Those of you fortunate enough to have seen the 80's sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, will remember that "Rimmer's character traits include anal-retentiveness, over-adherence to protocol, cowardice (not seen as a flaw in this blog) misogyny, and a severely inflated ego coupled with a deep-seated self-loathing." He also has the misfortune of being dead & it is his holographic representation that we see. I'm quite sure that Futurama owes much to Red Dwarf.
Anyway it was because of Rimmer that we watched Tomb Raider. I thought I'd keep my eyes open throughout the movie to see what I undoubtedly missed first time round.
It was Lara's name that really caught my attention, for I swear I a number of times I heard not Lara, but Lyra. Even my son said that 'Rimmer' called Lara, Lyra. And then there was the 'gadget' she found - I just couldn't help thinking of Lyra's Alethiometer or 'Golden Compass' from the movie of the same name. Incidentally, both movies also sport the new Bond Sol-Ace, Daniel Craig & in both movies the Lara/Lyra character saves his life.
For some reason this twinning of the two movies set off a flow of thoughts that I now see has been at the back of my mind for some time, & prior to that is something I had noticed but not noticed for a great deal of my life.
I started thinking of twin actors - you know the ones who remind you so much of another actor.
Awhile back my son & I watched a movie called White Sands - don't rush out to hire it. What intrigued both of us was the fact that the main character held such a striking resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger. A number of times my son asked if I sure it wasn't Arnie & indeed the resemblance was so striking that the following day ...
...I looked up Willem Dafoe to see if I could synchronise their births - were they twins that had been separated? Alas there was apparently a few years difference.
There was a further twist to the this movie & that was that it is featured Mickey Rourke. Now I have always thought that Mickey Rourke looked a hell of a lot like Bruce Willis, & my son agreed.
I have had heaps of fun with this, first off I went & picked out the actors that have always remind me of someone else. I've also went out & purloined other like-minded comments from from the internet.
I've always thought that Helen Hunt looked like Jodie Foster - not the other way round mind you - Jodie is top dog & with Helen riding in the wings.
"There's a shot of Helen Hunt in Twister where she looks exactly like Jodie Foster - there's a similar shot of Jodie in Contact"
"I think Jodie Foster and Helen Hunt look a lot alike. Maybe its just me I don't know"
and for a further twister to this story I find another combination
"I think that lee lee sobieski and helen hunt could pass for mother and daughter"
"I always thought that she is Helen Hunt's daughter, because I think she looks just like her, on a younger version"
Now this last little twist brings to mind the lusciously scened movie A Good Woman based on Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan. In the movie, a young bride, Lady Windermere (Scarlett Johanssen) considers leaving her husband when she believes he’s been unfaithful with an older woman — who actually turns out to be her own mother (Helen Hunt). Perhaps art & life are having an identity crisis & keep getting themselves mixed up!
Now this is a very popular twinning & I'm far from the only one to notice it - Glenn Close & Meryl Streep.
"Sweet Jesus, It's Uncanny"
"I always thought that Glenn Close and Meryl Streep (Devil wears prada) is just one person..."
"Actress Glenn Close got mistaken for Oscar winning actress Meryl Streep while waiting in a line at the airport"
"Ms. Close has chosen to joke, “I’ve often been mistaken for Meryl Streep, but never on Oscar night”
For me these next two have more of a creepiness twinning - a similarity of character or something else that I feel, but can't put my finger on - in this particular article feelings are going to be allowed full throttle. These performers are Jon Voight & Christopher Walken - to me they seem interchangeable spirits. Funnily enough, it was watching Jon Voight's appearance in a 1992 movie about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, (Auckland, 1985) that got my hackles up & led to my first full on article.
"Do you ever confuse Jon Voight with Christopher Walken?
I always do...
I like Walken as well but for some reason always confuse them"
And I found these too, so I'm not the only who thinks they're creepy;
"Jon Voight from the very beginning; he has a narcissistic quality not unlike that of Christopher Walken and we all know how creepy Mr. Walken became after The Deer Hunter"
"Voight does creepy almost as well as Christopher Walken"
So before I go further I just want to point out the 'family' feel I get when I find my thoughts echoed across the internet. "Oh, so I'm not the only one who thought that."
