text: Aunjanue Ellis as Mary Ann Fisher
  Harry Lennix as Joe Adams
  Terrence Howard as Gossie McKee
  Larenz Tate as Quincy Jones
  Bokeem Woodbine as Fathead Newman
  Sharon Warren as Aretha Robinson
  Curtis Armstrong as Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records
  Richard Schiff as Jerry Wexler
  Wendell Pierce as Wilbur Brassfield, manager
  Chris Thomas King as Lowell Fulson
  David Krumholtz as Milt Shaw
  Kurt Fuller as Sam Clark of ABC Records
  Warwick Davis as Oberon
  Patrick Bauchau as Dr. Hacker
  Robert Wisdom as Jack Lauderdale of Swing Time Records
  Denise Dowse as Marlene Andre
  Regina King as Margie Hendricks
  Rick Gomez as Tom Dowd
  Production
  The film's production was entirely financed by Philip Anschutz, through his Bristol Bay Productions company. Taylor Hackford said that it took 15 years to make the film; or more specifically, as he later clarified in the liner notes of the soundtrack album, this is how long it took him to secure the financing. It was made on a budget of $40 million.
  Charles was given a Braille copy of the film's original script; he objected only to a scene showing him taking up piano grudgingly, and a scene implying that Charles had shown mistress and lead "Raelette" Margie Hendricks how to shoot heroin.