Playing multiple roles in the same project is the kind of challenge that’s attractive to any capital-A Actor eager to show off their range, and is completely doable in film, where, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can cut and paste the same person into the same scene as many times as you want — even as completely different characters.
In most cases, it’s just as fun for the audience as it is for the actor to watch someone taking on a bunch of different characters at once, whether they’re twins or lookalikes by happenstance, or even completely different people in different hair and makeup. Movies have been coming up with ways to double up on their cast basically since movies were invented, and with digital face-replacement and other modern marvels we’ve perfected the art of putting one person in multiple different places.
There are those movies in which the concept of one person playing different people overshadows the rest of the project in a way that’s distracting rather than exciting. Maybe the de-aging technology isn’t up to snuff, or maybe the wig and facial prosthetics are too noticeable, or maybe the characters aren’t different enough to be told apart if you’re not paying absolute close attention. In these movies, the doubling becomes a handicap rather than an asset, to the degree that all you remember as soon as it ends is how weird it was to watch that one guy play a bunch of different parts. Whether it’s just a little odd or downright cringe, these are the actors who might have been better suited playing just one of these parts.
10 Actors Who Played Distractingly Bad Doubles in Movies
These dual performances are doubly distracting.
Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky
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