Now the family I'm referring to is everyone. We who write on these blogs are for most intents & purposes, a small band of 'nutters' (yourself excepted of course). The majority of people who's words I've filched for this article, would most likely shake their heads & say wtf if they stumbled into these outer reaches. Nevertheless when I read their words I feel like I am among wakened people. Why? Because they're saying kinda 'crazy' things. I'm guessing that maybe because 'movie stars' are otherworldly beings who have enchanted this reality, the rules of 'normalcy' can be bent a bit & it is ok to say things without fear of it impacting on 'real' life.
Somehow people see these demi-gods & heroes in a different light & it's that light that I'm interested in. Under that light people seem able to say 'stupid' things - but what I think I'm seeing are not stupid things at all but an inner knowing that is being allowed to surface.
For instance, here's an obviously 'stupid' comment that at first I thought NO WAY - but that was when the beauty of many of these comments hit me - I was seeing childlike honesty - you know the stuff that kids blurt out because they 'see' that the Emperor is wearing NO underwear, or anything else for that matter. In this next instance we have the child & then the 'edjicated' adult... yet still the adult dares to speak;
"Don't laugh, but when I was young I always confused Bill Murray for Tom Hanks. I always thought they had the same face! Now I feel like an idiot for confusing a complete acting legend for another"
I heard sincerity in this person's words & so despite grave doubts I went fishing for faces
A child saw/sensed/felt, a connection between these two men - in this article that is enough - he or she is heard. I just went-a-hunting to see if I could see what this child saw/sensed/felt. I was impressed, even more so when I came upon some unexpected twisters.
"Tom Hanks was first choice for the lead" (in Groundhog Day)
"Bill Murray was considered for the role of Forrest" [Gump]
"Two decades ago I thought Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton and Bill Murray were interchangeable stars making the same types of movies"
And from a write-up of Tom Hanks' movie That Thing You Do, we find Tom also twins through time with the next generation, as the movie features "Tom Everett Scott, a fresh-faced Tom Hanks look-alike"
Care for a wee dram from the gene pool - perhaps a little Char-DN-A?
What I'm suggesting for the duration of this article is a whole-hearted acceptance & yours, my & others views & feelings on this subject. If you or someone else say they see or feel a likeness (or twinning) then just for this time lets accept that it's true. Let's pretend that there is a wiser part of you & me that has noticed a very strange anomaly - that Tinsel Town is jam-packed with 'twins.' Let's pretend that we all have eyes to see a little - but put all our eyes & feelings together & we may find that it reveals a startling map of hidden connections. We might find that if we looked & allowed then 'together' our eyes & senses may reveal what we've always known but not been allowed to know.
Because anything goes in this article, I thought I'd do a spot of wild speculating too. I've decided that this is too fun a topic & too open to input, to stop at just one. So I will play further & perhaps deeper in a follow up & I will be very open & interested in the twins that you have always known & sensed, & will be happy to post ideas & pics in the second part - don't be shy, no matter how kooky your twinnings might seem, they are part of a greater awareness.
So to return to the speculation at hand, here is a twinning that caught my eye as I researched an as yet unfinished article. One actor is dead & although I am rather unfamiliar with his features (I think I only saw him once as a boy), the photos of River Phoenix intrigued me because I found myself twinning them 'accidentally' with another actor.
"Phoenix was being considered for the role of Jim Carroll, the drug addicted teen in the 1995 drama The Basketball Diaries and Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclpise. After his death, Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in both roles." Another site puts it a little more tellingly (or should that be twinningly) - "DiCaprio... inherited Total Eclipse from River Phoenix"
"Do you think that leonardo dicaprio was really hot in movie titanic?
Not really. I liked the movie not a leo fan. Everytime I see leo I think of River Phoenix and think if he was alive that would be his part "
"Later in 1993, he (DiCaprio) co-starred as the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert Grape." - it was outside Johnny Depp's nightclub The Viper Room that River Phoenix died or was sacrificed on Halloween that same year.
"...DiCaprio's strong dislike at being labeled "the new River Phoenix."
