Brolin heads back to cinemas after this film in a ‘Dune’ sequel directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Elisabeth Shue
Elisabeth Shue plays Zara Gardiner, Jay’s mother. Her role as Jay’s mother was confirmed in the run up to the first teaser trailer.
Deadline reported exclusively that Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy and Emily Rudd rounded out the cast, with Austin Abrams and Josh Brolin already starring.
Shue arrives with a wide range of genre credits. Those include ‘The Karate Kid’, ‘Piranha 3D’ and ‘The Boys’.
John Ortiz
John Ortiz plays a character named Hewey. When he joined the project, details on the characters the new cast members would play had not been revealed.
His recent credits include ‘The Madness’, ‘American Fiction’ and ‘Fast & Furious’.
The sources available so far do not spell out what role Hewey plays in Jay’s story. That leaves the character as one of the few open questions about the ensemble heading into opening weekend.
Jane Levy
Jane Levy plays Eva Gardiner, the eldest child of Mitt and Zara. Her character completes the sibling trio that surrounds Jay.
Levy is best known to genre audiences for ‘Evil Dead’. That background fits a film built on survival tension and physical dread.
The story has been described as ‘The Martian’ meets ‘127 Hours’, a scientifically accurate thriller about a diver trapped inside a whale. Levy’s role adds the family perspective outside the whale to that survival premise.
Emily Rudd
Emily Rudd plays Nan Gardiner, the middle child of Mitt and Zara. Together with Levy and Abrams, she rounds out the Gardiner siblings.
Rudd previously signed on for the ‘Fear Street’ trilogy, where she played the older sister of Sadie Sink’s character. She also plays Nami in Netflix’s live action ‘One Piece’ series.
With the Gardiner siblings and their father’s hard earned lessons at the center of the story, which member of the family do you think will matter most to Jay once he is trapped inside the whale?
