Actors That Play Multiple Roles In One Film
Plus: We draft Steven Soderbergh movies on this week's podcast
Actors love to show off their range, so they often relish the opportunity to play more than one character in the same movie. We’ll see this happen twice in new releases over the next month. In The Alto Knights (in theaters this weekend), Robert De Niro plays rival mob bosses in a dual role, and in Sinners (out on April 18th), Michael B. Jordan plays twin brothers in director Ryan Coogler’s vampire movie.
This got us thinking about movies we’d recommend where an actor or actress plays multiple roles. Read our picks and check out our archive for more examples.
Drew recommends…
Suspiria (2018)
Professor Lutz Ebersdorf was in his 80s when he made his acting debut alongside Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton in the 2018’s Suspiria. Ebersdorf was a German psychoanalyst before he played a fictional one as Dr. Josef Klemperer in the film. It’s an impressive performance for a first-timer in this ominous supernatural horror remake of the classic 1977 Italian original about a prestigious dance school run by a coven of witches. Only after Suspiria’s release was it confirmed that, in fact, the character of Dr. Klemperer (and the “real” psychoanalyst-turned-actor Lutz Ebersdorf) was played by the always-chameleonic Tilda Swinton.
This strange and layered actorly decision is classic Swinton. She’s long been known for her transformative and versatile performances, and director Luca Guadagnino is a filmmaker that channeled those gifts in past movies like I Am Love and A Bigger Splash. For his Suspiria, though, Guadagnino conceived of three different roles for Swinton: Dr. Klemperer, Madame Blanc, the dance company’s lead choreographer, and a terrifying third character revealed later in the story. “This is a movie that is very connected to psychoanalysis,” he said, “and I like to think that only Tilda could play ego, superego and id.”
Swinton effortlessly shifts between the three parts before our eyes. Madame Blanc, the exacting choreographer that trains newcomer Susie (Dakota Johnson), most resembles the Tilda Swinton we are used to seeing. When asked why she donned pounds of prosthetic makeup to play an 80-something male German psychoanalyst, she said it was, “for the sheer sake of fun above all.” For an actress that is constantly giving herself new challenges, you can see how she might have enjoyed inventing this real German man (Ebersdorf) to play a fictional one (Dr. Klemperer), and also how it may have enhanced her process of inhabiting these characters. Her committed off-kilter energy is essential to Guadagnino’s remake successfully discovering its own identity outside of the original Suspiria. Even if Lutz Ebersdorf’s name appears in the credits, we now know it’s Tilda Swinton’s peerless talent that delivers a fascinating multi-part performance inside a single movie.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Billy recommends…
Dr. Strangelove
This is a re-post from February 2021
Dr. Strangelove is about an out-of-his-mind rogue American general who sends America into a potential nuclear holocaust by authorizing “Plan R.” What ensues is a group of politicians and military members huddled in the “War Room” trying to stop inevitable doom. Each character is as dumb, arrogant, and evil as the next one. If these characters are at all based on reality then we should be terrified to our core, but for this hour and a half we can sit back and laugh at the hilarity that ensues. Peter Sellers and George C. Scott bring the most yucks. Sellers plays three different characters. A well-meaning fish-out-of-water British officer who is not quite confident enough to tell his new American friend, General Jack D. Ripper (clever, right?), just how insane he is being, the President of the United States who is trying way too hard to be professional during this horrific event, and lastly, an ex-Nazi trying to fight his Nazi impulses while being the scientific adviser to the President. Scott plays General Buck Turgidson, a military authority who at one point tries to put a positive spin on this tragic event by saying he can possibly limit casualties to 10-20 million people…
Read the full recommendation here
Available to rent on digital platforms
From the DYLA Archive
DYLA Podcast
We explored the prolific career of director Steven Soderbergh in this week’s episode. From an indie beginning to movie star ensembles to everything in between, Soderbergh has seemingly done it all since he burst onto the scene with Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989.
After tracing his career arc, we discuss what we love about Soderbergh’s filmmaking style, recurring themes, and approachably intelligent work. Then, we draft his movies in five categories, including the Ocean’s trilogy, action-thrillers, his “streaming era,” and more. Listen and decide for yourself who won the draft!
Apple Podcasts:
Spotify: