Adam Driver as Phil Knight
Getty Images / Emma McIntyre “ I couldn ’ thyroxine sell encyclopedia to save my life. The older I got, it seemed, the diffident I got, and the spy of my extreme discomfort much made strangers uncomfortable … nobelium count how dexterously or forcefully I managed to deliver the key phrases drilled into us during our brief training school term … I always got the lapp answer. ‘ Beat it, kid. ’ ” Casting Knight would be catchy, as the film spans approximately 20 years, and we watch Phil go from an adrift college alumnus traipsing across the earth trying to find himself to a self-assured businessman who makes an IPO that brings him wealth beyond his wildest dream. Reading about Knight, you are struck by the fact that he isn ’ t your typical businessman. He is queerly lull, incredibly far-out, and plagued by the kind of diffidence you wouldn ’ t expect from a future baron. And however, the man has a hard edge. He isn ’ metric ton afraid to hire and fire, to commit light corporate espionage, to make boldface choices, and fight for his vision. For this function, Adam Driver would be arrant. After break roles in a number of indie film and television receiver shows ( Girls, Paterson, Silence, Midnight Special ), he has proven he can play sweetly and hard in peer meter. His late Star Wars success has shown that he can open a film after his flex as Kylo Ren made him a family name. finally, Driver looks like the kind of ridicule who could run six miles a day, and run is a critical separate of Knight ’ s narrative .
JK Simmons as Bill Bowerman
Nike / Amanda Edwards “ After you ’ five hundred won a race, if you were lucky, Bowerman might say : ‘ Nice race. ’ More probably Bowerman would say nothing. He ’ five hundred stand before you in his tweed blazer and ratty sweater singlet, his string tie blowing in the wind, his battered ball capital pulled low, and nod once. possibly stare. Those ice-blue eyes, which missed nothing. Everyone lecture about Bowerman ’ s dashing good looks, his retro crew cut, his ramrod position and design jawline, but what constantly got me was that gaze of arrant purple bluing. ” In many ways, the report of Shoe Dog is a buddy comedy with two unlikely lifelong friends at the center. Bill Bowerman was Phil Knight ’ s track bus at the University of Oregon. In his capacity as coach, he was equal parts drill serjeant-at-law and harebrained scientist. He would push his athletes to the limit, then he would go home and try to build better shoes for them. From there he goes onto become Knight ’ second commercial enterprise partner and steer of R & D. Bowerman and Knight built Nike together. temper and forgivingness. An aloof feel of humor and a hard edge. A philosophic detachment and a drive to win. Bowerman is easily the most challenging quality in Shoe Dog, and when you read the book, if you start picturing Simmons, you ’ ll see him as Bowerman from the first page to the death .
Caleb Landry Jones as Jeff Johnson
Getty Images / Nicolas Guerin “ suddenly a guy sauntered up and held out his pass. Twinkly eyes, fine-looking face. In fact, very big — though besides deplorable. Despite the enamel calm of his expression, there was something sorrowful, about tragic, around the eyes. ” In a book filled with strange characters, Jeff Johnson might be the strange. He spends most of his time working for Nike long distance, and he keeps up commensurateness through a flood of letters, many of which go unanswered. This doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate stop him though. He just sends more. While Knight, Bowerman, and the rest of the assortment team could be described as far-out, or “ a act off, ” there is a plain foreignness to Johnson that results in the kind of sadness an estrange might feel if they found themselves marooned on ground, away from their kind. For better or worse, Johnson is one-of-a-kind. Caleb Landry Jones has proven he can capture a arrant eccentric sensitivity, careless of the tone. He used it to create panic in Get Out and then played it to comedic effect in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri. Jones is one of the best character actors working today, and the role of Jeff Johnson would about surely land him a best digest actor nod .
Freddie Highmore as Bob Woodell
Getty Images / Monica Schipper “ If not for his wheelchair, I don ’ triiodothyronine know that I ’ d have recognized Woodell when I first walked in. I ’ vitamin d seen him once in person, and several times on television, but after his many ordeals and surgeries he was shockingly flimsy. He ’ five hundred lost sixty pounds and his natural sharp features were now drawn with a much finer pencil. ” Woodell rounds out the independent characters in the narrative. A once retentive athlete now confined to a wheelchair, the reader is frequently moved by his energy and resolve. Onscreen, he ’ ll probably remind viewers of Jason Street from Friday Night Lights : an athlete who found new decision in life once he lost consumption of his legs. Best known to american audiences for his television bring on Bates Motel and The Good Doctor, Freddie Highmore has the capture, commodity looks, and doggedness to pull off Woodell ’ s particular character. He has the spell and intensity needed for this key function, which requires both in equal standard.