While looking for quotes to round of this twinning I seem to have stumbled into a seriously wtf 'twilight zone.' Being from 'Down Under,' I recognised the name Jason Donovan (famous mainly as the boyfriend of Kylie Minogue in the Australian Soap Neighbours - you do know who Kylie Minogue is don't you?). Anyway, this from wiki "In late 1995, (two years later) he attended model Kate Moss's 21st birthday party at The Viper Room in Los Angeles, where he suffered a drug induced seizure." Like River Phoenix he too was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Hospital.
Ok so lets play with ideas.
Actually since finding out that last bit of info the word play doesn't feel quite right - that twinning left an unpleasant taste - altogether too bizarre. Bearing in mind that all feelings & ideas are allowed within this article, I will say that what imaginatively leaps into my mind is an episode, any episode, of Charmed. A feeling of some demon or entity being conjured up as a result of the ritualistic death of a Phoenix before the altar of a serpent/Viper - an entity that perhaps fuels the careers of others. Did this entity need another 'fix two years later? Hey just some fanciful musings - but I think it would definitely work on Charmed.
Let's try some more. Did the Nazi's perfect genetic 'modifications' during WWII & did America import a heck of a lot more 'specialist' Werner von Brauns than we have been led to believe? Certainly I cannot continue without bringing up one of the most unexplored twinnings of all time.
How has this slipped past our radar? - the twinning of two apparently diametrically opposed 'performers'. We're all so familiar with these two images & yet we 'know' that it is 'coincidence' that both have plastered across their features 'the moustache that launched a thousand pics'.
First & foremost that moustache means 'Hitler'. Did Chaplin pave the route for Hitler into the psyche of millions of people (knowingly or unknowingly)? Chaplin rocked the early movie-goers world - he opened up their hearts & waddled right in.
"An advertisement for a Charlie Chaplin film was a promise of happiness, of that precious, almost shocking moment when art delivers what life cannot, when experience and delight become synonymous, and our investments yield the fabulous, unmerited bonanza we never get past expecting."
I just can't help thinking now that that twinning was highly significant & carried an energetic charge that pulsed through Hitler's reign. Chaplin did an apparent spoof of Hitler, called The Great Dictator, although I thought this image was quite illuminating.
To make the wild speculation a bit more intriguing, I was interested to note that Chaplin died in 1977 on the very ritualistic date, 25th December. For further bizarre intrigue, how about this;
"On 1 March 1978, his [Chaplin's] corpse was stolen by a small group of Polish mechanics in an attempt to extort money from his family. The plot failed, the robbers were captured, and the corpse was recovered eleven weeks later near Lake Geneva. His body was reburied under two meters of concrete to prevent further attempts." Makes me wonder...
Anyway to return to the previous speculation. Is Hollywood a mass of genetic 'twinnings' & have we always been aware, but unaware? How weird do things have to get before we say wtf? Actually I just answered that question for myself as I asked it. I was instantly reminded of the lucid dreams I have had - I'm up to four now. With two of them I recall that things had to get pretty bloody weird before I cottoned onto the idea that I was dreaming. This whole twinning thing feels a bit like that, weird, but not yet weird enough to wake people up.
So lets finish with some more weirdeness. Now remember I'm just showing you a few pictures that I've tried to match up to suggest a point. In 'reality' you will have your own intimate connection with these actors - & yes I mean intimate - they've been in your lounges (you may have talked to them, they've probably seen you in your underwear - if you wear any), they've been a part of your conversations, your imaginations, your hearts - either as love or hate energy, you may have fantasized them into your bed (or other places, ok we won't go there). For goodness sake I've seen a whole conversation on the internet about the height of various actors.
So use your intimate knowledge to see & feel this strangeness - you may spot twinning through looks or gestures, the fact that actors do the same movies, play the same characters, perhaps they dress the same... whatever ... lets just pretend that your inner knowing has been trying to show you something weird & you & I have been as thick as two short planks - just kidding (well kind of).
So are you ready to go lucid?
How about a little father or uncle with son or nephew combo - Robert Pitt & Brad Redford.
