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The cast of Netflix’s award-winning “The Trial of the Chicago 7” boasts one of the highest pedigrees of any film ensemble in recent memory. Writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s profound retelling of the 1969 legal battle between the federal government and a group of Vietnam War protesters stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, and Jeremy Strong, collectively nominated at the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards for outstanding cast in a motion picture.
As Sorkin points out in the featurette below, any one of those individuals could carry a movie alone. Many of them come to the table with accolades in tow, whether Oscars (Redmayne and Rylance), Emmys (Gordon-Levitt, Strong, and Abdul-Mateen II) or Golden Globes (Keaton and Cohen). “It’s like you’re at the All-Star game and they’re asking you to go throw the ball around,” says Lynch.
Such an assemblage also required respectful artistic collaboration; a vast orchestration of talent brings with it multiple personalities and approaches to navigate. But the actors were as much of an audience for each other as those watching at home. There were frequent opportunities for this team of heavyweights to admire a colleague in action, particularly during the filming of tense courtroom scenes when an ensemble member would step up to deliver a big moment.
WATCH: Gary Oldman on Why ‘Mank’ Is the Role of a Lifetime “It’s really something to put that many actors in a room. We’re getting to observe all of our different processes,” remembers Gordon-Levitt.
“They understand that they’re an ensemble cast, so as a team, they’re there for each other,” adds Sorkin.
For more glimpses at the individual and collective work that makes “The Trial of the Chicago 7” one of the year’s top film award contenders, check out the video below.
For more, go to film.netflixawards.com.