Cast of About Time: Actors, Roles & Characters (2013)

About Time has a particular magic that rewards repeat viewings with new discoveries. Much of that quality comes down to the ensemble Richard Curtis assembled around a time-traveling premise.

Director: Richard Curtis · Lead Actor as Tim Lake: Domhnall Gleeson · Lead Actress as Mary: Rachel McAdams · Supporting as James Lake: Bill Nighy · Release Year: 2013

Who is in the main cast of About Time?

Richard Curtis built the core of About Time around actors who could ground a whimsical premise in real emotion. The result is a cast that feels less like a collection of famous faces and more like an actual family navigating extraordinary circumstances together.

Domhnall Gleeson as Tim Lake

Domhnall Gleeson delivers what many consider his breakout leading performance as Tim Lake. His portrayal captures the character’s earnest awkwardness and gradual growth into someone who learns that time travel cannot substitute for courage or authenticity. The Irish actor had appeared in supporting roles before About Time, but this film established him as capable of carrying a romantic comedy’s emotional weight.

Rachel McAdams as Mary

Rachel McAdams brings warmth and wit to Mary, Tim’s American love interest. Their first meeting occurs after Tim uses his time-travel ability to locate her, setting up one of the film’s central tensions: can you engineer love and still call it genuine? McAdams plays Mary’s intelligence and slight insecurity with a lightness that prevents the character from becoming saintly. The casting was not guaranteed — Zooey Deschanel was reportedly in talks for the role before McAdams was chosen, according to Wikipedia.

Bill Nighy as James Lake

Bill Nighy provides the film’s emotional center of gravity as James Lake, Tim’s father. Nighy’s dry delivery and paternal warmth give James a presence that lingers even after he exits the story. His scenes with Gleeson carry an easy chemistry that sells the father-son dynamic without veering into melodrama.

Lydia Wilson as Kit Kat

Lydia Wilson brings comic energy to Kit Kat, Tim’s eccentric sister whose own life choices provide counterpoint to his time-travel obsession. Wilson, daughter of actor Mark Griffiths, was a relative newcomer at the time and slots seamlessly into the family ensemble.

Lindsay Duncan as Mary Lake

Lindsay Duncan rounds out the Lake family as Tim’s mother Mary Lake, delivering a performance that balances maternal warmth with a willingness to call out her husband’s magical thinking.

Who plays Tim in About Time?

Role details

Domhnall Gleeson portrays Tim Lake, a young Cornish man who discovers at age 21 that the men in his family possess the ability to travel through time. Gleeson’s Tim is immediately endearing — not particularly handsome or confident, but fundamentally decent. His journey through the film tracks his attempts to use this gift first for small improvements, then larger ones, before realizing that no amount of rewinding can make up for missed chances at living.

Other notable roles

Gleeson has since built a substantial career following About Time. He went on to star in The Revenant alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, the Patrick Brinks adaptation Bankier, and numerous independent films. His brother is actor Brendan Gleeson, and their collaborations have become a recurring thread in Irish cinema.

Who plays Mary in About Time?

Character background

Mary is introduced as an American law student whose encounter with Tim at a restaurant kicks off their relationship. The character works as a bookshop or gallery employee in different cuts of the film — one of several small continuity details Curtis fiddled with during editing. Her insecurity about her background and family provides the obstacles Tim must overcome without rewinding: he must win her affection honestly.

Rachel McAdams performance

Rachel McAdams received the role after Zooey Deschanel exited negotiations, a piece of casting trivia that Wikipedia notes with interest. McAdams brings the combination of sharp humor and emotional availability that made her memorable in The Notebook, here applied to a character whose arc requires her to grow from guarded skeptic to committed partner.

What this means: McAdams and Gleeson developed an on-screen chemistry that reviewers consistently praised, elevating the film’s romantic elements above standard rom-com mechanics. Their timing together feels improvised even when clearly rehearsed.

Cast of About Time director and supporting roles?

Richard Curtis direction

Richard Curtis wrote and directed About Time, marking his third film in the director’s chair after Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually. His signature approach — warm ensemble comedy blended with genuine emotional stakes — anchors the production. Curtis described the film publicly as likely his final directorial effort, according to Wikipedia.

Full supporting cast

The supporting ensemble blends established names with character actors who give the Cornwall setting authenticity. Richard Cordery plays Uncle Desmond with broad comedy. Joshua McGuire brings nervous energy to Rory, Tim’s best friend. Tom Hollander appears as Harry Chapman, a self-absorbed playwright whose production features an uncredited Richard Griffiths in his final film appearance.

Vanessa Kirby, now better known for her roles in The Crown and Pieces of a Woman, appears as Joanna in one of her earliest credited performances. Tom Hughes, Clemmie Dugdale, and Harry Hadden-Paton fill out the social circle surrounding Tim and his sister.

The pattern: Curtis assembled a cast weighted toward British theater actors — people comfortable with the precise comic timing his dialogue requires — rather than Hollywood stars who might overshadow the story’s quieter ambitions.

Where are the cast of About Time now?

More than a decade has passed since About Time premiered, and the cast members have taken markedly different trajectories since then.

Domhnall Gleeson updates

Gleeson has become one of Irish cinema’s most reliable exports. Following About Time, he appeared in The Revenant (2015), which earned Leonardo DiCaprio an Oscar, and starred in the Brexit-era political drama The Party. More recently, he headlined the dark comedy The and its sequel, playing a man whose life unravels in increasingly absurd circumstances.

Rachel McAdams career

McAdams has maintained a career split between studio films and passion projects. She returned to the supernatural romance genre with The Vow and later starred in Disobedience before joining the MCU in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). Her range has expanded considerably since the relatively straightforward rom-coms that marked her early career.

Bill Nighy recent work

Bill Nighy continues to be one of Britain’s most in-demand character actors. He reprised his role as Viktor Graubner in the Love Actually sequel short, starred in Living (2022), a remake of Ikiru that earned him BAFTA recognition, and appears regularly in Wes Anderson productions including Asteroid City.

For fans seeking the ensemble’s continued connection, Bill Nighy’s interviews occasionally reference the family atmosphere on set, while McAdams and Gleeson have appeared together at promotional events. The chemistry that made their scenes work appears to have translated into genuine mutual respect among the leads.

Tim Lake: “The ending is not about making her fall in love with you, it’s about making her fall in love with the person you’ve become.”

Narrator: “And I finally learned that all the time travel in the world can’t make someone love you back. It can only make you love them more.”

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Domhnall Gleeson anchors the full cast breakdown of About Time with Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy in Richard Curtis’s time-bending romance.

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