Chris Sullivan as Delbert J. Hayes
Getty Images / Turner / Christopher Polk “ … Delbert J. Hayes, the best accountant in the function, and by far its most aureate character. six foot two, three hundred pounds, most of it stuffed sausage-like into an extremely cheap polyester lawsuit, Hayes possesed bang-up endowment, great wag, great passion — and bang-up appetites. ” The hard populate, arduous drink Hayes is the amusing relief in a fib filled with interesting characters. Though he frequently appears in drama like The Knick and This is Us, Sullivan often plays comic notes in these shows. You may not have recognized him, but in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, he played “ Taserface, ” and got a lot of laughs in a movie filled with funny moments. In a film like this, your comedian easing should besides have a measurement of depth and Sullivan is more than up to the challenge .
Mark Ruffalo as John Jaqua
Getty Images / Bruce Glikas “ We found Jaqua standing out on his porch. I ’ five hundred met him before, at a track meet or two, but I ’ five hundred never gotten a in truth good look at him. Though bespectacled, and sneaking up on center age, he didn ’ t square with my estimate of a lawyer. He was excessively hardy, besides well made. I learned late that he ’ vitamin d been a star topology tailback in high school and one of the best hundred-meter men ever at Pomona College. He placid had that tattletale athletic power. ” Bowerman ’ s lawyer, John Jaqua, is another matter to character who plays a samara character in Knight ’ south clientele life. Like Bowerman, he has a strange mix of intensity and kindness. While most of the floor ’ south athletes are built like runners, Jaqua ’ s sturdier frame and softer approach make him a nice contrast to some of the other characters. Ruffalo, who has played an athlete in Foxcatcher and a diarist in Spotlight, would nicely fit the circular .
Brie Larson as Penelope Knight
Getty Images / WireImage / JB Lacroix “ abruptly, sweeping thinly into the classroom and taking a seat in the front quarrel was a hit young woman. She had long golden hair’s-breadth that brushed her shoulders, and matching aureate basket earrings that besides brushed her shoulders. I looked at her, and she looked at me. Bright blue eyes set off by dramatic eyeliner. ” As you might expect from a fib about the business world of the ’60s and ’70s, women do not figure prominently into the narrative of Shoe Dog. Knight has the stereotyped CEO ’ s blindness to the potential, and sometimes even mere presence, of women. The only woman who figures prominently into the narrative is Phil ’ sulfur wife, Penelope. She isn ’ thymine given a lot to do other than to act as the dutiful wife, and act as the butt of a few comedic anecdotes. The function is substantial though, and if you could land an actress with the skills of Brie Larson ( Room, Short Term 12 ), Penelope could come off with more dramatic weight than she has on the page .
Masi Oka as Kitami
Getty Images / Albert L. Ortega “ Gone was the angry Kitami from the bank. Gone was the scolding Kitami from my office. speak, laughing, slapping his knee, he was so personable that I wondered what might have happened if I ’ vitamin d given him a mai tai before driving him over to First National. ” If the fib has a villain, it is Kitami, the hardheaded Onitsuka administrator who goes to war with Knight when he creates Nike. Knight began his professional life in shoes as an importer for Onitsuka, and Kitami is one of a count of intriguing japanese executives he deals with. While the others come and go with a typical japanese gravity and separation, we get to know all sides of Kitami, who proves a more than worthy adversary for our heroes. Katami is the most matter to of the japanese business meet in the history, at once a hard-charging bodied raider and adequate to of entertaining a party by playing a affectional interpretation of “ O Sole Mio ” on guitar. Masi Oka, good known to audiences for his roles in Heroes and Hawaii 5-0, could bring a light, humorous allude to Kitami ’ s self-seriousness that would capture the dynamic nature of the quality as written. While Kitami is a hardass, his temper frequently feels performative, and Oka could play the him as more than precisely a stuffed suit .
Alden Ehrenreich as Steve Prefontaine
Getty Images / George Pimentel
“ By then Prefontaine was universally known as Pre, and he was army for the liberation of rwanda more than a phenom ; he was an outright ace. He was the biggest thing to hit the global of american track and field since Jesse Owens. Sportswriters frequently compared him to James Dean, and Mick Jagger, and Runner ’ s World said the most apt comparison might be Muhammed Ali. He was that kind of swaggery, transformative figure. ” Prefontaine was a rockstar, and like therefore many rockstars, he lived fast and died young. It ’ second hard to imagine a track star with the kind of profile today, but when he was running, Prefontaine was a phenomenon. Though he is lone a belittled part of the report of Nike, his bequest lingers with the book and the mark, providing a spiritual union star for Knight. Ehrenreich has portrayed Han Solo, and a young dumb cowboy in Hail, Caesar ! He brings a certain browbeat to his work that would help him fit nicely into the shoes of Prefontaine. And we think he would have no problem rocking that signature mustache .
