Cast and Characters (Miami Vice) Miami Vice
Principal Cast
Det. James "Sonny" Crockett — Colin Farrell
A Miami-Dade detective who goes deep undercover as drug transporter Sonny Burnett, racing offshore powerboats and running loads for a Colombian cartel. Farrell plays Crockett as a man who inhabits his cover identity with unsettling ease — the swagger, the long hair, the cigarette boats — because the cover is not far from something real inside him. His affair with Isabella is both an operational asset and a genuine emotional surrender, and the film never fully clarifies where one ends and the other begins.
Farrell later acknowledged the difficulty of the production, including his own struggles with addiction during filming:
"It was literally the first time I couldn't say to anyone around me, 'Have I been late for work, have I missed any days, have I been hitting my marks?' Because the answers would have been yes, yes, and no..." — Colin Farrell, Collider (2017)
Det. Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs — Jamie Foxx
Crockett's partner, operating under the alias Rico Cooper. Foxx plays Tubbs as the more grounded and guarded of the pair — a man who goes undercover with precision but maintains a clearer boundary between his professional role and his personal life. His relationship with Trudy Joplin gives him something to protect and, ultimately, something that Yero can weaponize against him.
Foxx had previously worked with Mann on Ali (2001) and Collateral (2004), and it was during the making of Ali that Foxx first suggested adapting Miami Vice as a feature film. (wikipedia)
Isabella — Gong Li
The cartel's financial adviser, investor, and Montoya's lover. Gong Li plays Isabella as a woman of formidable intelligence navigating a world of lethal men with quiet calculation. She is not a victim or a damsel — she chose this life and operates within it with full awareness of its costs. Her affair with Crockett represents a crack in that calculation, a moment where she allows desire to override survival instinct.
Det. Trudy Joplin — Naomie Harris
An intelligence analyst in Crockett and Tubbs's unit and Tubbs's girlfriend. Harris plays Trudy as competent and sharp — a professional whose vulnerability comes not from weakness but from the fact that her relationship with Tubbs makes her a target. Her kidnapping by Yero's men is the catalyst that forces the endgame.
FBI Agent John Fujima — Ciarán Hinds
The FBI agent who recruits Crockett and Tubbs after his task force is compromised by an internal leak. Hinds plays Fujima as a man who has exhausted his own resources and must cede control to detectives he does not fully trust, because he has no other option.
José Yero — John Ortiz
Montoya's volatile lieutenant, who manages the cartel's logistics and harbors a territorial suspicion of anyone Montoya brings into the operation. Ortiz plays Yero as a man whose competence is undermined by paranoia and ego — he is right that Crockett and Tubbs are not what they claim, but his methods for proving it are reckless and ultimately self-destructive.
Arcángel de Jesús Montoya — Luis Tosar
The cartel kingpin, operating from a compound near the triple border of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. Tosar plays Montoya with quiet authority — a man who runs a continental drug operation with the administrative calm of a corporate executive. He is dangerous not because he is violent but because he is rational.
Supporting Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Barry Shabaka Henley | Lt. Martín Castillo |
| Elizabeth Rodriguez | Det. Gina Calabrese |
| Domenick Lombardozzi | Det. Stan Switek |
| Justin Theroux | Det. Larry Zito |
| Eddie Marsan | Nicholas |
| Tom Towles | Coleman |
| Isaach de Bankolé | Neptune |