Is this movie real?
May 27, 2018 10:48 PM   Subscribe

When I was little (mid-1980's) I remember my parents telling me that a movie we were watching had two women playing the same role. They said it was one woman for the first half of the movie, and then the director or producer switcher her out for another actress - though it wasn't part of the plot. For some reason I believe Goldie Hawn was the first actress.

Does this movie actually exist? I don't believe the first actress died or anything like that requiring a second actress to be put in her place for the second half of the film. My impression was that it was the directors being cheap, or not thinking the first actress had star appeal...or maybe my parents were lying to me??? For some reason I can't stop wondering about this movie now. Does it exist?
posted by Toddles to Media & Arts (21 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 


For whatever reason, I immediately thought of the movie "I'm not there". Cate Blanchett and other actors play Bob Dylan.

But could it be Overboard? Goldie Hawn plays a rich snob in half the movie and in the other half has amnesia and believes she's a working class mother?
posted by xammerboy at 11:32 PM on May 27, 2018 [6 favorites]


Well, the movie “Overboard” came out in 1987, in which Goldie Hawn plays a wealthy heiress who falls off her yacht, suffers amnesia, and is convinced by a working-class carpenter that she’s his wife and mother of his kids. That’s the only movie in her filmography that even involves two characters who are somehow the same woman. Maybe your parents just told you it was two different actors so they wouldn’t have to explain the amnesia/wife-swapping angle to a little kid.
posted by Autumnheart at 11:32 PM on May 27, 2018 [16 favorites]


Is it possible it was a movie where a character grows up? There are plenty of movies where the young character is played by a different person. I can see that being something you’d have to explain to a kid. I can’t think of any specific examples off the top of my head, but I was wondering if that might ring a bell at all.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 11:52 PM on May 27, 2018 [5 favorites]


Building on the idea suggested by @shapes that haunt the dusk, maybe it’s Now and Then? I know Goldie Hawn isn’t in that movie but for some reason I used to get her confused with Melanie Griffith - maybe you did too.
posted by samthemander at 12:50 AM on May 28, 2018 [2 favorites]


Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire uses two actresses for the same role, Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina, something it is widely noted for, causing much speculation as to its possible meanings.

Todd Solondz's Palindromes has eight different actors of different ages, genders, and races portraying the main character, a thirteen year old girl, at various points of the film.
posted by gusottertrout at 1:26 AM on May 28, 2018 [11 favorites]


Are you conflating the Private Benjamin movie and TV shows?
posted by JPD at 3:32 AM on May 28, 2018 [13 favorites]


If it could have been an episode of Doctor Who there are several episodes that might have been broadcast during the 80s in which a single character would have been played by two different actresses, due to a science fiction plot device which makes that a common event in that series.

If it could have been two different movies, there are instances in sequels in the 1980s having two different actresses play the same character, like Saavik from Star Trek movies.

Also anything portraying reincarnation or possession by a ghost, et cetera, might fit.
posted by XMLicious at 3:59 AM on May 28, 2018


Bah, I missed that it wasn't part of the plot. But my other thought had been the opposite of a character growing up: a flashback or time travel where you're initially seeing a character in the future or present, then later in the past.
posted by XMLicious at 4:22 AM on May 28, 2018


Wikipedia list. No Goldie Hawn
posted by Segundus at 4:42 AM on May 28, 2018 [4 favorites]


Could it be Taxi Driver? Not kid friendly as a movie, but Jodi Foster did swap out for someone else in that movie.
posted by crunchy potato at 5:42 AM on May 28, 2018


Desperately Seeking Susan has Rosanna Arquette thinking she's Madonna's character and wearing her clothes / taking her job so I could see how you might think it was the same character if you were very young.

Something's Gotta Give was a movie that Marilyn Monroe starred in that was never finished (she was fired, then rehired, then she died) which was remade the next year with Doris Day and called Move over Darling - sometimes a channel would play them back to back because they're basically the same script (though that would have been more likely to happen in the 90s once there were channels like AMC or TCM that could do things like put on an incomplete movie).

Are you sure it was a movie? Because the replacement of the Becky character on Roseanne fits your time frame and a lot of your criteria.
posted by Mchelly at 7:16 AM on May 28, 2018 [2 favorites]


Sorry to suggest the obvious, but have you asked your parents? Even if they were mistaken or lying, they might remember.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:29 AM on May 28, 2018


I came here to suggest Private Benjamin too. When I was little the distinction between movie/series was lost on me and it was a bit confusing to me when they didn’t explain it in the show.
posted by kapers at 9:01 AM on May 28, 2018


Natalie Wood drowned during the filming of Brainstorm, and her younger sister Lana stood in for her in some of the unfilmed scenes. Might you be thinking of that?
posted by brianogilvie at 1:35 PM on May 28, 2018


In Rosemary's Baby Mia Farrow gets a drastic haircut partway through without any explanation. Just a thought.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 5:16 PM on May 28, 2018


Could it be Taxi Driver? Not kid friendly as a movie, but Jodi Foster did swap out for someone else in that movie.

No, she didn't.
posted by dobbs at 8:56 PM on May 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


They said it was one woman for the first half of the movie, and then the director or producer switcher her out for another actress - though it wasn't part of the plot.

Not mid-80s and not Goldie Hawn and not the same character, but Psycho is famous for the protagonist getting killed early on and the second half of the movie has another actress playing the protagonist for the second half.

And to the Hitchcock-ness, Vertigo has the same actress playing two "different" female characters.
posted by dobbs at 8:59 PM on May 28, 2018


Response by poster: I thought maybe it was Foul Play, but I just watched it and it clearly was Goldie Hawn throughout. I'm going to go with "this movie does not exist" and maybe there was a discussion of Private Benjamin show/movie that I was confused by as a kid. Thanks for the assist.
posted by Toddles at 10:00 PM on May 28, 2018


This isn’t it but in Plan 9 from Outer Space, Bela Lugosi died during filming so some of his scenes are played by the director’s wife’s chiropractor. The general practice of substituting a different actor to complete a movie is called using a fake Shemp. Due to a lawsuit involving Back To The Future II, the Screen Actor’s Guild no longer allows it unless it’s to replace a dead actor.
posted by w0mbat at 10:54 PM on May 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


There was a mention of Sandy Duncan in the Roseanne thread - maybe you're thinking of Valerie?
posted by Casimir at 6:00 AM on May 30, 2018


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