Same Actor Playing The Same Role In A Remake

Topic started by Nadafinga on March 14, 2012. Last post by VioletEyedDragon 1 year ago.
Post by Nadafinga (55 posts) See mini bio

Since there's not a real good way to have a concept page for this (nor is it really necessary), I just wanted to make a note about those rare, unique situations where the same actor is cast in the same role in a remake of the same film. Naturally this doesn't include sequels, where the same actor plays the same role in a new story all the time. The only one's I could come up with on my own were:

Penelope Cruz played Sophia in Open Your Eyes & Vanilla Sky

Stellan Skarsgard played Father Merrin in Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist & Exorcist: The Beginning

Gerard Depardieu played Andre in Mon Pere Ce Heros & My Father The Hero

So I started Googling around and found a few others:

Ingrid Bergman played Anita Hoffman in Intermezzo & Intermezzo. (apparently this was Bergman's first english speaking role)

Alan Hale played Little John in Robin Hood & Adventures of Robin Hood

That's what I could come up with, but there's very likely others. Please feel free to comment if you can come up with any more!

(Edited to fix some bad links)

Post by litrock (560 posts) See mini bio

Is this where I make the argument that Evil Dead 2 contains a remake of Evil Dead? No, it's not, because I'm lazy. But it might arguably count. Either way, this is a great idea. Amazed there are so many.

Post by Black_Rose (591 posts) See mini bio

Does Dominion and Exorcist the Beginning really count? They were shot back to back and are not the same movie at all.

Post by Nadafinga (55 posts) See mini bio

@Black_Rose said:

Does Dominion and Exorcist the Beginning really count? They were shot back to back and are not the same movie at all.

I guess you could argue it either way. It is certainly a unique situation...depends on if you consider one a remake of the other. The time proximity of when they were shot shouldn't really matter...although I have to admit to not having seen either of them!

But from what I've read, while the two movies are certainly different from each other, they still contain many of the same characters and story beats. The script for Harlin's reshoot was retooled for his film, but was still based on the Schraders version. In my opinion, it's at least worth mentioning, if only for the novelty of the situation for those two movies.

Honestly, if they came out 10 years apart, people would probably call it a remake. Or, at least, a reimagining? I dunno, its fun to think about though.

Post by theodacourt (265 posts) See mini bio

I can think of two.

Jean Reno played Lord Thiabult/Godefroy de Papincourt in Just Visiting a remake of Les Visiteurs. They're the same character but renamed.

Peter Dinklage played Frank/Peter in Death at a Funeral, a remake of Death at a Funeral. They're the same character but renamed again.

Post by CrimsonAvenger (1,277 posts) See mini bio

I fail to see how nobody has thought of Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery as James Bond again.

Post by ryanwho (1,130 posts) See mini bio

I forgot it was a remake, I just remember its 'non-canon' Bond.

Post by PrinceMordred (2 posts) See mini bio

Takako Fuji played Kayako Saeki in Ju-On, Ju-On: The Grudge and The Grudge and Yuya Ozeki played Toshio Saeki in Ju-On: The Grudge and The Grudge. Both actors reprised their roles in more than one part 2, but the sequels never were remade.

Post by PenguinDust (1,685 posts) See mini bio

@CrimsonAvenger said:

I fail to see how nobody has thought of Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery as James Bond again.

And that film was basically a remake of Thunderball.

Post by VioletEyedDragon (1,817 posts) See mini bio

@theodacourt: why would they change the name? I haven't seen the movies, but "Frank" and "Peter" both seem generic enough as to not need to be cahnged.

@CrimsonAvenger said:

I fail to see how nobody has thought of Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery as James Bond again.

yeah. Im surprised I had to read so far to see that.

Post by theodacourt (265 posts) See mini bio

@VioletEyedDragon: The only reason I can come up with for Death at a Funeral is perhaps a minor spoiler, so it's below.

The character is found to be gay. Having a character called Peter, a Biblical name, and gay might have trouble some Americans?

If it's not that then equally, why not change the name? It doesn't really matter what he's called when it's just a bog-standard name such as Peter/Frank.

As for Just Visiting/Les Visiteurs I think they changed a lot of names so that the complex, French pronounced originals wouldn't confuse English-only speakers. If you asked 20 English only speakers to say Godefroy de Papincourt you'd get 15 different pronunciations and 6 of them would be outrageous French accents.

Post by jakob187 (969 posts) See mini bio

Michael Caine was in both version of Sleuth, but as different characters.

Patrick Stewart as Claudius in Jacobi's 1980 Hamlet and Tennant's 2008 Hamlet.

I think there is absolutely enough instance of this in the industry to warrant a concept page for it.

Post by VioletEyedDragon (1,817 posts) See mini bio

@jakob187: I'll make the page.

Here is the link.

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