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A dual role (also known as a double role) refers to one actor playing two roles in a single production. Dual roles (or a larger number of roles for an actor) may be deliberately written into a script, or may instead be a choice made during production, often due to a low budget. In film and television, dual roles are often used for comic effect, or to depict Twin or relatives. In a theatrical production where more than one actor plays multiple characters, it is sometimes referred to as an "Ironman" cast.
In the works of absurdism such as Tom Stoppard, characters played by the same actor are often of thematic significance.
In the musical Hamilton, four actors/actresses are cast in dual roles, each a major supporting character, with a change of roles between the first and second acts. The actors who play John Laurens/Philip Hamilton, Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, and Hercules Mulligan/James Madison wear identical white costumes in the opening song, "Alexander Hamilton", and were given lines with intentional double meanings that would fit either of their dual roles.
In the original West End production of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two many roles are doubled including Uncle Vernon/Severus Snape/Lord Voldemort, Aunt Petunia/Madame Hooch/Dolores Umbridge, Amos Diggory/Albus Dumbledore, Trolley Witch/Minerva McGonagall, Cedric Diggory/James Potter Jr./James Potter Sr., Dudley Dursley/Karl Jenkins/Viktor Krum, and Rose Granger-Weasley/Young Hermione Granger.
In a reverse situation, one character may be portrayed by multiple actors on rare occasions. Heath Ledger was cast as the lead in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). However, he died before completing production, albeit with most of his main scenes completed. So Gilliam cast Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law as "transformations of the main character in magical realms" to finish production.
In some low-budget films, actors have been cast in more than one role to save money.
Tamil actors, Kamal Haasan came in multiple roles in more than fifteen films and also in 2008 film Dasavathaaram he broke the record by doing 10 different characters in single film and Ajith Kumar have done dual roles in seven films.
Multiple casting has often included the casting of an actor as multiple members of the same family.
Starting in the 1970s, having a living double in a Bollywood film became "almost a genre in itself," according to filmmaker Govind Nihalani. In Ram Aur Shyam, Dilip Kumar acted as two brothers who got separated immediately after their birth. Seeta Aur Geeta uses a female version of this plot device in which Hema Malini acted as two separated sisters. Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma played a double role in Angoor which was based on Shakespeare's play Comedy of Errors. In Enthiran (2010), at the time the most expensive Indian film ever made, Rajinikanth plays a dual role covering the two main characters, a scientist and the humanoid robot he created.
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