" I always thought that the likeness between Redford and Pitt could have been much better exploited than Spy Game's effort. They could be father and son. Or play the same character from young man to old. Someone should use it before time runs out."
Another 't-winning' combination spotted amongst the many sites that noted 'coincidences' are Robert Redford jnr (see above) & long lost brother or cousin Benicio Del Toro
For another very popular twinning we return to Johnny Depp & find him a younger brother in Skeet Ulrich.
"I remember a line from "Spade on America" or whatever it was called on SNL... "Skeet Ulrich... Johnny Depp called, and he wants his DNA back"."
Our next pair got some of the highest hits I came across. Now I was not familiar with Jake Gyllenhaal, although I've certainly seen his name crop up. As such I did not find the pics remarkably similar, but I just had to pay attention to how many people were knowing & not knowing this twinning.
"I've been going on for YEARS about how these two look like freaking twins."
"...back in the day- Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire."
"Does anyone else think that Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal look like twins?"
"Jake Gyllenhaal will be replacing Tobey Maguire in the next SPIDER-MAN"
"Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal are co-starring in the drama Brothers together"
Ok I couldn't leave out this pair because I loved the comments. I don't see it as much as the commentators, but that's fine, they seem to be more finely tuned in.
"Nick Nolte and Gary Busey have gotta be the same fucking person"
"Took me years to distinguish between Nick Nolte and Gary Busey"
"Gary Busey and Nick Nolte really look like peas of the same pod."
How about some twinned beauties! Keira 'Portman' & Natalie 'Knightley'
"natlie portman and keira knightly looks so much a like!
"These two gals look alike">
"Keira Knightley looks so much like Natalie Portman that she even used it to get a job"
"When they are in full makeup,their moms can't tell their daughters!"
...and how about a little twister
"Keira Knightley is a mix of Jennifer Garner and Natalie Portman...." - which of course is very interesting because that leads on to another twinning "Hilary Swank and Jennifer Garner (but Garner is way prettier) - sorry no pics on that one I've run out of time, but I have looked & I could see the twinning.
Of course why stick with just movie stars - the players that star across our lives, can be found in other fields (or golf courses) - twinnings seem to abound where money & media converge.
Here's a little knowing, but not knowing that I came across;-
"July 19, 1987 Nineteen years ago today, a golf star was born, as Nick Faldo claimed his first major championship, the 1987 British Open at Muirfield.
It was an amazing feat, in that already, under his alias “Harrison Ford,” Faldo had become one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men, starring in such box-office bonanzas as the Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones movies."
Beauty in stereo -
"Monica Bellucci and Rachel Wiecz"
I was one twin away from wrapping this post up when these little pixies popped out. I had actually been wondering today, as I've dome before, about the story of how Daniel Radcliffe was 'spotted' just days before filming began for the first Harry Potter movie - dunno, just always found that a bit far fetched - was that just to get the public to accept him & his not overly brilliant acting, because that particular 'twin' was needed for that particular ritual? Meanwhile his brother pixie, Elijah Wood popped 'Down Under' to complete the dual hemisphere wizardry ritual... just wildly speculating, pay me no heed!
And finally for now another pairing that was brought to my attention
"Don't you think Jeff Bridges and Kurt Russell look alike"
I close with a classic example of how knowing but not knowing keep us from combining & honing our intuition into a weapon of mass perception
"I Like Kurt Russell. I can’t understand when people I watch movies with get him mixed up with Jeff Bridges"
I hope you have had some wild & random thoughts of your own & I'd be happy to hear of more twinnings, triplings or whole bloody familings - if you see or feel them them, then on this blog they are 'real'.
I decided yesterday that I would post this for American Thanks Giving Day - partly as a gift to the lovely Americans I have encountered throughout this year, but also because I feel they have been the hardest hit by the movie industry - it's impact, & it has impacted all of us, is I believe even stronger in the land of it's birth. I continue to feel that if we can return energy to the places & times from which it has /is being stolen then we can perhaps reclaim what we have lost.
Cheers & here are a few look alike sites if you wish to peruse.
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/archive/index.php/t-42314.html
http://forums.metacritic.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/707108/m/5920061964
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/143688/top_150_actors_that_resemble_each_other.html
