Eddington cast and character guide: Who plays whom in the Pedro Pascal starrer Western film

Welcome to Eddington, where the wild west meets 2020 chaos, and nothing is quite what it seems. Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix saddle up for a mind-bending ride through small-town madness, with conspiracy theories, political tension, and a whole lot of unhinged energy.

Ari Aster’s latest turns up the heat with a killer ensemble cast and characters who feel like they’ve crawled out of Twitter threads and old westerns at the same time. From cult leaders to unbothered housewives, here’s your one-stop guide to who’s who in this surreal showdown.

Joaquin Phoenix as Joe Cross

Leading the film is Joaquin Phoenix who plays Joe Cross in Eddington. He’s the sheriff of a dying town and the kind of man who’d rather watch everything burn than admit he’s lost control. With pandemic paranoia, far-right delusions, and a god complex brewing under his dusty hat, Joe is both terrifying and tragic.

Talking about the role, the actor has said during a press conference,

“My intention was to humanize Joe as much as possible. I hoped that anybody that might come in with some preconceived idea of who a conservative sheriff in a small town might be like — I wanted to kind of challenge those ideas, at least initially.”

Pedro Pascal as Ted Garcia

Pedro Pascal plays Mayor Ted Garcia, the composed, technocratic counterweight to Joaquin Phoenix’s conspiratorial Sheriff Joe Cross. Ted is campaigning to bring a massive AI-powered data center to Eddington, promising stability and progress. Pascal is the perfect counterpart to Phoenix's character. Known for leading quite a few films and a charttopping series this year, Pascal blends in perfectly as Garcia in the small town of Mexico.

Emma Stone as Louise

Emma Stone plays Louise Cross, the emotionally fragmented wife of Sheriff Joe Cross. Living under the same roof as her conspiracy-obsessed mother Dawn, Louise becomes vulnerable to fringe ideologies after meeting cult figure Vernon Jefferson Peak played by Austin Butler. To embody Louise, Stone dove into the rabbit hole of online conspiracy culture, admitting the experience warped her own social media algorithm.

Her character performs as both a metaphor for disconnection and a witness to Joe’s unraveling. Though her arc is subtler than others’, Stone’s portrayal grounds the film’s emotional undercurrent with quiet disturbance and internal conflict.

Austin Butler as Vernon Jefferson Peak

Austin Butler portrays Vernon Jefferson Peak, a charismatic and enigmatic online cult figure who quietly fractures Louise’s grip on reality. Initially appearing as a self-help guru with conspiracy-laced monologues, Vernon gradually reveals his dangerous magnetism, drawing her into a fringe digital cult and away from her husband.

Butler is known for his presence in films like Elvis, Dune 2 and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Luke Grimes as Guy

Luke Grimes stars as Guy, a deputy at the Eddington sheriff’s office who becomes Sheriff Joe Cross’s campaign manager, whether he’s ready or not. As protests ignite and slogans get spray‑painted, Guy scrambles to outfit himself in riot gear and deliver campaign lines he doesn’t fully believe. Grimes described him as a “bumbling fool,” timid and overwhelmed, not hateful or sinister. His comedic awkwardness brings dark levity to the film as Aster’s satirical stakes escalate rapidly

Talking about his role, the actor told Esquire,

“He’s a guy who clearly is just afraid and trying to point the finger anywhere. It didn’t read that way in the script originally, but we worked on it, and he became more of a bumbling fool than a hateful person. That was our way into it—just a guy trying to figure it all out and failing miserably.”

The role showcases Grimes’s warmth and timing, offering a fresh contrast to his usual stoic characters.

Deirdre O'Connell as Dawn, Louise's mother

Dawn is Louise Cross’s mother and the family’s conspiratorial anchor: she intuits danger in every algorithm, mindlessly chains theories and turns their lockdown home into a hallucinatory safe space for paranoia.

Deirdre O’Connell, celebrated for her intense theatrical work and winner of a Tony Award, brings Dawn to life with biting precision. Aster handpicked her for the role after seeing her stage brilliance in Dana H., calling her performance “one of the best” he’s seen.

Supporting cast of Eddington

Apart from the main cast, the film includes more performances from a supporting cast that contributes significantly to the film's plot. This includes:

• Micheal Ward as Michael, a young sheriff's trainee
• Amélie Hoeferle as Sarah
• Clifton Collins Jr. as Lodge
• William Belleau as Officer Butterfly Jimenez
• Matt Gomez Hidaka as Eric Garcia, Mayor Garcia's son
• Cameron Mann as Brian
• Rachel de la Torre as Paula
• Landall Goolsby as Will
• Robyn Reede as The Irate Woman
• Elise Falanga as Nicolette
• Robert Mark Wallace as Warren

What is Eddington about?

Eddington is Ari Aster’s take on America slowly losing its grip on reality. Set during the height of the COVID lockdown in a small fictional town in New Mexico, the film follows Sheriff Joe Cross played by Joaquin Phoenix, a local hero who goes rogue by refusing to enforce mask mandates. When he decides to run for mayor against the idealistic incumbent Ted Garcia played by Pedro Pascal, things spiral from local politics to full-on chaos.

On the surface, it’s about pandemic-era unrest, but what it’s really chewing on is deeper: how fear, isolation, and internet-fueled paranoia can tear a society apart. We watch as characters tumble down rabbit holes of conspiracy, extremism, and spiritual weirdness. It’s all painfully familiar and just a little bit surreal.

The second half explodes into violence, and by the end, Joe becomes a puppet mayor, paralyzed, manipulated, and completely removed from the ideals he once fought for. It’s tragic, but also kind of darkly funny in that classic Ari Aster way.

Eddington is now in theaters.

Also Read: Eddington ending explained: Paranoia explodes into public chaos