Sydney, Aug. 20 (US): You could say co-star Michelle Monaghan on her new Netflix series “Echoes” is asking her to do twice the work. The Associated Press reports that Monaghan plays twins, Jenna and Lenny, in the seven-episode erotic drama.
It’s a lot. It’s been an intense project, as you can imagine, the actor said, laughing in a recent interview. You know, it’s like doing double duty, really, but it’s also the very reason I wanted to do it, because it was a challenge I hadn’t explored before.”
In “Echoes,” which begins airing Friday, Jenna and Lenny aren’t just twins with a sixth sense about each other or a close bond, they share everything, so much so that they swap identities every year on their birthday. This means that they share jobs, friends, unsuspecting spouses, and a child. As Lenny, a West Virginia single who raises horses and her daughter with her husband, she is played by Matt Bomer. The other lives a fast-paced life in Los Angeles with her therapist husband (Daniel Sungata).
Their (twisted) ritual encounters a major obstacle when Lenny disappears and Jenna has to go home to join the search. It shows flashbacks throughout their childhood and teenage years and what led them to switch identities in the first place.
Monaghan says she studied the twins in preparation for the role and learned that switching identities do happen.
“I’ve learned that a lot of switching identities happens. People tend to do it as a formation when they’re kids in general, you know, they do it empirically, I think, to have fun or to avoid getting into trouble. And they switch and do the thing and think it’s fun. They cheat. People. And then there are some other stories where, you know, people kind of do it as adults and maybe in a more sinister, manipulative way.”
Monaghan isn’t the first actor to play twins on screen. Memorable examples include the 1961 film “The Parent Trap” starring Hayley Mills as identical sisters, and the 1963 television series, “The Patty Duke Show,” starring Patty Duke as identical cousins. Those projects used split screens to direct scenes with both actors. By 1998, Lindsay Lohan starred in the remake of “The Parent Trap”, using filming tricks and a double body.
For “Echoes,” a motion-control camera was brought and Monaghan says she switches herself, between Jenna and Lenny, “several times a day.”
“What it allowed us to do was put both women side by side, and you could really see them flawlessly,” Monaghan explained.
“I was really going to play the side of one character for a few hours and I’d be working alongside a great actress playing the opposite character. So if I was playing Leni, she’d be playing Gina for me, and then I’d finish that character and go and do hair swaps for an hour, And makeup and wardrobe, and then I’d come back and do the other side of that. And we’d do it sometimes a few times a day.”
Viewing Monaghan’s abilities, as well as the work of the visual effects department, “remains exciting” and the end result resonated with the show’s “early visions,” said show author, executive producer and writer Vanessa Ghazi.
“Watching a talented actor in action is fun, and watching Michelle Monaghan split in half to live in two complex identical women was probably doubly doubly so. This was a massive undertaking for Michelle in particular: playing two lead roles over seven episodes is not only a performance challenge but a production marathon.” I handled the work with passion, generosity, courage and kindness.”
Monaghan recently filmed “Bad Monkey” on Apple TV+ in Miami, based on the 2013 novel by Carl Heason. Created and written by Bill Lawrence, it co-stars Vince Vaughn, Judy Turner Smith, and Meredith Hagner.
Monaghan looks forward to people’s reactions to Echoes and says she has found watching the show a “real journey.”
“It’s hard to watch myself once, but to watch myself twice was a lot. But I loved it, I had so much fun.”
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