10 great films where one actor plays multiple characters

Dual performances always attract attention and are often used to showcase multiple sides of an actor's talent. Jim Carrey has received a lot of attention for playing two characters in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and some of the most exciting films of 2025 also feature actors working overtime. Robert Pattinson, Robert De Niro and Michael B. Jordan have dual roles planned for 2025.

Actors mainly play various characters in comedy films, just like Carrey in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Other common reasons for a double act in a film include stories featuring twins or science fiction films featuring clones or humanoid robots. A double act is always an interesting twist that a studio can use to promote a film, but the best actors can turn this type of role into more than just a gimmick.

10

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)

Jim Carrey plays Dr. Robotnik and Professor Gerald Robotnik

Not long ago, Jim Carrey seemed to be retiring from acting, but he appears to be making an exception for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. This culminated in him playing two characters in the recently released trio. According to some reports, this challenge was a big reason why Carrey agreed to return to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and critics praised her dual role.

Carrey reprises the role of Dr. Ivo Robotnik from the first two films, but also plays Gerald Robotnik, Ivo's distant 110-year-old grandfather. His dual role is unique in the cast of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. This isn't the first time Carrey has played multiple characters in the same film, but the animation of A Christmas carol made it much simpler for him to portray Scrooge and the three ghosts.

9

Doctor Strange (1964)

Peter Sellers plays Dr. Strangelove, Merkin Muffley and Lionel Mandrake

Several of Peter Sellers' best films feature the actor playing multiple roles, but Doctor Strange stands out above the rest. Sellers produces a strong contender for the funniest film of all timeplaying three different characters from three different countries in Stanley Kubrick's scathing Cold War satire. He is the titular German scientist Dr. Strangelove, as well as American President Merkin Muffley and British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake.

The three characters of the salespeople in Doctor Strange They all help bring about the end of human civilization in some way, even if none of them intended to do so. The reasons they are unable to stop the impending nuclear apocalypse are all linked to personal failures that are representative of the way their countries are often viewed on the global stage. Sellers has the intelligence and reach to turn around Doctor Strange a comedy of manners and a tragicomic farce, as well as a political satire.

8

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1999)

Mike Myers plays Austin Powers and Dr.

Four years before starring Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Mike Myers played two characters in So I married an ax murderer, and he clearly liked the idea. In the first Austin Powers film, Myers plays the titular spy and his archenemy Dr. Later, the franchise pokes fun at their similarities by revealing that they are long-lost brothers. Dr. Evil is a hilarious villain and it's hard to imagine him being as funny as any other character.

Myers' dual role in the first Austin Powers the film ended up being just the beginning, as he added more characters to his repertoire with each sequel. In The spy who fucked me, he also plays the obese Scottish assassin Fat Bastard and plays the titular Dutch villain in Gold Member. That's nothing compared to the eight characters he plays in the short-lived Netflix series The Pentaverate.

7

Asteroid City (2023)

Various actors play various characters

Asteroid City It didn't get the same critical responses as some of Wes Anderson's best films, but it's the kind of complex, layered story that can age beautifully. The Grand Budapest Hotel – possibly Anderson's best work – uses multiple layers of a framed narrative. Asteroid City takes this idea a step further showing a televised play and its production simultaneouslywith various actors playing the characters in the play and the actors portraying them.

Jason Schwartzman is one of the most important actors who takes on a dual role in Asteroid City. As the play's main character, he is also a vital character in the production's behind-the-scenes story. Jones Hall goes through a crisis of confidence when he doesn't know how to play Augie Steenbeck, and this affects the story both within the play and behind the scenes. The multiple layers of artifice in Asteroid City seems to be Anderson's way of commenting on the highly stylized structure of his own films.

6

Alright (2017)

Tilda Swinton plays Lucy Mirando and Nancy Mirando

Okja received much more attention after Bong Joon-ho's next film, Parasite, it won Best Picture, but remains underrated. The environmental sci-fi fantasy follows a young woman who tries to rescue her genetically engineered pet “super pig” from the slaughterhouse. Tilda Swinton has worked with Bong before Snowpiercer, and she plays two sisters in OK, both involved in his family's Mirando Corporation.

