20 Brilliant Sci-Fi & Fantasy Films Where Actors Play Opposite Themselves

Richard Ayoade’s The Double is hardly a faithful adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1846 novella, and yet it makes the absolute best of the source material while turning up the tension, and is crafted to feel deeply relevant to modern audiences.

The absurdist thriller stars Jesse Eisenberg as Simon James, an ignored, belittled, and isolated man who returns to his job one day to find new employee James Simon working alongside him. The only thing is, James looks identical to Simon, but nobody seems to find this unusual. From here, it is a tangle of lies, mystery, and malignance as James worms his way into Simon’s life and seems determined to usurp him from every aspect of it.

As a small budget production, the doubling was managed using cameras on tracks to capture the performances twice, and earpieces for Eisenberg so he knew when to respond to himself and hit his marks and cues. And it is thanks to Eisenberg’s ability to follow strictly timed directions while also behaving naturally that the whole thing came together.

While Ayoade’s film definitely lies in the realm of science fiction and fantasy, it’s difficult to say which side of that divide it sits on, as the reason for the doppelganger’s appearance is never resolved. Nonetheless, the central mystery and Eisenberg’s performances are so strong that, by the end, you really don’t mind.