NEW YORK – No, you’re not just hearing double.
In their delightfully strange “Bucking Fastard,” real-life siblings Kate Mara and Rooney Mara quite literally speak in unison for almost the entirety of the movie’s nearly two-hour runtime.
The darkly comic film follows a pair of twins, Jeanie (Kate) and Joanie (Rooney), who move, dress and think almost identically. They are so intrinsically linked that they can’t so much as vacuum the living room or open a can of sardines without the other’s help.
Their uncanny bond extends to romance, as Jeanie and Joanie fall helplessly in love with the same man, Gareth (Orlando Bloom), who soon demands a restraining order after some wild, intimate encounters with both sisters. Gareth’s rejection sets the siblings
off on a path of self-discovery, as they search for a place where they belong.
“Bucking Fastard” debuted at the Venice Film Festival last month ahead of its New York Film Festival bow Oct. 8. The movie is very loosely based on actual twin sisters, Freda and Greta Chaplin, although filmmaker Werner Herzog asked his actresses not to research the pair as they prepared for the roles.
“When we first read the script, we were both trying to figure out ways of how to separate them more,” Rooney, 41, said during a post-screening Q&A. “Initially, we were like, ‘Oh, we have to separate some lines because this is just too weird.’ And then the deeper we got into it, the more we were trying to [get rid of] our individual lines. When we spoke alone, it was horrible.”
“Even just a word that was separate,” Kate, 43, added, “we would secretly say, ‘Let’s just do that one together.’ ”
The Mara sisters worked with a vocal coach to learn to speak concurrently, and they also relied on “weird acting games” and singalongs in their trailers in order to get in sync.
“I should probably lie and say it was so hard, and that we worked for months and months,” Rooney joked. “But it was surprisingly easier than we thought. We thought it was going to be mammoth; we didn’t know how we were going to do it. And then we realized that it was actually more intuitive and natural for us.
“We had a whole childhood of playing together,” she added. “I don’t think we realized how much that was going to help us.”
A two-time Oscar nominee, Rooney is best known for her work in “Carol,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Women Talking,” while Kate is a TV mainstay thanks to “House of Cards,” “Pose” and “Imperfect Women.”
The sisters said that they’ve long wished to work together, although this was the first project that made sense for them to collaborate.
“It’s so hard to find something that has two equally interesting roles,” Kate explained.
“We still didn’t find that,” Rooney quipped. “We basically play the same person!”
“Yeah,” Kate said with a laugh. “So we’re still looking!”
“Bucking Fastard” is still seeking U.S. distribution and no release date has been announced. The New York Film Festival draws to a close Oct. 12, following roughly two weeks of world premieres including Pedro Pascal’s “Behemoth!” and Andrew Garfield’s “Artificial."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kate and Rooney Mara turn sisterhood into uncanny twin roles
