# Most actors to play a single role in a movie?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-actors-to-play-a-single-role-in-a-movie/210984>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 2, 2003, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-actors-to-play-a-single-role-in-a-movie/210984 "2003-11-02T14:04:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-actors-to-play-a-single-role-in-a-movie/210984/1 "2003-11-02T14:04:09Z")

</div>

Last night I watched _Riding In Cars With Boys_, and aside from being 2½ hours of my life I’ll never get back, I was slightly amazed at the number of different actors they cast to play Drew Barrymore’s son. Here’s the list from IMDB:

Adam Garcia … Jason D’Onofrio (age 20)  
Joseph M. Cannizaro … Jason (Newborn)  
Noah Hartwick … Jason (Newborn)  
Briana Tilden … Jason (Baby)  
Skye Arens … Jason (Age 1)  
Patrick Salerno … Jason (Age 2)  
Robert Salerno … Jason (Age 2)  
Logan Arens … Jason (Age 3)  
Cody Arens … Jason (Age 6)  
Logan Lerman … Jason (Age 8)

That’s gotta be a record, eh? (Although the 6-yr-old and the 8-yr-old looked absolutely nothing alike…)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-actors-to-play-a-single-role-in-a-movie/210984/2 "2003-11-02T16:46:38Z")

</div>

Well, I can’t exactly name the movie without pretty much spoiling it, so…

(Spoiler)

How 'bout “Identity?”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-actors-to-play-a-single-role-in-a-movie/210984/3 "2003-11-02T19:04:47Z")

</div>

Nowhere near the record, but perhap you could count three different actors as Darth Vader in ROTJ.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-actors-to-play-a-single-role-in-a-movie/210984/4 "2003-11-02T21:03:48Z")

</div>

_The Matrix Reloaded_ and _Being John Malkovich_ both feature large numbers of digitally-altered extras playing duplicates of a principal character. This might not count as a “single role” though, since they’re all on screen at once. Does anyone have a count of how many Smiths and Malkoviches were in the respective scenes?

Movies that feature body-swapping as a plot device like _The Hidden_ and _Fallen_ might also be candidates.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-actors-to-play-a-single-role-in-a-movie/210984/5 "2003-11-02T22:54:15Z")

</div>

I remember seeing one version of **A Christmas Carol** where they did a montage of shots of the young Scrooge in his schoolhouse at Christmas, one shot for each year. There must have been a total of six or seven different child actors playing the role, as well as the main adult actor.

I would be interested in seeing an official answer to this question. Maybe someone coud write to Roger Ebert and he’d reply in the ‘Answer Man’ column