10 Great Twin Performances in Film and TV Ahead of ‘Sinners’

Lupita Nyong’o, who won an Oscar for her work in “12 Years a Slave,” cemented herself as a horror legend with her SAG-nominated work as both Adelaide Wilson and her horrifying tethered-counterpart, Red. Nyong’o plays each character with expert precision and timing as Adelaide struggles to beat herself at her own killer instincts. But it’s only when director Jordan Peele pulls the rug out from under the audience that viewers fully understand the childhood secret that Adelaide has been harboring, a revelation that Nyong’o plants quietly from the very beginning on that ominous beach pier.

What’s better than one Nicolas Cage performance? Two Nicolas Cage performances. In Charlie Kaufman’s ultra-meta take on the writing process, it’s the dual performances from Cage that humanize the creative journey. As Charlie, Cage is overwhelmed by his own ambitions while his twin brother, Donald, suddenly changes career paths to be like Charlie. In the years since, Cage has given some great performances, but it’s telling that his last Oscar nomination was for “Adaptation” — no director has quite known how to play to both Cage’s comedic and dramatic strengths like Kaufman did here.

While Daniel Day Lewis’ Oscar-winning performance in “There Will Be Blood” is rightly touted as an acting masterclass, Paul Dano’s ability to go toe-to-toe with Lewis as both the demon-sucking sermon Eli Sunday and his twin brother Paul Sunday is quite the feat. In fact, Dano was cast halfway through the shoot when Paul Thomas Anderson fired Kel O’Neill, leaving him only four days to prepare. It’s no accident that the film’s most iconic line (“I drink your milkshake!”) is spoken directly to Dano, who sells the scene just as much with his pathetically broken reaction.

The exact moment when Mark steps into the elevator and switches into his “innie” self — the version of him that never leaves the plain-white walls of Lumon Industries — can easily be missed. But Adam Scott makes a meal out of this moment every time, with the slight twitch in his eyes and shift in posture. Even when there’s nothing physically different about the two Marks, Scott makes them two distinguishable halves of the same broken whole. Outie Mark’s grief always trickles down in some way. And it’s only when Innie and Outie Mark finally meet in Season 2 that we fully understand just how intricately Scott has played the power balance all along.

The most recent film entry to this list is a welcome one. Robert Pattinson only continues to make bold and interesting choices in his career, as he does in Bong Joon Ho’s latest feature. We get introduced to Mickey 17 right away with his strange but fascinating baby-like voice — which the actor says he emulated from watching Johnny Knoxville in “Jackass.” But despite how silly Mickey’s demeanor is, and the movie as a whole can be, Pattinson still manages to bring his character’s humanity and unearthed desire to live and love to the surface. That only gets amplified when we meet the rigid, much more physically-fit Mickey 18. When the two go at it, it’s a marvelous sight to behold.

The late Margot Kidder is often associated with her work in “Superman,” but it’s her iconic turn in Brian De Palma’s Hitchcock-esque thriller that set her up for later horror success in “Black Christmas” and “The Amityville Horror.” As both Danielle Breton and Dominique Blanchion, Kidder plays a set of conjoined twins with an unknown past. During the film’s infamous murder scene that turns into a split-screen showcase, Danielle unleashes her inner Dominique. The most horrifying part is how Danielle justifies her actions to herself and, eventually, puts the nosy journalist Grace (Jennifer Salt) under her spell.

While “Friends” is known for its strong ensemble cast, Lisa Kudrow had the chance to also play against herself with the fractured relationship between sisters Phoebe and Ursula, who originally appeared as a waitress in “Mad About You.” When Ursula shows up in town, Phoebe’s feelings of jealousy from growing up with her sister come to the surface, giving Lusa Kudrow the opportunity to build out her character’s backstory beyond the main friend group. (Fun fact: Lisa Kudrow’s sister, Helene Marla Kudrow, was used a body double!)

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re not alone in this world? That suspicious fear of the doppelgänger effect is eerily captured through Vera Miles’ performance as Millicent Barnes in Season 1, Episode 21 of “The Twilight Zone.” As her suitcase keeps getting shuffled around and the ticket agent tells her that she’s asked the same questions before, Miles perfectly captures the dead-end feeling of no one believing you. The scariest moment in this episode doesn’t feature any jump scares or ghouls lurking in the dark. Rather, it’s the look of sheer agony when Millicent looks at the bus driving away — only to see her own reflection staring right back at her.

While Lindsay Lohan gave an iconic performance in the 1998 family classic “The Family Trap,” she has Hayley Mills in the 1961 original to thank as precedent. Mills plays teenage twins Sharon Evers and Sharon McKendrick who, after meeting at a summer camp, devise a plan to switch households and get their divorced parents back together. In both parts, Mills brought comedic charm and even demonstrated her singing chops with the song “Let’s Get Together.”

The now-controversial Hammer played a set of douchebag twins in David Fincher’s 2010 classic “The Social Network.” The Winklevoss twins are an exemplification of privilege and business as they propose working with Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) on the creation of Facebook. But as the twins go head-to-head with Mark, Hammer lets the legal talk spew out as they realize that special treatment will not always be at their disposal in life.