The Unbearable Weight of Mᴀssive Talent cast and character guide. Directed by Tom Gormican from a screenplay by him and Kevin Etten, the film breaks the fourth wall by having Nicolas Cage portraying a fictional version of himself — Nick Cage, an actor who can no longer land a major studio role and is in a lot of debt despite having starred in blockbusters like National Treasure. The Unbearable Weight of Mᴀssive Talent is a rare movie wherein an actor playing a version of themselves works on many levels.

The plot combines various genres and leans quite a bit into the buddy comedy aspect. It’s unclear where Gormican and Etten may have gotten the idea for the movie, but Cage certainly has no issue spoofing parts of his career and making meta jokes about the films he’s made and the movie industry at large. Nicolas Cage is joined by a fantastic cast, with each role adding a significant amount of depth to the film and one scene partner who makes every interaction all the more fun and dynamic.

Actor	Character
Nicolas Cage	Nick Cage
Pedro Pascal	Javi Gutierrez
Paco Leon	Lucas Gutierrez
Alessandra Mastronardi	Gabriela
Tiffany Haddish	Vivian
Ike Barinholtz	Martin

Nicolas Cage As Nick Cage

Birthdate: January 7, 1964

Character: Nicolas Cage portrays Nick Cage, a fictionalized version of himself. He’s a washed-up actor who can’t seem to get any major roles the way he used to. He also struggles to maintain a close relationship with his daughter and ex-wife and is drowning in debt. Cage also plays Nicky Cage, the Wild at Heart version of the actor (a younger version of himself) who appears to Nick Cage in moments of emotional crisis and reminds him of who he is supposed to be.

Actor: Nicolas Cage is a legacy actor, a member of the famed Coppola family. Over his career, Cage has been an A-list action star in movies like The Rock and Gone in Sixty Seconds, an Oscar-award caliber actor in films like Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation, and a B-list cult favorite in films like Mandy, Pig, Dream Scenario, and Longlegs. Fans might also remember him from Kick-ᴀss, Raising Arizona, Face/Off, Con Air, and the National Treasure movie series.

Pedro Pascal As Javi Gutierrez

Birthdate: April 2, 1975

Character: Javi Gutierrez is a billionaire who runs an olive business and is a huge fan of Nick Cage. Javi invites the actor to attend his birthday party and pays him a lot of money to do so. However, Javi is also part of a family that made all its money through black market arms dealings and is under the CIA’s watch as a possible criminal figure. However, he is mostly a childlike man who has an intense love for Cage and wants to make a movie with the actor, much to Cage’s chagrin.

Actor: Javi is portrayed by Pedro Pascal, who started with small roles in different TV shows but never seemed to break through despite long years of hard work. However, after 15 years in the business, he finally got his big break with a role on Game of Thrones in 2014 as Oberyn Martell. Since then, his popularity exploded, and he now has several significant franchises under his belt. He has appeared in the video game TV show The Last of Us, the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, the DCU movie Wonder Woman 1984, and the upcoming MCU project Fantastic Four.

Paco León As Lucas Gutierrez

Birthdate: October 4, 1974

Character: Lucas is Javi’s cousin and is distrustful of Nick Cage. However, he is also part of the crime family, which has made a living illegally selling arms. Unlike Javi, who just wants to be a good person and enjoy the life that his fortune has afforded him, Lucas wants to gain more power and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way, even if that means taking out his own cousin and a famous actor in Nick Cage.

Actor: Lucas is played by Paco León, a Spanish actor and director who has made his name both in front of and behind the camera. He worked mostly on comedy television roles in Spain for the early part of his career, but he soon broke out when he played a recovering addict in a Spanish TV series called Aída, which won him several major awards. He remains mostly known for his Spanish-language movies and TV shows but did appear in the Netflix series The House of Flowers.

