Gen V star Patrick Schwarzenegger has been tapped to star opposite Vince Vaughn and Theo James in the upcoming crime thriller movie The Bookie & The Bruiser from director S. Craig Zahler.
The story will take place in 1959 New York City, where James Vaughn’s characters will be running an illegal gambling operation that will put them in the middle of the violent war between the Mafia and the Irish gangs. This comes a year after Schwarzenegger received praise from critics for his performance as Saxon Ratliff in HBO’s The White Lotus Season 3.
Why Patrick Schwarzenegger’s next movie with Vince Vaughn will be his toughest one?
Schwarzenegger’s role in the upcoming The Bookie & The Bruiser movie will be his most challenging one yet. For the first time, he has signed on to play twin brothers, Augie and Bernard, who are living very different lives. Per Deadline, Augie is described as a reckless and desperate gambler trying to escape his debt. At the same time, Bernard is a family man who gets unwillingly dragged into her brother’s chaotic life.
Playing dual roles in projects has always been a daunting task for actors because of the double amount of work they need to put in. This is something new for Schwarzenegger, since he’ll have to interact with himself, shoot many scenes twice, and deliver two distinct performances. Recently, actors playing dual roles have been received differently by critics and audiences. Last year, Michael B. Jordan notably played the twin roles of Smoke and Stack in Ryan Coogler’s award-winning vampire film Sinners, which brought him his first Academy Award for Best Actor.
Besides Jordan, Robert De Niro also delivered a dual performance last year in the crime drama film The Alto Knights. However, it didn’t really impress the critics. Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson’s dual role as clones in Bong Joon Ho’s latest sci-fi movie Mickey 17 only received a mixed response. That’s why The Bookie & The Bruiser movie could be a make-or-break role for Schwarzenegger, given how difficult it is for an actor to pull off dual performances.
