There are quite a few movies where an actor plays more than one role. It is always a testament to the performer when it works because pulling off two completely different personalities in the same project has to be taxing on the mind. A popular internet film forum recently voted these the best dramas where an actor plays multiple roles.
1. Adaptation (2002)
Adaptation tells the story of a self-loathing screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman, hired to write the screenplay adaptation of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief.
He struggles with anxiety, social phobia, depression, and low self-esteem. His twin brother, Donald, has moved into his house and is freeloading there. Nicolas Cage plays both of these characters, bringing a lot to the roles. These are more serious characters rather than his normal off-the-wall ones.
2. Dead Ringers (1988)
Dead Ringers is more on the psychological side of things. However, it is still very much a drama. It features Jeremy Irons in a dual role as identical twin gynecologists. He was given two different dressing rooms with two sets of costumes for playing his two characters.
However, he chose to use only one of the rooms and combine different costume items intended for different characters to further confuse the audience as to who is who. One user states, “Jeremy Irons is at his absolute best in this movie.”
3. Men (2022)
Men is a British folk horror film that stars Jessie Buckley as a widowed woman who travels on holiday to a countryside village but becomes disturbed and tormented by the strange men in the village, who are all portrayed by Rory Kinnear.
4. Legend (2015)
Tom Hardy plays twin brothers in Legend. Reggie Kray is a former boxer who has become an important part of the criminal underground in London. At the start of the film, his twin brother Ron is locked up in a psychiatric hospital for paranoid schizophrenia. Reggie uses threats to obtain the premature release of his brother so that the twins can unite their efforts to control a large part of London's criminal underworld.
5. Split (2016)
Split follows a man with dissociative identity disorder who kidnaps and imprisons three teenage girls in an isolated underground facility. James McAvoy portrays Kevin, as well as all 23 of his personalities. McAvoy is phenomenal and can give each of these characters their own temperament.
6. Hail Caesar (2016)
Hail Caesar is a fictional story that follows the real-life fixer Eddie Mannix working in the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s, trying to discover what happened to a star actor while filming a biblical epic. Tilda Swinton plays Thora Thacker and Thessaly Thacker, feuding identical twin sister gossip columnists.
7. Multiplicity (1996)
Multiplicity is a film about a man who can duplicate himself by machine; each duplicate develops a different personality, causing problems. He uses them to take time off work and enjoy his life, among other things. Michael Keaton plays all of the versions of the clones.
8. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Glass Onion is a standalone sequel to the 2019 film Knives Out, with Daniel Craig reprising his role as master detective Benoit Blanc as he takes on a new case revolving around tech billionaire Miles Bron and his closest friends.
Since the actor who plays two different roles in this film is a bit of a spoiler and Glass Onion was only recently released, we won't divulge the details. However, let it be known that they deliver an incredible performance, and this is one of the best reasons to see this movie if you haven't yet.
9. Mulholland Drive (2001)
This film follows a dark-haired woman (played by Laura Harring) who is the sole survivor of a car crash on Mulholland Drive, a winding road high in the Hollywood Hills. She loses her memory and has no recollection of who she is or anything about her life.
Naomi Watts comes into the picture when she crosses paths with someone else who promises to help her learn the truth. Both women play two separate characters in Mulholland Drive. However, we will not go into details in order to avoid spoilers. One user claims Naomi Watts is “severely underrated” in this movie.
10. White Comanche (1968)
In White Comanche, drifter Johnny Moon is frequently attacked as he is mistaken for his twin brother Notah who leads Comanche war parties in attacks on the white population while having visions while on peyote. Johnny travels to a Comanche encampment where he challenges his brother to a fight to the death in the town of Rio Hondo. William Shatner plays both brothers.
Source: Reddit.
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