You could say that Michelle Monaghan’s co-star in Netflix’s new series Echoes demanded double the work from her. Monaghan stars as her twins Gina and Leni in the seven-episode thriller Her Drama.
“That’s a lot. It’s a lot, a lot,” the actor said with a laugh in a recent interview. It’s also the very reason why I wanted to do it.
In “Echoes,” which starts streaming Friday, Gina and Leni aren’t just twins with a sixth sense or a close bond, they swap identities each year on their birthdays because they share everything. It means they share jobs, friends, an unsuspecting husband, and children. Another lives a fast-paced life in Los Angeles with her therapist husband (Daniel Sunjata).
Their (twisted) ritual runs into big trouble when Leni goes missing and Gina has to go home to join the search. Flashbacks throughout show their childhood and her teenage years, and what led them to switch identities in the first place.
Monaghan says he studied twins in preparation for the role and learned that identity switching occurs.
“I learned that there is a lot of identity switching going on. People generally tend to do it as twins in childhood. And then they switch and they do that thing and they think it’s fun, they play pranks on people, and some people, as adults, are probably more sinister and manipulative. There are several other stories of how to do it.
Monaghan is not the first actor to play twins on screen. The 1963 television series The Patty Duke Show starred as a cousin. For these projects, split screen was used to pull off scenes for both actors. By 1998, Lindsay Lohan was starring in the remake of ‘The Parent Trap’, using photo tricks and body doubles.
In “Echoes,” motion control cameras were introduced, and Monaghan says he switched between Gina and Leni on his own “many times a day.”
“All we could do was really put two women side by side and it really looked perfect,” Monahan explained.
“I really played one character’s side for a few hours and worked with an amazing actress who played the opposite character. So if I was playing Leni, she was playing Gina for me.” I would switch hair, makeup and wardrobe for an hour and then come back and do the other side, sometimes several times a day.
Vanessa Gazzi, the show’s creator, executive producer, and writer, said it was “still thrilling” to witness Monaghan’s abilities and the work of the visual effects department, and that the end result was her “early vision of the show.” said to meet the
“It’s a joy to see a talented actor at work, and perhaps to see Michelle Monaghan split herself in half to live with two complex, identical women.” This was a huge undertaking, especially for Michelle, as playing two lead roles in seven episodes is not only a performance challenge, but a production marathon. I approached my work with generosity, courage and kindness.”
Monaghan recently shot the Apple TV+ series “Bad Monkey” in Miami, based on the 2013 novel by Carl Hiacen. Created and written by Bill Lawrence and co-stars Vince Vaughn, Jodie Turner-Smith and Meredith Hagner.
Monahan said he was excited to see how people reacted to “Echoes,” and that watching the show has been “a real journey.”
“It’s hard to see yourself once, but it’s hard to see yourself twice. But I loved it. It was a lot of fun.”
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