Characters that appear in A Man Called Otto:
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Otto Anderson
Played by: Tom Hanks
- Adaptational Name Change: His name is Ove Lindahl in the original Swedish novel and film.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Doesn't display the prejudice and bigotry his Swedish counterpart had prior to his Character Development.
- Dark and Troubled Past: When his wife Sonya was pregnant, the young couple went on a vacation to the Niagara Falls. During the trip, their bus crashes, which makes Sonya lose the baby and leaves Sonya herself wheelchair-bound. Otto loses all will to live but Sonya manages to convince him to stay alive and Otto decides he will live for her, which results in him feeling that his life has no purpose anymore after Sonya's death.
- Driven to Suicide: Tries to do this many times throughout the film, but he ends up failing every time.
- Everyone Has Standards: He despises Malcolm's father for being transphobic towards his own son and kicking him out of home.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Forms an unlikely one with Marisol, that is young enough to be his daughter.
- Tragic Keepsake: The 25 cents coin Sonya told him to keep after she gave him money to pay for the train becomes this for Otto after Sonya's death.
Marisol
Played by: Mariana Treviño
- Adaptational Nationality: An Iranian woman called Parvaneh in the original novel and in the Swedish film adaptation, a Mexican woman named Marisol in the American film adaptation.
- Anger Born of Worry: She gets angry at Otto for leaving her outside of his house after lashing at her, as she became worried that something might have happened to Otto.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Justified due to Marisol being Mexican. She uses a lot of words and sentences in Spanish in her speech.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Forms an unlikely one with Otto, a man that is old enough to be her father.
Tommy
Played by: Manuel Garcia-Rulfo
Reuben
Played by: Peter Lawson Jones
- Adaptational Name Change: His Swedish counterpart is named Rune.
- Empty Shell: After he suffered from a stroke sometime before the events of the film, he becomes catatonic and dependent on his wife Anita. He's however enough conscious, aware of his surroundings and mobile to try to stop Otto from leaving his house to try to commit suicide at one point.
- Parental Abandonment: Inverted. His son Chris got a job in Japan and he hasn't visited his parents in the last 10 years, and it's implied that it isn't because Chris can't come visit, but because he has no interest in doing so.
- Race Lift: He's African American in the American film adaptation.
Anita
Played by: Juanita Jennings
- Intergenerational Friendship: Shares one with Jimmy, that is young enough to be her son. When the Dye & Merica real estate agent prepares to send Reuben to an assisted living facility and Anita to a retirement home, Jimmy comes forward to say that he'll take care of Anita and Reuben until the end when the agent asks who will do so when Anita becomes unable to care for Reuben.
- Parental Abandonment: Inverted. As explained in Reuben's entry, her son got a job in Japan and he hasn't visited his parents in the last 10 years. It's implied that it isn't because Chris can't come visit, but because he has no interest in doing so.
- Race Lift: She's African American in the American film adaptation.
Jimmy
Played by: Cameron Britton
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Anita and Reuben, that are old enough to be his parents. When the Dye & Merica real estate agent prepares to send Reuben to an assisted living facility and Anita to a retirement home, claiming that there's no one to take care of the old couple when Anita becomes unable to take care of her husband due to her Parkinson, Jimmy comes forward to say that he'll do it, because he sees Anita and Reuben as his family.
Malcolm
Played by: Mack Bayda
- Composite Character: Malcolm is a combination of two different characters from the Swedish version: Adrian (an old student of Ove's wife Sonja that he befriends) and Mirsad (an Iraqi youth disowned by his father for being gay that Ove takes into his home for a while).
- Trans Tribulations: The fact that he's a transgender man led him to be ostracized at school and to be kicked out of home by his father. In the past he found acceptance in his teacher Sonya, and later in Otto, that lets him spend the night at his place when Malcolm has nowhere else to go.
Shari Kenzie
Played by: Kelly Lamor Wilson
Dye & Merica real estate agent
Played by: Mike Birbiglia
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Illegally accessed Otto and Anita's medical records so he could use the information in them for his own ends.
- No Name Given: His name is never stated.
Sonya Anderson
Played by: Rachel Keller
- The Lost Lenore: For Otto. After her death, Otto loses all his will to live.
- Nice Girl: She's always kind to Otto, encouraging him to pursue an education, to move on from their unborn child's death, and accepting everyone for who they are, as Malcolm can attest.
- Posthumous Character: Died of cancer six months before the events of the film.
- Tragic Stillbirth: Her unborn child with Otto died after a bus crash that also left Sonya paraplegic.
