Following its premiere at the 83rd Venice Film Festival, Ink has emerged as a serious awards season contender. Directed by Oscar-winning storyteller Danny Boyle, this sizzling period piece charts the monumental yet controversial journey of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and editor Larry Lamb as they radically transform the British tabloid newspaper, The Sun. Debuting with a glowing 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it still holds a commanding 86%.
Critics are praising the film for its riveting and lurid exploration of a particularly corrupt media landscape. While not all reviews are quite so savoury, early Oscar buzz is already swirling around the powerhouse lead cast. So, here is a breakdown of the stellar talent bringing the media circus to life.
Jack O’Connell as Larry Lamb
For over a decade, Jack O’Connell has been an actor perpetually on the cusp of true A-list superstardom. From his raw breakthrough days in Skins and Starred Up to leading Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, the industry has long known the sheer weight of his talent. Ink looks and feels primed to finally shatter that glass ceiling. Director Danny Boyle witnessed the full force of O’Connell’s thespian power first-hand while filming 28 Years Later, convincing him that O’Connell had the exact gravity needed to anchor this project.
In Ink, he tackles Larry Lamb – a fascinatingly complex figure to adapt. Lamb isn’t an outright, monstrous villain like the sadistic Jimmy Crystal character O’Connell plays in the 28 Days Later universe. Instead, Lamb represents a more grounded, insidious kind of antagonist: a man who upended traditional journalism and arguably degraded public discourse, making him a villain in the eyes of many, even if he believed he was just giving the public what they wanted. This nuance is precisely why the role could be O’Connell’s definitive career milestone.
Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch
Somewhat fresh off landing his first career Oscar nomination for his phenomenal, transformative turn in The Brutalist, Guy Pearce finds himself right back in the thick of the Best Supporting Actor conversation. If early predictions hold any weight, Ink could see him smack-bang in the middle of the category again for the 2027 awards season. Pearce takes on the monumental role of a young Rupert Murdoch just as he is beginning to build his global media empire. However, while Ink might initially masquerade as a classic Murdoch biopic, the film’s true centre lies elsewhere.
This is an adaptation of James Graham’s hit 2017 stage play, and Boyle has openly stated that when he first saw the original play, he realized this isn’t actually Murdoch’s story – it belongs entirely to Larry Lamb. Murdoch acts as the seismic catalyst, the gravity-pulling force who provides the capital and the mandate. But it is Lamb who has to get his hands dirty, steering the narrative ship as Pearce brilliantly takes a backseat to let O’Connell’s editor drive the film’s chaotic energy forward.
Claire Foy as Jules Davies
Injecting a layer of pure prestige to the newsroom is Claire Foy. While Ink heavily dramatizes real-life historical figures, Foy’s character, Jules Davies, is a fictional addition to the screen adaptation – acting as an amalgam of the trailblazing female journalists who fought for space on Fleet Street at the time. Recruited by Lamb as both a dogged reporter and a frequent lover, Davies serves as a crucial gear in driving The Sun’s new, scandalous direction.
Even with a fictionalized role, Foy’s casting is generating massive buzz. Television audiences will instantly recognize her as a five-time BAFTA nominee and two-time Primetime Emmy winner for her career-defining portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. Bringing that same trademark steeliness and emotional depth into Danny Boyle’s hyper-energetic, chaotic newsroom makes her a fascinating wild card to watch.
Blake Harrison as Ray Mills
Beyond the lead trio, Danny Boyle surrounds his stars with an eccentric newsroom office that spans the full, chaotic spectrum of the British class system. Leading the charge on the more populist, working-class side of that spectrum is Blake Harrison as Ray Mills. Over the years, Harrison has steadily grown into a formidable serious dramatic talent, but Ink allows him to lean beautifully back into his sharp comedic roots. In a brilliant bit of meta-casting that feels true to Harrison’s iconic breakthrough role in The Inbetweeners, it is his character Ray who aggressively pitches that the newly reinvented Sun should feature plenty of “boobs and bums” to drive sales.
Bertie Carvel as Hugh Cudlipp
Rounding out this powerhouse ensemble is Olivier Award-winner Bertie Carvel as Hugh Cudlipp, the formidable editor-in-chief of The Daily Mirror and Larry Lamb’s former boss. Audiences worldwide will likely recognize Carvel for his legendary stage work on Broadway and the West End, most notably his Olivier Award-winning portrayal of the abusive headmistress Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical. What makes Carvel’s inclusion in Ink so delicious for theatre fans, however, is a massive structural twist. In the original 2017 and 2019 stage productions of James Graham’s play, Carvel actually originated the role of a youthful Rupert Murdoch. For this 2026 film adaptation, he hands the Murdoch reigns over to Guy Pearce and steps directly into the shoes of Murdoch’s bitterest rival – giving the ultimate meta-wink to the story’s theatrical roots.
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