Famous Twins Seen On Screen: Which Are Real And Which Are Hollywood Magic?

Dylan and Cole Sprouse initially pretended to be the same adorable moppet in the likes of Adam Sandler flick Big Daddy, festive tale I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, and flop comedy The Master of Disguise. You may remember that the latter also played the older version of Ross’ son Ben in Friends. But in the mid-’00s they were allowed to appear on screen at the same time.  

Yes, the pair became tween idols when they fronted their own Disney Channel vehicle The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. The Sprouses remained pretty much inseparable up until they both graduated from NYU. But they’re now concentrating on establishing themselves as individuals, with Cole landing a recurring role on Riverdale and Dylan showing up in movie After We Collided.  

Mark Ruffalo picked up a Primetime Emmy Award for his multi-faceted performances in hard-hitting drama I Know This Much Is True. The actor played Dominick Birdsey in the adaptation of Wally Lamb’s late-‘90s book. And he also portrayed the character’s schizophrenic brother Thomas. Ruffalo certainly put in the effort to differentiate the pair, too.  

After shooting all of his Dominick scenes Ruffalo put on 30 pounds to get into his other character. The MCU star told the TV Critics Association Winter Press Tour, “We didn’t want it to be like I run and throw a wig on and do the same scene in the same day. So we took six weeks off to really separate these two guys.”

With their different surnames you might not automatically expect Kelly Donovan and Nicholas Brendon to be identical twins. But yes, the latter was born to the same mother just three minutes after the former. And you might have seen them sharing the screen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer without even knowing it.

Both parties showed up in the episode title “The Replacement” with Donovan popping up as one half of Xander’s split personality and show regular Brendon playing the other. That’s not where their Buffy connection ends, either. Donovan also regularly took on the role of his brother’s stunt double and even helped dress the set of the vampire hit.

Tom Hardy played not just one but two real life hardmen in the mobster biopic Legend. The versatile actor was cast as both Reggie Kray and his taller, heavier, and shorter-sighted twin brother Ronnie by director Brian Hegland. And Hardy appeared to make light work of slipping into the shoes of post-war London’s most notorious gangsters.  

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly magazine Hardy said, “The two characters, they were pretty easy to slip between. The complicated part was to make an audience believe it wasn’t one performer doing both parts.” In the same article Hegland revealed that his lead actor always filmed his Reggie shots first and then acted, with the aid of an earpiece, off his earlier performance while playing Ronnie.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen began their world takeover when they were still in nappies as the youngest member of the Tanner family in Full House. The pair took turns appearing as Michelle for eight years. But after the schmaltzy sitcom came off-air in 1995 the sisters finally got the chance to appear on-screen at the same time playing Amanda Lemmon and Alyssa Callaway in It Takes Two.

From toys and magazines to fashion accessories and books, Mary-Kate and Ashley also slapped their famous name across pretty much everything for a good decade. They even had their own animated sitcom! But in 2004 the twins decided to ditch their tween-friendly personas and go into the world of high fashion, though M-K stayed on our screens up to 2012. 

Freddie Highmore seems to have an affinity for playing several members of the same family. You may remember in Psycho prequel Bates Motel that he portrayed both Norman Bates and the evil incarnation of his mother Norma. Luckily, his dual roles in kid-friendly adventure The Spiderwick Chronicles were less murderous.  

Highmore was cast as both Simon and Jared Grace in the adaptation of the hit novel. The actor joked to The Washington Post newspaper, “It was great to play the twins opposite myself. I didn’t get along with the other guy [himself] too well. There was a lot of friction on the set.”

Rupert Grint might have played the most famous member of his Harry Potter family. But the Weasleys wouldn’t have been complete without Ron’s older brothers George and Fred. And producers didn’t require any wizardry to bring the characters to life, either: the flame-haired pair were played by very real identical twins.

Oliver and James Phelps portrayed the lesser-known Weasleys in all eight chapters of the Harry Potter movie adaptations. And they still appear to be proud of their association with the fantasy franchise. The siblings have chatted to several former castmates, including Katie Leung and Alfred Enoch on the child star-themed Normal Not Normal podcast.  

Remember when Lindsay Lohan was renowned for being a super-talented child star rather than a troubled tabloid regular? The actress showed so much promise in The Parent Trap remake that many tipped her to become a future Hollywood legend. In fact, Lohan was so convincing playing Annie James and Hallie Parker that she fooled her on-screen dad.  

That’s right: in an interview with IMDB Dennis Quaid sang Lohan’s praises for pulling off such a difficult job at such a young age. He said, “Lindsay Lohan was 11 when she started filming... She was a savant. She just could channel anything like that. Some people are like that and the rest of us have to work at it.”

Turns out that Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen weren’t the only twin stars on family sitcom Full House. But unlike the former tween entrepreneuses, Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit were allowed to appear on-screen together. Yes, the identical siblings both landed roles on the show, with the former playing Nicky Katsopolis and the latter Alex.

Unlike the Olsens, the Tuomy-Wilhoits would also reprise their roles on Netflix spinoff Fuller House. But the brothers have worked together far more regularly behind the scenes since their early sitcom days. Yes, Lost in Space, Game of Thrones, and Castle Rock are just a few of the shows whose sound departments have featured the input of both Dylan and Blake.

Nicolas Cage has a reputation for going to places few other actors would. So who better to play real-life writer Charlie Kaufman and his entirely made-up twin brother Donald in Spike Jonze’s head-scratcher Adaptation? Cage landed both a Golden Globe and Academy Award nod for his performances, but he appeared to find the process tough going. 

