MovieChat Forums > Mars Attacks! (1996) Discussion > Jack Nicholson's two roles?

Jack Nicholson's two roles?


I loved this film, and I'm not complaining about his acting ability, but why was Jack Nicholson performing 2 roles?

Was Tim Burton trying to draw parallels between the characters? or was he just the best man for the job in both cases?

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When Tim Burton showed Jack Nicholson the script and asked him which role he liked the most, Jack replied "how about all of them." As a result, Tim Burton cast him in two roles. He realized Jack Nicholson had a lot of talent but also that casting one actor to play every character in the movie wouldn't work very well.

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Eddie Murphy can do it!

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Eddie murphy can somehow hypnotize the studio to think he can do it, whne in reality it ends up being a disaster. all his cahracters are basically the same.

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Eddie Murphy cannot act, Jack Nicholson can - except when the director does not reign in his over acting.

The two roles may be a nod to Peter Sellers in Dr Strangelove.

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peter sellers played 3 roles in dr. strangelove

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i think the best answer to this is, "why the hell not? I mean, it's Jack Nicholson!" :)

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I second that.


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It's happened a lot in films
Dr. Stangelove, Sellers had 3 roles
Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks had 3 roles
The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin 2 rols
Austin Powers, several roles

I've always enjoyed seeing actors in multiple roles, especially comedies, but I think Dr. Strangelove was easily the most memorable and successful.


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And Coming to America. The best was when Arsenio Hall did a old, white, Jewish guy and did it *convincingly*.

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Hi Punxgurrl

That was Eddie Murphy in that role, and not Arsenio Hall. The closing credits of the movie confirms this.

"Be seeing you!"

No6

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Don't forget
"The Mouse That Roared" (1950) Peter Sellers had 4 roles.

And then there is
"Kind Hearts and Coronets" (1949) where Alec Guinness played 8 different roles.

Well done!

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I wonder if it could have been some little sendup to Dr Strangelove, since in Dr S, Sellers played several roles, including the President. Word was, he would have played Major Kong (which was pretty over-the-top).


With Mars Attacks, Nicholson played a rather subdued President, and an over-the-top Vegas type.



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I wonder if it could have been some little sendup to Dr Strangelove, since in Dr S, Sellers played several roles, including the President. Word was, he would have played Major Kong (which was pretty over-the-top).


He was cast as Kong but couldn't nail down the accent. Kubrick brought in Slim Pickens, but never told him it was a comedy, so Pickens played it straight, which is why it's so freaking funny.

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Actually, Kubrick never intended for the movie to be a comedy, it just kind of got away from him.

If you watch carefully, except for the bit at the beginning where Major Kong is reading through the contents of the survival kit, and of course the "WAHOO!" scene at the end, the scenes in the B52 are played completely straight. They're highly technical and very serious.

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Jerry Lewis in The Family Jewels...

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Tony Randall in "The 7 Faces of Dr Lao", 7 or 8 roles, depending on how you count.

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I seen Mars Attack a lot of times but I only recently realize that Jack Nickolson played two roles…
In Back to the future 2, I remember that Mickael J. Fox had several roles like his brother and sister in the future.
Do you know other films where actor played several roles?

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I think it would have been better with Jack Nicholson only in the President's role and Danny DeVito doing Art Land. Because, is it just me or the part DeVito has in this movie adds nothing to the movie except Danny DeVito?

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Jack wanted it and I've always thought it was perfect because it was the two people who thought they had power and control and then found out they didn't have anything real at all.

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Actually, the person who really thought he had power and control, and ended up not having it, was Rod Steiger's General Decker.

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Alec Guinness did this much better in Kind Hearts and Coronets than most of the American actors who've been mentioned.

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I read on TVTropes that it was because they didn't want the president to be killed, and Burton basically said, "Screw that. Now I'm going to kill him twice."

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But surely only one of his characters is the President?

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I always felt that Michael Keaton should have been cast as the Casino onwer part and left Jack as president.

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