A bit of “double” talk

Let me explain how this post came about:

Yesterday I was listening to the latest “Film Junk” podcast and learned that Armie Hammer played both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in “The Social Network.” Before that, I had just assumed that Fincher had dug up some identical twins for the role.

Then, today, I was reading Michael Lally’s blog entry on Jane Fonda/Charlie Rose and one of his commenters provided this link, which turned out to be a hilarious rendition of Charlie Rose interviewing Charlie Rose.

So this got me interested in the art of an actor playing two people. First I followed the Winklevoss story and dug up this fascinating video showing how Fincher did it in “The Social Network.”

Before technology became so advanced, the only way filmmakers could achieve the desired result was to never show the two characters full-face on the screen at the same time, or use a “dummy actor” whose face was never shown – remember those “back of the head shots?”

The first movie that I recall where technology allowed credible side-by-side, full-face presentation was “Dead Ringers,” (1988) the overlooked Cronenberg film starring Jeremy Irons as both of the twins.

On Dead Ringers - the latest chiller by horror impresario David Cronenberg — optical effects supervisor Lee Wilson worked with Balsmeyer and Everett and Film Effects of Toronto to create a new generation of split-screen opticals that enabled actor Jeremy Irons to play scenes with himself as twin brothers without the customary restriction of stationary splits or even locked-off cameras.

I also recall the1998 version of “The Man in the Iron Mask,” with DiCaprio playing both roles.

As I sit here, I have a fuzzy recollection of several other recent movies with dual roles appearing full-face on screen at the same time, but I’m not remembering them at the moment. Help me out…

Note: The Film Junk podcast has added a new regular: “Dirrrty Frank,” who makes the show even better.