Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,890
edits
Loads and Loads of Roles: Difference between revisions
→Theatre
m (clean up) |
|||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles 6451.jpg|link=Peter Sellers|
There's [[Acting for Two]]. Then there's acting for twenty.
Line 9:
For the animated equivalent, see [[Talking to Himself]]. [[You Look Familiar]] is this trope carried over the life of a TV Series. [[You All Look Familiar]] is the video game character model equivalent.
{{examples}}
== Film ==
* ''[[Kind Hearts and Coronets]]''. [[Alec Guinness]] plays about eight different characters.
** A [[The BBC|BBC]] [[Radio]] remake had Harry Enfield reprising all of Guinness's roles.
Line 23 ⟶ 21:
* [[Mike Myers]] playing the role of several key characters in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' franchise.
** In the first film he played only Austin and Dr. Evil, but picked up the roles of Fat Bastard and Goldmember in the sequels.
** In ''[[Coming to America]]'', [[Eddie Murphy]] and Arsenio Hall play several different roles, including white or female characters.
▲** [[Eddie Murphy]] is doing this a lot more nowadays.
** In ''[[The Nutty Professor (1996 film)|The Nutty Professor]]'' and its sequel, Murphy played the protagonist Sherman Klump, his alter ego Buddy Love, and the full Klump family.
** In ''[[Norbit]]'', he plays Norbit, his wife Rasputia and Mr. Wong.
* ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'', in which, as the ads put it, "three guys don the shoes and dresses of an entire town."
* [[Jack Black]]'s character from ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'' made a career out of this.
Line 30:
* In the short film ''Ghosts'', [[Michael Jackson]] plays two main roles (the Maestro and the Mayor) and three transformed versions of them (Skeleton, Superghoul and Ghoul Mayor).
* In ''[[Clerks]]'', several actors play multiple small roles. Given the late hours and low pay, many of those cast simply failed to show up, so Smith would have anyone who happened to be around step in. David Klein (the cinematographer) and Walter Flanagan get hit the hardest with this, with five and four roles respectively.
* [[Buster Keaton]]'s silent comedy ''[[The Playhouse]]'' (1921) opens with a scene in which ''every character'' at a theatrical performance - actors, stagehands, musicians, audience members
* ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' (1939) had Frank Morgan playing five different roles: The Wizard, Mr. Marvel, a gatekeeper in Emerald City, a carriage driver, and a guard in the Wizard's palace.
* The 1971 adaptation of [[Neil Simon]]'s ''Plaza Suite'' had Walter Matthau playing a different character in each of the film's three acts.
Line 36:
* [[Fred Astaire]] does this in ''[[The Man In The Santa Claus Suit]]''. (Although technically {{spoiler|they are all the same guy. Guess who..}})
* In the Japanese VHS/DVD dub of ''[[Forrest Gump]]'', [[Katsuhisa Hoki]] voices over the Doctor, Alabama Governor George Wallace and President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]].
* Tony Randall in
* In the film version of ''[[Cloud Atlas]]'', all the main actors had to play at last 3 roles, due to plot taking place in six different eras and the themes of reincarnation and cyclical repetition of their story. Some, as Jim Sturgess, [[Halle Berry]], [[Tom Hanks]] and [[Hugo Weaving]] had to play six different roles each.
* [[Priyanka Chopra]] interpreted 12 different women in the [[Bollywood]] film ''What's Your Raashee?'', each one representing one zodiac sign, and all of them being bride candidates for the main male character to chose to marry ASAP to save the family fortune. Chopra has to do so without recurring to prosthetics or heavy makeup, as the director was against it, so she had to retort to hair-styling, clothing, acting, and body language to differentiate each one; many critics said she pulled it successfully. She became the first actress in history to portray twelve roles in one film, a feat considered for inclusion in the ''[[Guinness World Records]]''. The director decided on this gimmick on the logic that, if he cast 12 different actresses the public sympathy would go to whoever they find the prettiest regardless of personality and would feel betrayed if the girl the protagonist chose wasn't the one they preferred, while with 12 identically-looking women that factor could taken out and shift their interest to the different characters and their mannerisms.
