“One Person Plays Two People”

A lot of young actresses have played at roles from MGM’s Wizard of Oz over the decades, but this weekend I read about a new way it inspired one young viewer.

Sunday’s New York Times featured a conversation between Allison Williams of Girls and Cynthia Nixon of Sex and the City, talking about their acting careers.

Williams described her start this way:

Even before I knew what acting was, I told my parents I wanted to do what they did in The Wizard of Oz, where one person plays two people and can put on different costumes. That’s how I articulated it the first time. I was about four. It was dress up.

I’d never considered way of interpreting the double-casting of the farmhands: seeing their “real” selves from Kansas (as opposed to their unfilmed selves as Hollywood actors) playing at being Dorothy’s companions in Oz.