Dual performances always catch the eye, and they have often been used to showcase multiple sides to an actor’s talents. Jim Carrey has been getting a lot of attention for playing two characters inSonic the Hedgehog 3,and some of themost exciting movies of 2025also feature actors working overtime.Robert Pattinson, Robert De Niro and Michael B. Jordan all have dual roles lined up for 2025.
Actors mostly play multiple characters in comedy movies, just like Carrey inSonic the Hedgehog 3.Other common reasons for having a dual performance in a movie include stories with twins, or sci-fi movies with clones or humanoid robots. A dual performance is always an interesting novelty that a studio can use to promote a movie, but the best actors can turn these types of roles into more than just a gimmick.
Not too long ago, Jim Carrey seemed to be retiring from acting, but he seems to make an exception for theSonic the Hedgehogfranchise. This has culminated in him playing two characters in the recently-released threequel. According to some reports, this challenge was a big reason why Carrey agreed to return forSonic the Hedgehog 3,and critics have praised his dual role.
Carrey reprises the role of Dr. Ivo Robotnik from the first two movies, but he also plays Gerald Robotnik, Ivo’s estranged 110-year-old grandfather. His dual role is unique in thecast ofSonic the Hedgehog 3.This isn’t the first time Carrey has played multiple characters in the same movie, but the animation ofA Christmas Carolmade it much simpler for him to portray Scrooge and the three ghosts.
Several ofPeter Sellers' best moviesfeature the actor playing multiple roles, butDr. Strangelovestands out above the rest.Sellers produces a strong contender for the funniest movie performance of all time, playing three different characters from three different countries in Stanley Kubrick’s biting Cold War satire. He is the titular German scientist, Dr. Strangelove, as well as the American president Merkin Muffley and British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake.
Sellers has the wit and the range to turnDr. Strangeloveinto a comedy of manners and a tragicomic farce, as well as a political satire.
Sellers' three characters inDr. Strangeloveall help bring about the end of human civilization in some way, even though none of them mean to. The reasons they are unable to stop the encroaching nuclear apocalypse are all tied to personal failures that are representative of the way their countries are often seen on the global stage. Sellers has the wit and the range to turnDr. Strangeloveinto a comedy of manners and a tragicomic farce, as well as a political satire.
Four years before starring inAustin Powers: International Man of Mystery,Mike Myers played two characters inSo I Married an Axe Murderer,and he clearly got a taste for the idea. In the first Austin Powers movie, Myers plays the titular spy and his arch-nemesis Dr. Evil. The franchise later makes fun of their similarities by revealing that they are long-lost brothers.Dr. Evil is a hilarious villain, and it’s hard to imagine him being quite as funny with any other character.
Myers added more characters to his repertoire with each sequel.
Myers' dual role in the firstAustin Powersmovie turned out to be just the beginning, as he added more characters to his repertoire with each sequel. InThe Spy Who Shagged Me,he also plays the obese Scottish assassin Fat Bastard, and he plays the titular Dutch villain inGoldmember.This is nothing compared to the eight characters he plays in the short-lived Netflix seriesThe Pentaverate.
Asteroid Cityhasn’t gotten the same critical responses as some ofWes Anderson’s best movies, but it’s the kind of complex, layered story that could age beautifully.The Grand Budapest Hotel- possibly Anderson’s best work - uses several layers of a frame narrative.Asteroid Citytakes this idea one step further byshowing a televised play and its production simultaneously, with various actors playing the characters within the play and the actors who portray them.
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Jason Schwartzman is one of the most important actors taking on a dual role inAsteroid City.As the main character of the play, he’s also a vital character in the behind-the-scenes story of the production. Jones Hall has a crisis of confidence when he doesn’t know how to portray Augie Steenbeck, and this affects the story both within the play and behind the curtain. The multiple layers of artifice inAsteroid Cityseem to be Anderson’s way of commenting on the highly stylized structure of his own movies.
Okjagot a lot more attention after Bong Joon-ho’s following movie,Parasite,won Best Picture, but it remains underappreciated. The environmental sci-fi fantasy follows a young girl who tries to rescue her genetically modified “super pig” pet from the slaughterhouse. Tilda Swinton worked with Bong before onSnowpiercer,and she plays two sisters inOkja,both involved in their family’s Mirando Corporation.
Swinton plays twin gossip columnists inHail, Caesar,a mother and daughter inThe Eternal Daughter,and three characters inSuspiria.