== Live Action Television ==▼
* Indian actor Kamal Haasan career is full of these, but the most astounding one was his film ''Dasavathaaram'' where he played ten different characters, which included an old grandma, a former CIA Agent, a 12th-century religious warrior, a Japanese martial artist, and [[George W. Bush]].
* Irish comedy ''[[wikipedia:Killinaskully|Killinascully]]'' has its writer [[Pat Shortt]] play five major characters (one of whom is female), frequently appearing in the same scene as himself.
* There are five actors who have played seven or more different characters over the course of various ''[[Star Trek]]s'': Vaughn Armstrong, Thomas Kopache, [[Jeffrey Combs]], J.G. Hertzler, and Randy Oglesby. Most of them started out playing a series of one-shot characters, then were given frequent recurring characters of their own. Jeffrey Combs was even supposedly going to make the [[Promotion to Opening Titles|jump to actual cast member]], but ''[[Enterprise]]'' was canceled a season too soon.
** Honorable mention to [[Majel Barrett]] for playing several major characters: Number One (original pilot), Nurse Christine Chapel (Original Series), Lwaxana Troi (Next Generation), and Federation starship computers from ''TNG'' onward, including ''Enterprise'' (one-episode cameo) and the
*** Technically, [[Robert Picardo]] should be on that list. He has played dozens of ''different'' incarnations of the Emergency Medical Hologram. (Identical in that they have the original base program, but different in that they have had different life experiences, if only subtly.) Not to mention playing the designer of the EMH, and a few holograms that aren't EMHs, but ''look'' like the EMH.
*** And then there's [[Brent Spiner]], who's played three different Soong-type androids (Data, Lore, and B-4) and two different Soongs (Noonien and Arik). The crowning achievement is in the episode "Brothers", where he plays Data, Lore, and Noonien Soong in the same scene ''at the same time'' (with the help of [[Chroma Key]], of course).
* On ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'', dozens of prominent - and minor - characters are played by Noel Fielding, Julian Barratt and Rich Fulcher. Fielding (as well as playing the major character of Vince Noir) fills notable roles such as the Hitcher, the Moon, Old Gregg, Tony Harrison, Montgomery Flange, the Spirit of Jazz and Spider Dijon. Barratt (who plays Howard Moon) also plays Rudy van DiSarzio, the Crack Fox, Mr Susan, Dennis the Shaman, Bryan Ferry, Sandstorm, and Jurgen Haabermaaster. Rich Fulcher, who is best known for playing Bob Fossil, has given ''many'' other very memorable performances over the course of the series, including Lester Corncrake, Kodiak Jack, Tommy the Cheese Priest, the Ape of Death, The Betamax Bandit, Alan (the Blue King of Xooberon) and "Eleanor", among others.
** Dave Brown really deserves a mention too. Although his only recurring roles are Bollo the gorilla and Joey Moose, he plays a fair few minor parts - Black Frost, the break-dancing Mutant, Naan Bread, Extreme Sports Calender etc.
Line 52 ⟶ 54:
* In the Japanese Nippon TV dub of the ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' saga, [[Kenji Nojima]] voices over Jasper Hail, Caius and Jared.
* ''[[Dick and Dom in da Bungalow]]'': the multi-talented Dave Chapman and Ian Kirkby played tens of characters each- all kinds of impressions ([[Formula One|Murray Walker]], [[Bruce Forsyth]], [[The Crystal Maze|Richard O'Brien]], [[Morecambe and Wise|Eric Morecambe]]...) and also original creations like [[British Coppers|Harry Batt]]. Melvin O'Doom had slightly fewer characters, but was also an all-purpose dancer. Even the hosts also played several recurring charaters each.
* In ''[[Jul Paa Vesterbro|Jul På Vesterbro]]'', [[Anders Matthesen]] plays every single character who has talking roles in more than one episode. In other words, he plays 11 main and recurring characters, 3 one/two episode characters as well a cameo [[As Himself]].
