8 Great Double Performances From A Single Actor

It's quite difficult for an actor to convincingly play one movie character, with all their faults, tics and foibles. Even the greatest actors in the world don't always get the complexities of a performance right, even with all their attention focused on the part. Imagine the difficulty, then, of one actor facing down the challenge of playing not one character, but two, in the exact same goddamn movie. It's a challenge that Tom Hardy can be seen taking on in Brian Helgeland's recent crime drama Legend. A biopic of London's notorious Kray twins, Legend finds Hardy playing both brothers to movie-stealing effect, adding another talent to his ever-expanding wheelhouse. Throughout cinema history, actors have pushed themselves to play a variety of characters in single films (think Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers in a variety of films, or Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers). This list is for some of the more recent examples, though, from a century in which the practice of dual role-ing seems to have grown in popularity thanks to new technologies. So, without further ado, here are eight great double performances from a single actor. 8) Paul Dano In There Will Be Blood Originally, Paul Dano was only to make a cameo in Paul Thomas Anderson's turn-of-the-century oil epic There Will Be Blood, as Paul Sunday, the prospector who puts Daniel Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview on a collision course with his brother Eli. Anderson must have seen something more in Dano, though, because it's this cameo that got him the part of Eli Sunday - when original actor Kel O'Neill dropped out during shooting - as well. On the page, Eli Sunday is a self-righteous, holier-than-thou preacher with a thirst for power and wealth, but Dano makes him somehow even more despicable - a pathetic, sly and egotistical cult leader. In most movies, Eli would be the villain; but as he's up against the mighty Day-Lewis, playing one of the most cunning movie villains of this century, Sunday has to take second billing in the evil stakes. Dano makes a bloody good go of it, though. 7) Jesse Eisenberg In The Double The Double's dual roles don't just provide an excuse for Jesse Eisenberg to challenge himself: the twin parts allow Eisenberg an opportunity at long last to branch out and play something other than variations on the socially awkward nerd. The plot is simple - anonymous office worker Simon James fantasizes about co-worker Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), but his extrovert doppelganger James Simon is the one who makes the first moves - and Eisenberg plays both parts wonderfully. As Simon James, Eisenberg is everything you've seen him be a dozen times before - hilariously introverted, shy, bumbling and fumbling with his words. As James Simon, however, Eisenberg proves that he indeed can play something different: a charismatic, ruthless, arrogant skirt-chaser, to be precise. 6) Christian Bale In The Prestige Anybody watching The Prestige for the first time won't even be aware that Christian Bale is playing a dual role in it until the very end of the film. Christopher Nolan's puzzle box of a movie is full of surprises, but perhaps none are quite as shocking or sad as the revelation that magician Alfred Borden is actually two men, twins, playing the same 'role' in order to ensure the world never discovers the truth behind one of Borden's most famous tricks. Only repeated watches reveal what an excellent job Bale did playing Alfred. He is indeed two different men, with two subtly different personalities - the cocky, volatile twin who strays from 'wife' Sarah, and the devoted, more sober brother who is as dedicated to his family as he is to his art. Ultimately, though, both are driven by an obsession, a shared characteristic that ultimately proves to be the downfall of one of them. 5) Sam Rockwell In Moon Sam Rockwell has always been the next big thing that - for whatever reason - could never quite reach the star status he deserved. Not that he hasn't given some great performances in his career, proving just why he should be more major than he is; chief among them is Duncan Jones' Moon, a sci-fi chamber piece and mystery thriller that places Sam Rockwell's Sam Bell all alone on a lunar mining facility. Well, not completely alone. Moon is the movie that taps into Rockwell's appeal as an actor best because it encourages him to show off the two most valuable sides of himself - the crazed, high-energy trickster, and the poignant, screen-commanding thespian - as Sam and his unwanted clone. It's perhaps the ultimate example of a double role, because Rockwell acts opposite no other human but himself in Moon, and makes the movie seriously compelling because of it. 4) Dominic Cooper In The Devil's Double The Devil's Double made just a paltry worldwide total of $4.8 million, on a budget of $19 million, when it was released back in 2011. It makes sense - the film's 'star,' Dominic Cooper, isn't really a star, and certainly not someone to bank a whole movie on. What audiences missed though by giving this bizarre Uday Hussein sort-of-biopic a wide berth was a turn by Cooper that by all means could have made him into a star. Or, rather, two turns - Cooper plays both Hussein and his body double Latif Yahia, the Iraqi soldier who bore a likeness to Saddam's son and was forced into the sociopathic playboy's employ as his professional lookalike. Lee Tamahori's movie is an uneasy mix of black comedy and true-to-life horror, but Cooper excels as the innocent, cynical Yahia, and the unpredictable Uday, a monstrous figure he plays like a spoiled child who was never required to grow up. 3) Armie Hammer In The Social Network Since 2010's The Social Network, audiences have understandably cooled on Armie Hammer. Movies like The Lone Ranger, Mirror Mirror and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. have done nothing to dispel the notion that Hammer is a physical specimen first and a (pretty average) actor second. His best role is still in Fincher's Facebook movie, five years ago - put it down to the Fincher method working its magic, because Hammer easily outperforms himself here and does his best work to date. It's not just that Hammer gets his tongue so easily around the 'Sorkinese' of Aaron Sorkin's wordy script: he carries an air of superiority and entitlement that makes his Winklevoss twins arguably even more detestable than Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg. It's an impressive display of air-headed stubbornness, the Winklevii coming across like two giant babies who've just been told 'no' for the first time in their lives. 2) Nicolas Cage In Adaptation Say what you like about Nicolas Cage, but the man is always more than up for a challenge when he's met with one. And, predictably, Hollywood's loopiest star throws himself into Spike Jonze's Adaptation with full force. The film is the result of a mind-bending Charlie Kaufman screenplay, in which Cage plays Kaufman adapting the novel The Orchid Thief, as well as Kaufman's fictional layabout of a brother, Donald. As Charlie Kaufman, Cage is relatively Cage-y (though much more tuned-in than he is whenever he plays one of his ten-a-penny action movie heroes), all neuroses and odd verbal patterns. Donald is something different for the actor, though: a lovable, oafish dolt who seems to be able to put a positive spin on life wherever his brother can't. It seems like perhaps Cage's most self-aware character ever, a figure that isn't as ripe for parody as his many others. 1) Tom Hardy In Legend He's the best leading man Hollywood has today - of course Tom Hardy nailed the dual role for Legend. In Brian Helgeland's film, Hardy is both Reggie and Ronnie Kray, the celebrity East End gangsters who ruled London in the 50s and 60s. Basic character summary: one's a blatant psycho, the other's a psycho that just happens to be able to keep the fact hidden most of the time. Legend wouldn't work without Hardy, and what makes his performance so special is how he renders the brothers both individually unique and together similar enough to be kin. Reggie's the suave, sophisticated one, while Ronnie's his cold, volatile other half; both are fundamentally bad men struggling with their own compulsive lust for violence. Reports suggest the real Krays were never actually this conflicted, but it makes for one (two) hell of a performance(s).