If you’ve ever caught a Heineken ad mid-game, mid-scroll, or mid-movie trailer and thought, “Wait, who is that?” you’re not alone. Heineken has built a reputation for landing some of the most recognizable faces in entertainment, sports, and pop culture, then turning those partnerships into cinematic mini-movies that stick in your memory long after the bottle is empty. From Hollywood A-listers to Formula 1 champions to Marvel superheroes, the brand’s cast list reads like an Oscar after-party guest list.
This is your complete, up-to-date breakdown of every major actor, athlete, and celebrity who has starred in a Heineken beer commercial, what they were promoting, and why Heineken keeps choosing the faces they do.
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Brad Pitt and Damson Idris: The 2025 Stars Everyone Is Searching For
If you’ve been asking “who is the actor in the Heineken commercial” lately, the answer is almost certainly Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, the two stars at the center of Heineken’s most talked-about campaign of 2025.
The F1 Movie Campaign and “When Driving, Or Not”
Heineken 0.0 was announced as an official partner of Apple Original Films’ F1: The Movie, a collaboration brought to life with a new campaign directed by the film’s own director and producer, Joseph Kosinski, featuring the film’s stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris.
The latest campaign promotes drinking Heineken’s non-alcoholic beer whether behind the wheel or not. A 60-second short promo film by LePub was directed by F1: The Movie director Joseph Kosinski.
In one standout scene, Damson’s character Joshua Pearce is seen enjoying a Heineken 0.0, as people at the racetrack repeatedly assume he’s about to drive. Expectations are then reversed when Brad’s character, Sonny Hayes, turns out to be the one actually getting behind the wheel. The twist is clever, funny, and perfectly on-brand.
The collaboration extends an existing relationship. Heineken 0.0 appears directly in the film itself, and the beer company has been a Formula 1 sponsor for nine years. As a movie about cars and driving, the commercial amplifies Heineken 0.0’s brand message: “When Driving, Or Not.”
The campaign is part of something bigger than a beer ad. Through this wide-ranging collaboration, the brand says it hopes to “demonstrate the growing intersection between sport, entertainment and brand values,” with Heineken 0.0 positioning itself not just as a beverage choice, but a cultural one.
Director Kosinski himself explained the intent: “This film isn’t just about the speed and spectacle of Formula 1, it’s about the emotion and culture around it. Every detail mattered, including our partnerships. We wanted collaborators who understood the world we were building.”
Who Is Brad Pitt?
You almost certainly know the answer, but it’s worth noting why his Heineken involvement feels significant. Brad Pitt is notoriously selective about brand partnerships, which made this campaign generate strong search interest worldwide almost immediately after launch. In F1: The Movie, he plays Sonny Hayes, a veteran racing driver coaxed out of retirement to mentor a younger talent, bringing his easy, weathered cool directly into the Heineken commercial as the same character.
Who Is Damson Idris?
If Brad Pitt is the familiar face, Damson Idris is the discovery. Adamson Alade-Bo “Damson” Idris, born September 2, 1991, is a British actor, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for starring in John Singleton’s crime drama Snowfall, which debuted in 2017 on FX and ended in 2023 after six seasons. He played the co-lead in Netflix’s 2021 sci-fi action film Outside the Wire and Formula One driver Joshua Pearce in the 2025 sports drama film F1.
Idris was born in Peckham, South East London, to a Nigerian family of Yoruba descent. He is the youngest of six children. His path to Hollywood is a remarkable one: Idris played football and dreamed of being “the next Cristiano Ronaldo.” He also played rugby, and in 2002, shook the hand of Queen Elizabeth II when his team took part in her Golden Jubilee.
His nuanced portrayal of an ambitious young drug kingpin in Snowfall earned him an NAACP Image Award and widespread praise, with many critics calling his six-season journey one of modern television’s most compelling character evolutions.
In the Heineken commercial, Idris plays his movie character, Joshua Pearce, dressed in a full racing suit. “This short film flips the script,” Idris said, “not just on racing, but on how we celebrate and connect.”
Max Verstappen: The Real Racing Champion in Heineken Ads
Not every Heineken commercial casts a Hollywood actor. Sometimes, Heineken goes straight to the real thing.
In The Best Driver commercial, Max Verstappen is crowned the group’s go-to driver during a lively night out. He steers his friends through the city’s bustling streets with the finesse of a seasoned racer. As the night goes late, Max playfully raises his Heineken beer at their final stop, signaling a shift in roles. As his friends pile into the car, Max watches them depart and flashes his non-alcoholic beer before racing off into the night.
Some Heineken commercials feature real racing talent instead of actors. In those cases, the man is usually Max Verstappen, a multiple-time Formula 1 world champion. Heineken sponsors Formula 1 globally, so Verstappen appears in responsible-drinking campaigns focused on the “When You Drive, Never Drink” message.
The Verstappen commercials carry a very specific purpose: normalizing the idea that choosing not to drink alcohol is not a social limitation but a choice that can look just as cool as ordering a round. For American viewers who love the growing F1 scene, especially after Drive to Survive turned Formula 1 into the hottest sport in the country, these ads carry real cultural weight.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman: Heineken Silver Goes Marvel
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In the summer of 2024, Heineken took a swing at something completely different by tying their Heineken Silver campaign to the Marvel blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine.
Heineken Silver is looking to help settle super-hero sized differences in a spot for its light beer. Dropped ahead of the July 26 release of Deadpool & Wolverine, the spot encourages the long at-odds superheroes to take a shot at working things out. It was developed with Publicis Groupe firm LePub and features both Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine). Deadpool and Wolverine are initially seen fighting in the ad. Just as Wolverine is ready to throw a punch, Deadpool produces two cans of Heineken Silver while the song “Just the Two of Us” by Bill Withers and Grover Washington, Jr. plays in the background. The superheroes stop their fight to enjoy the beer together.
The “Deadpool & Wolverine” tie-in serves as an extension of the brand’s “All The Taste, No Bitter Endings” campaign, which centers around the lower alcohol content of Heineken Silver as well as its taste. By showing the long-time rivals overcoming their differences, the spot reflects the beer’s positioning around being a less bitter option.
Choosing to focus on the Marvel Studios movie also strengthens the ties Heineken has formed with the studio dating back to 2021. The beer marketer previously partnered with The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and produced a Super Bowl advertisement featuring Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania.
For American beer fans, this commercial was one of the most instantly shareable ads of 2024. Reynolds’ irreverent humor perfectly matched Heineken Silver’s lighter, funnier brand positioning, and the commercial aired during some of the most-watched TV events of that summer.
Joe Jonas: Social Media Gets the Night Off
More recently, Heineken tapped pop star and actor Joe Jonas for a campaign with a very contemporary message.
In the “Social off Socials” commercial, musician Joe Jonas tries to make a post on social media, but no one is paying attention to him. The world seems to be at a standstill. Other social media influencers seem to be having the same problem. Despite refresh after refresh, they can’t get any attention on their posts. It seems, according to the paper, that social media is over. Heineken envisions a world where everyone spends time together at the bar instead of being online, watching sports and socializing in person. Even the social media stars eventually find their way to the party and lay their hands on something green.
The commercial spoke directly to an American audience that is increasingly exhausted by social media fatigue. Choosing Joe Jonas, a cultural figure who has navigated both the pop music world and the very public chaos of social media, gave the campaign an authenticity that a random influencer could not have delivered.
Benicio Del Toro: “There’s More Behind the Star”
One of Heineken’s most charming and enduring celebrity partnerships was with Academy Award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro, who served as the face of the brand’s global “There’s More Behind the Star” campaign beginning in 2016.
Actor Benicio del Toro knows what it’s like to be world-famous just like Heineken, which is served in 192 countries. As del Toro sits in a restaurant, a few people sitting around him look over in recognition. A couple passing by outside pounds on the glass and gives him a thumbs up. In good spirits, he says this happens all the time and poses for a picture. When the couple takes it, however, they squeal, “It’s Antonio Banderas from the movies!” which prompts Benicio to turn and stare, exasperated, at the camera.
The self-deprecating humor was pitch-perfect. Del Toro, a Puerto Rican actor known for winning the Oscar for Traffic and starring in Sicario, played along with the joke that even world-famous people get mistaken for someone else, just like Heineken is sometimes not recognized for how premium it really is.
