Though not especially publicized, Ken Burns’ PBS documentaries feature some of the most star-studded voiceover casts of any piece of content. The American Revolution is no exception.
To spare viewers the sleeplessness that may come with trying to figure out just who is the familiar voice behind that traitorous Benedict Arnold (it’s Michael Keaton), The Hollywood Reporter has published a full-on cast list, which you can find below.
Some personal faves: Josh Brolin as George Washington (but really just sounding like Josh Brolin), Jeff Daniels as Thomas Jefferson, and the voice of Hard Knocks Liev Schreiber as the beer guy Samuel Adams (and two other dudes).
The American Revolution is a six-part, 12-hour documentary series that (deeply, at that runtime) “explores the country’s founding struggle and its eight-year War for Independence,” per its logline. The series premiered Sunday, and has aired half of its installments. (All of the episodes are already available to stream on PBS.org and the PBS app.) The American Revolution rolls on tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m. ET on PBS; Part 5 follows on Thursday in the same time slot, and the series wraps up on Friday. Watch it — you might learn something.
Also, The American Revolution, like pretty much all of Burns’ work, is of high quality. It’d better be: The American Revolution took Burns and his collaborators nine years to make. (Yes, one year longer than the actual war took.)
In his review for THR, lead TV critic Daniel Fienberg wrote The American Revolution is “smart, thorough [and] sincere in intent,” though at times “a bit dry and a little languid.” A dozen hours will do that.
A few more things from the documentary’s star-studded call sheet stand out. For one, look how many different voices actors like Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy and Tom Hanks had to do! Second, how cool is it that Paul Giamatti reprised his titular role from HBO’s John Adams? And maybe how weird is it that Laura Linney is among The American Revolution cast, but not as Adams’ wife, Abigail Adams, whom she portrayed in the 2008 HBO miniseries? Abigail’s in The American Revolution, but this time she’s voiced by Claire Danes.
Burns’ co-directors on the project, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, answered those queries — sort of — in a Wednesday Reddit AMA.
“We are so incredibly lucky to have worked with this cast. Paul Giamatti has been a voice for us on several projects, and in the Benjamin Franklin film that Ken and David made, he reprised his role as John Adams, so we felt as though that would be fun for him to do that again,” Botstein said. “Claire Danes totally blew our minds when we recorded her reading Abigail, and it was a terrific treat to have Laura Linney read several different characters, including Sarah Fisher and Sarah Mifflin.”
The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, Jan. 3, 1777; By: John Trumbull; ca. 1789-1831.
Alamy Stock Photo
The full cast breakdown is below, in alphabetical order:
Adam Arkin: James Parker, Ashbel Green, Andrew Hunter, Samuel Shaw, Enoch Anderson, Timothy Dwight and Robert Morris
Tony Beck: Ludwig von Closen
Leon Dische Becker: Johann Friedrich von Bardeleben and Johann Conrad Doehla
Jeremiah Bitsui: Twethorechte and Stockbridge Petitioners
Corbin Bleu: John Joseph Henry, Daniel McCurtin, Nathaniel Bacheller and Isaac Jefferson
Kenneth Branagh: Thomas Gage, Henry Clinton, Joseph Reed, Samuel Graves, Samuel Johnson, Charles Lee, Friedrich Adolf Riedesel and Unidentified
Josh Brolin: George Washington
Bill Camp: Jabez Fitch
Tantoo Cardinal: Mary Jemison and the delegation of Cherokee Women
Josh Charles: John Peters, Joseph Warren and David Ramsay
Martin Czembor: Georg Daniel Flohr
Hugh Dancy: John Burgoyne, Hugh Percy, The Gentleman’s Magazine, London Morning Post, Banastre Tarleton, Charles Gravier de Vergennes and Unidentified
Claire Danes: Abigail Adams
Jeff Daniels: Thomas Jefferson
Keith David: Theodore Roneyn
Hope Davis: Elizabeth Drinker
Marcus Davis-Orrom: John Barker and William Bamford
Bruce Davison: John P. Becker, Charles Inglis and Samuel Webb
Alden Ehrenreich: Joseph Plumb Martin (and Town Meeting of Lebanon, Connecticut)
Craig Ferguson: Lord North, Lord Dunmore John Paul Jones, Scotus Americanus, John Purrier, Martin Hunter and William Harcourt
Morgan Freeman: James Forten
Christian Friedel: Johann Ewald (and Friedrich von Münchausen)
Paul Giamatti: John Adams
Domhnall Gleeson: Roger Lamb, Loftus Cliffe, John MacPherson, John Bowater and William Barton
Amanda Gorman: Phillis Wheatley
Michael Greyeyes: Joseph Brant and Solomon Uhhaunauwaunmut
Jonathan Groff: Erkuries Beatty
Charlotte Hacke: Friederike Riedesel, Hannah Davis, Lucy Knox and Martha Reed
Tom Hanks: Andrew Eliot, Josiah Bartlett, Isaac Bangs, David Griffith, Thomas Jones, Ezra Tilden, Albigence Waldo and Ebenezer Denny
Ethan Hawke: Anthony Wayne and John Andrews
Maya Hawke: Betsy Ambler
Lucas Hedges: Ebenezer Fletcher, John Laurens and Garrett Watts
Josh Hutcherson: James Potter Collins, Thomas Mellen, Jabez Campfield and Unidentified)
LaTanya Richardson Jackson: Elizabeth Freeman and Judith Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson: Boston King, Lemuel Haynes, Caesar Sarter and Flag Resolution
Gene Jones: Landon Carter, Thomas Nelson, Moses Kirkland and Thomas Young
Michael Keaton: Benedict Arnold
Joe Keery: John Greenwood
Joel Kinnaman: Nils Collin, Thomas Hutchinson and Samuel Seabury
Tracy Letts: Elbridge Gerry
Damian Lewis: King George III, Nicholas Cresswell, John André, Bartholomew James and Unidentified Voice
Laura Linney: Sarah Fisher, Sarah Mifflin, Ann Hulton, Eliza Wilkinson and Eliza Lucas Pinckney
Josh Lucas: George Rogers Clark, Virginia Gazette, John Glover and Drury Mathis
Michael Mando: Lafayette
Carolyn McCormick: Hannah Griffitts, Hannah Winthrop, Esther Reed and Unidentified
Reece McCullagh: Patrick Ferguson
Lindsay Mendez: Catharine Macaulay, Mary M Campbell and Unidentified
Tobias Menzies: Lord Cornwallis, Ambrose Serle, William Pitt, Horatio Gates, London Public Advertiser and Unidentified
Olivier Mercier: Cromot du Bourg
Joe Morton: The New England Chronicle, Elisha Bostwick and Elias Dayton
Edward Norton: Benjamin Rush, Philip Vickers Fithian and Philip Schuyler
David Oyelowo: Olaudah Equiano and Sam (witness in Jamaica)
Mandy Patinkin: Benjamin Franklin
Wendell Pierce: William Read
Jon Proudstar: Canasetego, Chainbreaker, Old Smoke and Shawnee Delegate
Matthew Rhys: Thomas Paine (and Edinburgh Amusement)
Liev Schreiber: Nathanael Greene, Samuel Adams and Lewis Beebe
Chaske Spencer: Dragging Canoe and Shingas
Dan Stevens: William Howe and Rochambeau
Meryl Streep: Mercy Otis Warren
Yul Vazquez: Henry Knox and José de Gálvez