Alessandra Mastronardi As Gabriela

Birthdate: February 18, 1986

Character: Gabriela is the head of operations of the Gutierrez agricultural business. She not only works for Javi as his ᴀssistant, but she is also his love interest. This puts her in great danger when she realizes that Javi’s only family is gunning to take him down to ensure their position at the top of the food chain for his fortune, and she fights alongside Javi and Nick Cage in the movie’s final scenes.

Actor: Gabriela is portrayed by Alessandra Mastronardi, an Italian actress who has been working in the industry since she was 11. She worked most of her career in Italian movies and TV shows and then moved on to theater productions when she became an adult. She finally achieved some worldwide recognition when she got a role in the Netflix series Master of None as Francesca, but The Unbearable Weight of Mᴀssive Talent was her first major American movie.

Tiffany Haddish As Vivian

Birthdate: December 3, 1979

Character: Vivian is a CIA agent who recruits Nick Cage as a spy. She is part of a CIA unit that has been tracking Javi’s family’s actions for a long time but has never been able to get close enough to get evidence against him. She poses as a fan of Nick Cage just to get close enough to recruit him to help them infiltrate the compound, not knowing that Javi is innocent of any wrongdoing, but his family is who she needs to be looking at.

Actor: Tiffany Haddish plays Vivian in The Unbearable Weight of Mᴀssive Talent. Haddish got her start as a comedian and picked up several roles on TV shows in mostly one-sH๏τs and guest appearances. However, she finally got her big break when she appeared first in the comedy movie Keanu with Key and Peele and then the next year in the ensemble comedy Girls Trip. This led to her getting a lot of offers and appearing in major movies like Haunted Mansion and Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

Ike Barinholtz As Martin

Birthdate: February 18, 1977

Character: Martin is a CIA agent and Vivian’s partner. While Vivian took a more hands-on role in recruiting actor Nick Cage, Martin mostly stayed in the background, working on stakeouts and taking pH๏τos of their subjects. Martin is one of the people who believe that Javi is involved with Maria Delgado’s kidnapping, and he is there to face off with the bad guys in the final battle, although things do not end well for this CIA agent.

Actor: Ike Barinholtz plays Martin in The Unbearable Weight of Mᴀssive Talent. Barinholtz has a mostly comedic background, working in different comedy troupes, including one with Jordan Peele (Boom Chicago). He got his first TV break when he joined MADtv as a featured player. He then earned a role in the third season of Eastbound & Down and picked up some big movie roles in Neighbors and the DCEU’s Suicide Squad.

Unbearable Weight Of Mᴀssive Talent Supporting Cast & Characters

The Rest Of The Cast Members

Lily Sheen as Addy Cage: Addy Cage is Nick Cage’s daughter who is frustrated with her father for constantly putting his wants first. Addy is played by Lily Sheen, who has appeared in Everybody’s Fine, Click, and Underworld: Evolution.

Sharon Horgan as Olivia Henson: Olivia Henson is Nick Cage’s ex-wife and a former make-up artist who is tired of Nick Cage’s inability to pull himself together. Olivia is portrayed by Sharon Horgan, who is best known for the TV series Catastrophe, Together, Game Night, and voicing Queen Dagmar in Disenchantment.

Jacob Scipio as Carlos – Carlos is one of Lucas’ henchmen in The Unbearable Weight of Mᴀssive Talent. Jacob Scipio is a British actor known for The Outpost, Without Remorse, and Bad Boys for Life. He also returned in Bad Boys: Ride or Die as Armando Aretas, Mike Lowrey’s son.

Neil Patrick Harris as Richard Fink – Fink is Cage’s agent in The Unbearable Weight of Mᴀssive Talent who encourages him to take the birthday party job. Neil Patrick Harris is best known for playing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Gone Girl, Starship Trooper, and the Analyst in The Matrix Resurrections.

Demi Moore as Olivia – Demi Moore plays the fictional version of Olivia in the movie within a movie. Moore is a well-known actress who has been in films such as Ghost, G.I. Jane, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Now and Then, and A Few Good Men. Moore also won the Golden Globes Award for Best Actress for her role in the 2024 body horror movie The Substance.