Sisters Rooney and Kate Mara have collaborated for the first time on screen in Werner Herzog's latest film, "Bucking Fastard." The movie, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday, draws inspiration from the unique lives of British identical twins Freda and Greta Chaplin.
The Chaplin twins were known for their extraordinary synchronicity, speaking in unison, sharing dreams, and loving the same man. The film loosely fictionalizes their story, with the Mara sisters portraying identical twins Jean and Joan Holbrooke. Director Werner Herzog noted the ease with which the sisters embodied their characters, requiring only five days of rehearsal instead of the planned two weeks.
"It was quite daunting, the idea of playing the same person," Rooney Mara stated, "but we found pretty quickly that having had a lifetime together and all the history and a childhood of playing together there was a world between us, we didn't have to work very hard to create it at all."
Kate Mara added that speaking in unison felt "very musical." She also shared that Herzog had sent the sisters a letter about the project a year prior, and they had been eager to work together, finding "Bucking Fastard" to be an immediate "no-brainer."
The film is set in Ireland and features Domhnall Gleeson as a social worker assisting the twins, and Orlando Bloom as their lover.
Freda and Greta Chaplin gained notoriety in the 1980s when they were jailed for a month for breach of the peace after harassing a local truck driver. The film's title comes from a verbal slip the twins made simultaneously in court. The Chaplin sisters lived in York and were known for their inseparable bond, wearing matching clothes, walking in step, and speaking in unison.
Greta died of ovarian cancer at age 64 in 2007, and Freda passed away in 2020 at 77 from unknown causes. They are buried next to each other in York. Freda reportedly visited Greta's grave daily until shortly before her own death.
Their unique lives attracted significant media attention, leading to two documentaries: "A Pair of One" (1987) and "The Twins" (1994). In their later years, they lived relatively private lives together in their family home in York. Following Greta's death, Freda continued to live alone, cared for by pets, until her own illness. Freda's will reportedly left her family home to a local cat shelter.