Heineken launched the third commercial in their global marketing campaign “There’s more behind the star,” spreading holiday cheer in a hilarious way with spokesperson and world-renowned actor Benicio Del Toro. The spot invites viewers to discover the authentic heritage and history of an iconic, family-owned brand by taking an honest look at the age-old tradition of gift giving. In the spot, Del Toro finds himself in conspicuous situations, opening unique gifts from his family: from an ugly sweater to an electric mixer, none of which can stand up to the gift of an ice-cold Heineken.
Debuting in February 2016, the “There’s more behind the star” campaign launched in 70-plus markets globally in both English and Spanish and focuses squarely on the beer, the brand’s rich heritage, and Heineken’s unparalleled international footprint.
Neil Patrick Harris: Heineken Light’s Emmy-Winning Pitchman
Before the era of blockbuster movie tie-ins, Heineken Light built a long-running partnership with Neil Patrick Harris, the Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor best known for How I Met Your Mother and hosting the Tony Awards.
Neil Patrick Harris is an Emmy- and Tony-winning actor. But to a group of fans in a new Heineken Light commercial, he’s just “the guy from those beer ads.” In a long-form video, Harris is at the grocery store when several fans, including some store employees, approach him as “the guy from the Heineken ads.” Some of the employees even call him “Neil Patrick Harold.” Harris’ frustration builds over the course of the two-minute spot.
The campaign worked because Harris leaned into the joke with full commitment. Heineken senior director Quinn Kilbury noted that there was a fair amount of improvisation in the long filming process. “Neil probably gave 30 versions of the way people wouldn’t know his name,” Kilbury said. “It’s not normal for brands to drop their products in a commercial.”
Harris’s partnership with Heineken Light also included a money-back guarantee campaign, in which he directly challenged viewers to try the beer and get their money back if they didn’t think it was the best-tasting light beer available. It was a bold, consumer-friendly move that matched his witty public persona perfectly.
Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, and the James Bond Years
Before any of these campaigns existed, Heineken built arguably its most legendary celebrity partnership around the James Bond franchise, a relationship that ran for nearly two and a half decades and produced some of the most cinematic beer commercials ever made.
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The James Bond partnership had been running since 1997. In that year, audiences saw Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies jumping on a motorcycle over a load of Heineken beer.
The Bond commercials evolved with each new film installment. For Casino Royale in 2006, Bond’s female counterpart Eva Green took the lead. With Skyfall in 2012, James Bond himself appeared in a Heineken commercial for the first time. During a chase in The Express commercial, a young man in a suit jumps onto a moving train, passing compartment after compartment, until he finds himself next to leading actors Daniel Craig and Bérénice Marlohe. Craig hands him a bottle of Heineken before jumping out of the train hanging from a Union Jack parachute.
With Casino Royale (2006), Heineken was the first in the history of the James Bond film franchise to shoot its tie-in television commercial using the actual Bond film set from the movie. That kind of access was unprecedented and signaled how seriously Heineken took these partnerships.
The Bond era gave Heineken something most beer brands can only dream about: a built-in association with sophistication, global adventure, and aspirational masculinity. When Craig ordered a Heineken instead of a martini in the Skyfall ad, it made headlines. It was a cultural moment, not just a commercial.
A Full Comparison: Every Major Heineken Commercial Actor at a Glance
| Actor / Celebrity | Campaign Era | Heineken Product | Campaign Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brad Pitt | 2025 | Heineken 0.0 | F1 The Movie, moderation |
| Damson Idris | 2025 | Heineken 0.0 | F1 The Movie, “When Driving, Or Not” |
| Max Verstappen | 2023-2025 | Heineken 0.0 | Responsible driving, F1 sponsorship |
| Ryan Reynolds | 2024 | Heineken Silver | Deadpool & Wolverine tie-in |
| Hugh Jackman | 2024 | Heineken Silver | Deadpool & Wolverine tie-in |
| Joe Jonas | 2024 | Heineken | “Social off Socials,” real connection |
| Benicio Del Toro | 2016-2018 | Heineken | “There’s More Behind the Star” |
| Neil Patrick Harris | 2014-2015 | Heineken Light | Money-back guarantee, humor |
| Daniel Craig | 2012, 2015 | Heineken | James Bond Skyfall, Spectre |
| Eva Green | 2006 | Heineken | James Bond Casino Royale |
| Pierce Brosnan | 1997 | Heineken | James Bond Tomorrow Never Dies |
Why Heineken Picks the Celebrities It Does
Looking at this list, a clear pattern emerges. Heineken does not chase the cheapest or most-available celebrity. It chases cultural moments, people and projects that are already occupying mainstream conversation, and it builds campaigns around those moments with real creative investment.