In an interview about his double duty with People magazine Cage said that although he enjoyed stories that made the audiences think, he did struggle with appearing in one. The actor remarked, “Where it got frustrating for me was going from Charlie to Donald, then going back to Charlie. I literally wanted to scream. And then, in fact, did scream.”

The names Jessica and Lisa Origliasso might not mean much to you. But their sisterly musical duo The Veronicas might ring more of a bell. The pair scored a massive hit in the ‘00’s with “Untouched” and supported boybands with guitars such as 5 Seconds of Summer and The Jonas Brothers. And they also occasionally pivoted into acting.  

Yes, back at the turn of the century the Origlassios played twins Emerald and Sapphire Buxton in a dozen episodes of Australian superhero series Cybergirl. And then after establishing themselves in the music world, Lisa and Jessica showed up in 90210. Their roles in the teen drama reboot weren’t exactly a stretch, though: they played themselves.  

You probably don’t need us to tell you that Leonardo DiCaprio doesn’t actually have an identical twin brother. In the height of Titanic-mania that kind of information would have been all over the news. Still, in The Man in the Iron Mask fans of the heartthrob did get the chance to see what two DiCaprios would look like on screen. 

Released in 1998 the adaptation of d’Artagnan Romances by Alexandre Dumas was the first film in which DiCaprio starred after playing the ill-fated Jack Dawson. And he got to portray both the bad guy, King Louis XIV, and the goodie, his wronged brother Philippe, a.k.a. the man to whom the title refers. DiCaprio had to sport a fancy ponytail while inhabiting both characters, too. 

Another pair of celebrity twins were inadvertently responsible for Becky and Milly Rosso becoming stars. The English youngsters were watching a taping of Cole and Dylan Sprouse’s Disney Channel hit The Suite Life of Zack and Cody when they were headhunted by producers. Soon after, the siblings were living out every fan’s fantasy by appearing in the exact same show! 

This wasn’t just a one-off performance, either. The Rossos played Cody and Zack’s romantic interests for no fewer than seven episodes! And Milly and Becky even reprised their roles as Jessica and Janice in spinoff The Suite Life on Deck. The pair also later showed up together in the Reese Witherspoon-produced sequel Legally Blondes. 

Lisa Kudrow is best-known for playing Phoebe Buffay in ‘90s phenomenon Friends. But she first came to many people’s attention earlier in the decade in the role of the “Smelly Cat” singer’s waitress twin sister Ursula. Of course, this was on a show that had nothing to do with the Central Perk gang.

In a chat with the Television Academy Foundation Kudrow explained how the crossover came about. She said, “When Friends got its time slot on Thursday night at 8:30, after Mad About You, everybody realized, ‘We need some explanation for the audience. Why are they seeing the same girl with the same voice at 8:00 and 8:30 on two different shows?’”

Remember when Desperate Housewives flashed forward several years and the tween Scavo brothers had suddenly blossomed into jocks? Well, producers really did end up getting two for the price of one, too. Preston and Porter were played by the very real identical twins Max and Charles Carver. And the siblings no doubt enjoyed the experience, too.

Yes, after the drama ended the Carvers once again shared the screen in Teen Wolf playing teenage twin werewolves — what else? Since then Max and Charles have largely pursued their own separate careers. The former has graced TV series such as Victorious and The Office while the latter has appeared in LGTBQ film I Am Michael.  

While kids of the 1990s will always associate Lindsay Lohan with The Parent Trap, she wasn’t the first actress to play twins in the Disney vehicle. Way back in 1961 Hayley Mills took on the roles of both Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers in the comedy original. Although her characters’ names are different, the story is pretty much exactly the same.  

Of course, technological advances meant that Lohan’s twin scenes looked slightly more convincing. Speaking to website Vulture, Mills revealed, “The split screen was quite a new thing. And I got letters. People really did believe there were two people, which, really, I find… very hard to believe. But it was a very basic, simple split screen.”

If you’ve seen Jordan Peele’s Us you’ll no doubt remember Lindsey and Becky, a.k.a. the cartwheeling daughters of Elisabeth Moss’ Kitty. The pair were played by identical twin siblings Noelle and Cali Sheldon. And the latter’s talents extend beyond acting and acrobatics, too: Cali is a member of her high-school wrestling squad.

But chances are that you saw the Manhattan Beach natives long before the acclaimed horror. Just like another famous twin, Cole Sprouse, the Sheldons also appeared as youngsters in Friends, in their case in the role of Ross and Rachel’s daughter Emma. Cali and Noelle took turns as the tot for eight episodes of the sitcom phenomenon toward its latter stages.

Pretty Little Liars proved it belonged in the hall of trashy soap fame in its sixth season when it suddenly gave one of its main characters an evil twin. Troian Bellisario had played the high-maintenance Spencer Hastings since the show began. But the actress became its true MVP when she was also cast as the long-lost Alex Drake.  

In one of those strange Hollywood coincidences Bellisario had previously written a script about the connection between twins. The actress’ work was later made into a feature film titled Feed in which she also starred. Discussing her inspiration, Bellisario told Cosmopolitan magazine, “Growing up, my best friends were brother and sister twins, and I always really admired their relationship and their deep bond and love for one another.”

Big Business saw not just one but two Hollywood legends pull double duty. Released in 1988 the comedy reunites two sets of identical twins mismatched at birth. The wealthy Sadie Shelton and the much-poorer Sadie Ratliff are played by Better Midler, while their respective sisters, both named Rose, are portrayed by Lily Tomlin.  

Although all their characters were obviously supposed to be the same age, Midler is actually six years younger than her co-star. That’s a slightly larger gap than the four years that separate the film producers’ original choices. Yes, the comedy of errors was actually penned with Goldie Hawn and the older Barbra Streisand in mind.