Swinton has always been a chameleon of an actor, andOkjashows her playing two very different characters, even though their goals are often aligned. This is far from the only time that Swinton has taken on a dual role, since she plays twin gossip columnists inHail, Caesar,a mother and daughter inThe Eternal Daughter,and three characters inSuspiria.As for Bong, his next movie,Mickey 17,features Robert Pattinson playing multiple characters.
Every Monty Python moviefeatures the members of the British sketch comedy troupe playing multiple characters, butThe Holy Grailkicks things up a notch. At times, the movie feels like a loosely-connected series of sketches, allowing Cleese, Chapman, Idle, Palin, Jones and Gilliam to play as many heightened characters as they can come up with.There are a few other actors who pitch in by playing multiple characters too, like frequent Monty Python collaborator Carol Cleveland.
Monty Python and the Holy Grailcould have been a large ensemble comedy, but it’s even funnier having the same six actors playing almost every character.
Monty Python and the Holy Grailcould have been a large ensemble comedy, but it’s even funnier having the same six actors playing almost every character. This gives the movie a hilarious low-budget feel that works brilliantly for Monty Python’s irreverent style of comedy. It also helps that the actors are the ones writing the characters. Nobody could play the Black Knight, Sir Lancelot, Tim the Enchanter and other characters as well as John Cleese, because he’s the one who invented them.
Indiana Jonesfans might not know Pat Roach by name, but they would certainly recognize him.InRaiders of the Lost Ark,he plays the muscular Nazi mechanic who gets into a fight with Indy near a slowly rotating plane, shortly before he is torn to shred by one of the propellers. He also has a smaller role earlier in the movie as one of the Sherpas Indy fights in Nepal. His face is obscured in this fight, so it isn’t so obvious that he’s the same actor playing both roles.
Roach also returned to theIndiana Jonesfranchise for its first two sequels.
Roach also returned to theIndiana Jonesfranchise for its first two sequels, playing the Chief Thuggee Guard inTemple of Doomand a Gestapo member inThe Last Crusade.Roach passed away beforeIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.Before he started working as an actor, Roach was a famous wrestler in Britain. Spielberg cast him in multiple roles in theIndiana Jonesseries because he appreciated his distinctive physicality. This is just like how Doug Jones plays two characters inPan’s Labyrinth,or how Warwick Davis plays both Griphook and Professor Flitwick in theHarry Potterfranchise.
Jordan Peele’s sophomore feature doesn’t usually get as much love as eitherGet OutorNope,but its unique concept leaves a lasting impression.Usfocuses on the Tethered, a population of duplicates who live below ground, somehow linked to their counterparts living on the surface, blissfully unaware of the situation.Usnever directly addresses who the Tethered are or where they came from, and their mysterious origins mean that people have interpreted the meaning of the metaphor in several ways.
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Each of the main characters inUshas a Tethered counterpart, so each of the actors plays two roles.The most interesting performance comes from Lupita Nyong’o, because her character’s Tethered counterpart is unique. Adelaide and Red switched places when they were children, and this detail throws off many theories about Peele’s movie. Theending ofUsleaves audiences with one last puzzle.
The Doubleremains something of a hidden gem, but Richard Ayoade’s strange, beguiling black comedy deserves more love. Jesse Eisenberg delivers a brilliant dual performance as a downtrodden office worker and the mysterious doppelgänger who shows up and starts to take over his life.The Doubleis based on a novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but Ayoade modernizes and reimagines it for the big screen.
Eisenberg manages to work in some of the movie’s comedy to alleviate the overbearingly bleak tension that hangs over the story.The Doubleshares a lot in common withEnemy,Denis Villeneuve’s thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as two identical men whose lives start to blur together. Both movies premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013 before hitting theaters in 2014.
Most instances of characters playing two roles in a movie are done for comedic effect, or else they are used in horror movies and suspense thrillers to facilitate some twist about twins, doppelgängers or clones. This is what makes John Rhys-Davies' dual role in theLord of the Ringstrilogy something of an anomaly. He plays Gimli in all three movies, and he voices Treebeard inThe Two TowersandThe Return of the King.
Rhys-Davies does enough to disguise his voice as Treebeard that not everybody can tell that he’s the same actor as the one who portrays Gimli.
Rhys-Davies does enough to disguise his voice as Treebeard that not everybody can tell that he’s the same actor as the one who portrays Gimli. Peter Jackson seemingly asked Rhys-Davies to consider voicing Treebeard because he admired the sound of his voice and thought that it would fit the part.The movies don’t try to draw any attention to the fact that Rhys-Davies is playing a dual role.This would probably break the suspension of disbelief, but Jackson and Rhys-Davies get away with it.
