"NOAH" MOVIE CAST & CHARACTERS
HAM - Logan Lerman
Ham is Noah's second son. Like his two brothers, Ham is the progenitor of a region of the known biblical world, listed as Africa and Canaan (Gen 10:6). In Genesis 9:20-27, Ham dishonors Noah, his naked drunk father, although the text is not clear about the nature of his crime. Noah curses Ham's line; his son Canaan is destined to serve Shem.
NOAH - Russell Crowe
Noah, whose name means 'rest' or 'comfort,' is the only person in the Hebrew Bible called "a righteous man." Hero of the biblical flood story, he follows all of the commands of God in Genesis 6-9. He saves his family and all the animals on an ark of divine design. Once the flood is over, Noah offers a sacrifice, receives the first law code, plants a vineyard, gets drunk, passes out naked, and curses/blesses his sons.
METHUSELAH - Anthony Hopkins
Known for living the longest in the Bible (969 years), Methuselah is said to have died right before the flood came. Noah's grandfather, Methuselah became an important advisor of his offspring. In the Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen), 1 Enoch, and Jubilees, Methuselah acts for Noah as a mediator of Enoch's secrets about the flood.
NAAMEH - Jennifer Connelly
In Jewish tradition, she is Noah's wife. Mentioned only in Genesis 4:22, "Naamah" is the sister of Tubal-Cain. From the geneaologies in Genesis, Naamah, Tubal-Cain, and Noah share several ancestors' names in common: their fathers are Lamech and they all have ancestors named Enoch. However, Noah's line (ch. 5) is distinct from Namaah and Tubal-Cain's (ch. 4).
SHEM - Douglas Booth
Shem is a big biblical deal. The oldest son of Noah, Shem is the progenitor of Near Eastern Semitic peoples. The Genesis geneaologies connect Shem to Abraham (Gen 11), so he is the ancestor of the Israelites. Shem receives Noah's best blessing in Gen 9:26 where the Israelite deity YHWH is called the "God of Shem." Rabbinic tradition about Shem is great fun (e.g., he was born circumcised!).
SAMYAZA - Nick Nolte
(voice)
Samyaza is one of the two main leaders of the fallen angels responsible for the corruption that motivates God to flood the earth. Sometimes known as Watchers, sons of God, or Nephilim (lit. 'fallen ones'), the fallen angels appear in numerous post-biblical stories. In 1 Enoch, Samyaza leads a gang of angels to have sex with human women, producing menacing giants who wreak havoc on the earth. Genesis 6:1-4 implies, but does not outright state that the heroic giant offspring of the sons of God and human women corrupted the earth. However, Samyaza is not mentioned in Genesis. His co-leader in 1 Enoch, Azael, teaches humans forbidden sacred knowledge which also direclty leads to corruption.
In another extra-biblical book, Jubilees, the Watchers/fallen angels initially intend to teach justice to humans. Unfortunately, their desire flares up, and they have sex with human women producing wickedness on earth. Jubilees does not list any specific names for the Watchers, except for Mastema, who in any case, combines the qualities of Samyaza and Azael.
OG - Kevin Durand
References to Og are scattered about the Hebrew Bible. He is everywhere known as a gigantic and powerful king, whose defeat is a powerful mark of Israelite triumph. Just for some perspective, his bed is enormous measuring roughly 4 meters (Deut 3:11). While the Bible does not connect Og to the flood story, Jewish tradition does in a colorful variety of ways. In one story, Og is so tall that the flood only reaches his ankles. In a later Jewish legend, Og rides out the flood by climbing the back of the unicorn, who was also enormous and had to be tied to the side of the ark. See Rainbows and Unicorns.
TUBAL-CAIN - Ray Winstone
Tubal-Cain, mentioned only in Gen 4:22, is Naamah's brother. He is associated with metal-work.
He comes from a line of murderers and men alienated from the land. Cain, his ancestor, killed Abel and was cursed to wander forever unable to bring fruit from the ground. Lamech, his father, kills both a man and a boy for rather impulsive reasons. Both ancestors benefit from unexpected divine protection: anyone who kills Cain or Lamech will receive respectively, seven or seventy-seven times the divine vengeance.
Some Jewish and early Hellenistic traditions associate Tubal-Cain's metal-work with implements of war and murder weapons.
