Career: After several years of theatre work, Mortensen made his first film appearance playing an Amish farmer in Peter Weir's Witness. During the 1990s, Mortensen appeared in supporting roles in a variety of films, including Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady and Young Guns II, as well as taking leading roles in American Yakuza and Gus Van Sant's Psycho. Mortensen's major mainstream breakthrough came in 1999, when Peter Jackson cast him as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Since then, he has scored major successes with crowd-pleasing cowboy film Hidalgo, and super-tough David Cronenberg vehicles A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. His last major film was the post-apocalyptic drama The Road.

Career: Farrell dropped out of Gaeity Drama School in Dublin, but landed a part in Ballykissangel a few months later. Roles in The War Zone, and Ordinary Decent Criminal followed before Hollywood beckoned. An acclaimed performance in Tigerland in 2000 led to him being cast in Hart's War, and Minority Report. Phone Booth, his first lead role, was a hit and made him a force to be reckoned with. Since then, Farrell has starred in such films as The Recruit, Daredevil, Intermission, Alexander, Miami Vice, In Bruges (for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Crazy Heart and Ondien. He always has a number of films in the pipeline.

Career: Edgerton appeared in the film Erskineville Kings (1999) but his breakthrough in Australia came when he played Will McGill in TV series The Secret Life of Us. He got his international breakthrough when he played Owen Lars in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). Edgerton then went on to appear in the films Ned Kelly (2003), King Arthur (2004), Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), Kinky Boots (2005) and Smokin' Aces (2006). He starred as mixed martial arts fighter Brendan Conlon in Warrior (2011) and appeared in The Thing (2011) during the same year. His next notable roles were in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and The Great Gatsby (2013). More recently, Edgerton has appeared in The Gift (2015), Black Mass (2015) and Loving (2016).

Career: Films such as The Courtship of Eddie's Father and American Graffiti turned Howard into one of the most reliable young actors of his generation. Sitcom Happy Days made him a major star around the world, but by then he was already interested in directing after being encouraged by Henry Fonda, his co-star in TV series The Smith Family. After making several short films, he wrote, directed and starred in Grand Theft Auto in 1977. Since then he's made several successful movies, including Splash, Cocoon, Parenthood, Backdraft, Apollo 13, The Grinch, A Beautiful Mind (for which he won an Oscar) and The Missing. He was also the narrator on TV series Arrested Development. His most recent work as a director includes The Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon, Angels & Demons and The Dilemma.