“At Heineken, we believe culture has the power to shape behaviour,” said global head of Heineken brand, Nabil Nasser. “By becoming part of F1 The Movie, we’re taking the conversation around moderation into a space that’s global, influential and emotionally engaging.”
That philosophy applies across every campaign. The James Bond years leveraged the most internationally recognized fictional character on Earth. The Benicio Del Toro campaign used self-aware celebrity humor at a moment when that tone was resonating. The Ryan Reynolds campaign plugged directly into the biggest superhero movie event of 2024. And the Brad Pitt campaign arrived exactly as Formula 1 reached peak American popularity.
Heineken invests heavily in celebrity partnerships because recognisable faces create instant attention. However, the strategy goes beyond visibility. Brad Pitt’s involvement is especially effective because it combines entertainment, sport, and lifestyle audiences in one campaign.
There is also a growing strategic emphasis on non-alcoholic beer. There has been an uptick in the number of people who are “sober-curious” and who have indicated that they plan to drink less alcohol. The campaign reflects Heineken’s desire to be a part of societal shifts in authentic ways. By centering high-profile campaigns around Heineken 0.0, the brand is normalizing the idea that choosing the non-alcoholic option is not a compromise but simply another valid, cool, and socially comfortable choice.
The “Legends” Campaign: When Real People Were the Stars
It is worth noting that not every Heineken commercial features a celebrity. Heineken took the unusual step of casting 20 different non-actors to play the same role in its latest global TV ad in an attempt to prove that every man is capable of something legendary.
Sandrine Huijgen, global communications director at Heineken, said: “When we saw the comments about The Odyssey TVC, we wanted to show that there are no boundaries between real and fake, proving that real men have unique skills, and everyone is legendary at something.”
The campaign was created by Wieden and Kennedy Amsterdam and invited viewers to meet the brand’s 20 real-world “Legends” online. It was a sharp counterpoint to the celebrity-heavy campaigns: proof that Heineken understood both ends of the spectrum.
What This Means for Beer Lovers Watching These Ads
For the American beer, wine, and cocktail drinker watching these commercials, the Heineken approach offers something genuinely different from most alcohol advertising. These ads rarely lead with “this beer tastes great.” Instead, they build a world around the brand: a world of adventure, humor, responsible fun, and cultural currency.
Whether you’re a fan who recognized Damson Idris from Snowfall and went looking for more of his work, or someone who caught the Ryan Reynolds spot during a late-night game and immediately sent it to a friend, these commercials are designed to spark exactly that kind of reaction. They travel. They get shared. They stick.
And for brands looking to capture a generation of drinkers who are increasingly curious about alcohol-free options without wanting to feel like they are opting out of the party, the Heineken 0.0 campaigns with Pitt, Idris, and Verstappen represent perhaps the most culturally sophisticated non-alcoholic beer marketing anyone has attempted.
The Next Time You See That Green Bottle on Screen
The next time a Heineken ad stops you mid-scroll or makes you pause the TV to figure out who that actor is, now you have the full picture. From Pierce Brosnan chasing Bond villains in 1997 to Brad Pitt and Damson Idris flipping expectations on a Formula 1 racetrack in 2025, every face Heineken has chosen tells a story not just about the person in the ad but about who the brand wants to be at that moment in culture.
That is, arguably, a more interesting story than most beer commercials ever manage to tell. And the next cold Heineken you crack open at the bar, the game, or the barbecue comes with a surprisingly cinematic backstory attached.
Sources: https://chesbrewco.com
Category: Beer