Swinton has always been a chameleon actorand Okja shows her playing two very different characters, although their goals are often aligned. This is far from the only time Swinton has taken on a dual role, as she plays two gossip columnists in Hail, Caesar, a mother and a daughter in The Eternal Daughter, and three characters in Sigh. As for Bong, his next film, Mickey 17, features Robert Pattinson playing multiple characters.

5

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Various actors play various characters

Each Monty Python film features members of the British comedy troupe playing various characters, but The Holy Grail takes things up a notch. At times the film feels like a series of loosely connected sketches, allowing Cleese, Chapman, Idle, Palin, Jones, and Gilliam to play as many elevated characters as they can. There are some other actors who also play various charactersas Carol Cleveland, frequent Monty Python collaborator.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail It could have been a great comedy, but it's even funnier to have the same six actors playing almost every character. This gives the film a hilarious low-budget feel that works perfectly for Monty Python's irreverent style of comedy. It also helps that the actors write the characters. No one could play the Black Knight, Sir Lancelot, Tim the Enchanter and other characters as well as John Cleese, because he was the one who invented them.

4

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Pat Roach plays a Sherpa and a Nazi mechanic

Indiana Jones fans may not know Pat Roach by name, but they would certainly recognize him. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, he plays the muscular Nazi mechanic who fights with Indy near a slowly rotating plane, just before it is torn apart by one of the propellers. He also had a minor role earlier in the film, as one of the Indy Sherpas fighting in Nepal. His face is obscured in this fight, so it's not so obvious that he's the same actor playing both roles.

Roach also returned to Indiana Jones franchise in its first two sequels, playing Chief Thuggee Guard in Temple of Doom and a member of the Gestapo in The Last Crusade. Roach passed away before Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Before he began working as an actor, Roach was a famous wrestler in Britain. Spielberg cast him in several roles in Indiana Jones series because he appreciated its distinct physicality. This is how Doug Jones plays two characters in Pan's Labyrinth, or how Warwick Davis plays Griphook and Professor Flitwick in Harry Potter franchise.

3

Us (2019)

Various actors play various characters

Jordan Peele's sophomore film doesn't usually get as much love as To go out or No, but its unique concept leaves a lasting impression. Us focuses on the Tethered, a population of duplicates living underground, somehow linked to their surface-dwelling counterparts, blissfully unaware of the situation. Us never directly addresses who the Tethered are or where they came from, and their mysterious origins mean that people have interpreted the metaphor's meaning in a variety of ways.

Each of the main characters in Us has 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 disproves many theories about Peele's film. The end of Us leaves the audience with one last puzzle.

2

The Double (2013)

Jesse Eisenberg plays Simon James and James Simon

The Double remains something of a hidden gem, but Richard Ayoade's strange and seductive black comedy deserves more love. Jesse Eisenberg gives a brilliant dual performance as an overwhelmed office worker and the mysterious doppelgänger who appears and begins to take control of his life. The Double is based on a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but Ayoade modernizes and reimagines it for the big screen.

Eisenberg manages to work in some of the film's comedy to ease the overbearingly dark tension that hangs over the story. The Double has a lot in common with Enemy, Denis Villeneuve's thriller stars Jake Gyllenhaal as two identical men whose lives begin to intertwine. Both films premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013 before hitting theaters in 2014.

1

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

John Rhys-Davies plays Gimli and Treebeard

Most cases of characters playing two roles in a film are done for comedic effect, or else they are used in horror films and suspense thrillers to facilitate some twist about twins, doppelgängers, or clones. This is what makes John Rhys-Davies' dual role in Lord of the Rings trilogy something of an anomaly. He plays Gimli in all three films and voices Treebeard in The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

Rhys-Davies does enough to disguise his voice as Treebeard so that not everyone can tell he's the same actor who plays Gimli. Peter Jackson apparently asked Rhys-Davies to consider voicing Treebeard because he admired the sound of her voice and thought she would fit the role. The films don't try to draw attention to the fact that Rhys-Davies plays a dual role. This would probably break the suspension of disbelief, but Jackson and Rhys-Davies get away with it.