Deborah Lipstadt
The protagonist of the film, Deborah is a Holocaust scholar and has published many books on the subject of the systematic extermination of Jews by the Germans. She is also the subject of a lawsuit from a prominent Holocaust denier, David Irving. She has called him a liar in many of her writings because she asserts that he knows his "opinions" are historically incorrect, but that he chooses to deny the Holocaust in order to promote his anti-Semitic, fascist political views.
Deborah is struggling with the cultural and legal differences between America and England, and misunderstands her attorneys' intentions and motivations because their reticence and seeming willingness to sweep Irving's lies under the carpet in the interests of ending the media attention around the trial rather difficult to stomach. However, she is humble enough to take their advice, and is vindicated for doing so because they are able to show Irving up for the person that he really is.
David Irving
David Irving is an odious but charismatic man who is determined to discredit Holocaust survivors and historians. He is very manipulative; this is why Deborah's legal team do not want him to have the opportunity to question either Deborah or the Holocaust survivor backing her up; he has a history of humiliating those who suffered in the death camps. They also want to pressure him into a trial by judge because they know he will wow the jury with his clever verbal tricks and persuade them to take his side in the lawsuit. Because he is a narcissist and a man who likes to hear things that show him in an exceptional light, it is relatively simple for the attorneys to play to his arrogance and manipulate him.
Irving represents himself because he is using the trial in order to further his own political agenda, which is anti-Semitic fascism. He is a supporter of and apologist for Hitler and Nazi Germany. He knows perfectly well that the Holocaust happened but is denying that it did so that he can discredit survivors and voice his support for Nazism.
Richard Rampton
Richard Rampton is a British libel lawyer who takes on high profile cases just like Deborah's. He also represented McDonalds in the famous "McLibel" case. He came to pubic prominence whilst defending Gillian Taylforth versus the News of the World newspaper; Taylforth is a popular cockney actress who was a regular cast member of the television soap opera EastEnders and often appeared in newspapers in various stories with sexually embarrassing connotations.
In 1987 Rampton was appointed Queen's Counsel, one of the highest honors in the British legal system.
Anthony Julius
Julius came to prominence as a solicitor advocate for Diana, Princess of Wales, during her divorce from the Prince of Wales. This brought him to the attention of Deborah Lipstadt. He has written many books about anti-Semitism and has posthumously accused T.S. Eliot of antisemitism in many of his writings. He is also a legal advisor to the Foundation of Jewish Heritage.
Sir Charles Gray
Gray is a barrister and judge in England whose specialization was defamation. After the Irving trial had concluded, he gave the defense pause by wondering whether or not a man who truly believed something that was not true could be called a liar, but ultimately he found in favor of Lipstadt and delivered a three hundred and forty nine page indictment of Irving. He received a knighthood from the Queen in 1998.
Robert Jan van Pelt
van Pelt is a Dutch author who is also a Holocaust scholar and authority. He is also an expert on Auschwitz in particular. He frequently goes up against Holocaust deniers, because he feels that preventing them from flooding the media with their mis-information to be the most important part of his work. He received a National Book Award in 1996 for his book Auschwitz : 1270 to the Present.
