How Dead Ringers pulled off Rachel Weisz's parallel performance as twins
Yes, you are seeing double.
As twin obstetricians Elliot and Beverly Mantle, Rachel Weisz spends a good portion of Dead Ringers acting opposite herself, just as Jeremy Irons did in the 1988 David Cronenberg film of the same name that inspired the Amazon series. Pulling off such a feat is nearly as difficult now as it was then — not just for Weisz, who has to give two different performances at once, but for basically everyone involved in the project.
"It was a learning curve, for me and for all departments on the production: Hair and makeup, costumes, set dressing, props, script editor — for eyelines — and lighting," Weisz tells EW. "Literally every department was involved. It was like a group swap. We all swapped together and then the other actors had to adjust as well."
Prime Video Rachel Weisz as Elliot and Beverly Mantle in 'Dead Ringers'
Jennifer Ehle, who co-stars in Dead Ringers as Rebecca, a wealthy heiress whom the Mantles beseech for funding, gave EW an idea of what it was like for the other actors to go through those swaps. In essence, every scene had to be shot twice. While Weisz was playing one Mantle, her double Kitty Hawthorne would stand in for the other.
"It was really extraordinary," Ehle tells EW. "We would all do the scene and get all the coverage with Rachel as one of the twins, and Kitty Hawthorne would always be the other twin — it was her first job out of drama school, and she's extraordinary. Then they would go away to swap clothes and hair and everything. We would be given earpieces that would play the last take and mime it out. Nobody spoke apart from Rachel as the new twin."
Emily Meade, who plays Rebecca's girlfriend Susan, adds, "We'd have to do everything exactly the same physically, while having this really bizarre sensation of hearing our own voices."
Amazon Prime Rachel Weisz and Rachel Weisz in 'Dead Ringers'
It was a precarious process. Meade recalls that one camera monitor couldn't be touched during the second run-through. If it was nudged, the whole shot would have to be done again. As difficult as it sounds, Weisz says everyone eventually adapted to the delicate operation.
"I think we got better and better, and then towards the end we were just flying," she says. "We got it down to like 20 minutes. I'd just get into hair and makeup and change clothes — even underwear, strangely!"
Turning to showrunner Alice Birch, Weisz adds, "Sorry! I never told you that."
All six episodes of Dead Ringers will be available on Prime Video on April 21.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