* ''Orphan Black'' resides on the premise of a con woman adopting the identity of what she initially assumed was a suicidal doppelgänger and later discovered was just one of apparently dozens of clones created as part of a conspiracy, all of them played by Tatiana Maslany. She appeared as five regular characters, plus eight others sporadic ones, all of them with distinctive appearances, personalities and speech patterns.
== Tabletop RPG ==
Line 62 ⟶ 64:
== Theatre ==
* This trope taken to the extreme can be found in the theatrical adaptation of the [[Alfred Hitchcock]] film ''[[The Thirty-Nine Steps]].'' The show has over 100 roles. There are four actors.
{{quote|'''[[Big Bad]]:''' *is shot, with Hannay, a police officer and the girl looking on* There was only supposed to be a cast of ''four!''}}
** The lead man plays one role, the lead woman plays four, and the remaining two actors play ''all of the other roles'' between the two of them. [[Hilarity Ensues]], as does much switching of hats, when four or five of these characters are in the same scene. It prides itself in [[Lampshading]] everything about this trope.
Line 77 ⟶ 79:
* ''I Am My Own Wife'' is a one-man play with the sole actor playing more than forty different roles. However, many of them have only a few lines, and there are no costume changes—all of them are performed in the main character's (Charlotte von Mahlsdorf) black dress and pearls.
* At one point, a production of ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'' was staged with two actors. In the final scenes, they resorted to wearing both dresses and suits while holding umbrellas: they'd open the umbrellas to block the suits when playing women, and close them again when playing men.
* Anna Deveare Smith does this for the play/film ''[[Twilight: Los Angeles]]''.
* The Broadway musical ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]'' has only nine actors in its entirety. The nine actors each have a main role, and double for 13 others. Often, the actors assume their other roles by unzipping vests, moving their hair, or merely changing their voices.
* ''[[The Mystery of Irma Vep]]'' (not to be confused with the film ''[[Irma Vep]]''): two actors (who are contractually obligated to be the same sex to insure that there ''will be crossdressing''), 8 characters, 60 quick costume changes ''each'' in the course of a show that only runs 100 minutes. Anyone who has worked on this show will freely admit that the dressers for the actors are as vital to success as the actors themselves.
Line 90 ⟶ 92:
* All minor characters in [[Little Shop of Horrors]] are played by the same actor, according to the official script.
* In ''First Date'', the four ensemble actors, as well as the waiter, play all of the [[Flash Back]] characters, with on-stage costume changes.
== Web Original ==
Line 98 ⟶ 99:
** [[Noah Antwiler]]/[[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] plays *inhales* Dr. Insano, Chef Ramsay, [[Final Fantasy VIII|Squall Leonhart]], [[Fu Manchu]], Spencer D. Bum, the [[Ultimate Warrior|Ultimate Spoony]], [[Pirates of the Caribbean|Cap'n Smiling Jack D'Arcy]], the [[Atmosfear|Gate Cleaner]], [[Hulk Hogan|Hulk Spogan]], [[Battlefield Earth|Terl]], "Spoonette", Spoontock! of the [[Star Trek|Klingon Empire]], [[Ultima|Chuckles the Fucking Jester]], [[Final Fantasy X|Tidus]], and [[Ultima|The Goddamn Avatar]].
*** The three cross-over [[Warrior (Comic Book)|Warrior]] reviews between [[Atop the Fourth Wall]] and [[The Spoony Experiment]] all involve shifts between various versions of Linkara and Spoony for most scene shifts in the film footage. ''Some'' of those alternate versions are played by other actors. Many aren't.
** Brad Jones is [[The Cinema Snob]], Kung Tai Ted, Vic Dealio of "The Big Box" and [[
** [[The Chestnut Hill Improv Group]] is only three people, two of whom do a lot of voices between them.
Line 106 ⟶ 107:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Acting for Two]]
| |||