Alice In Wonderland: What The Actor Who Played The Twins Looks Like In Real Life

Lewis Carroll's 1871 fable "Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There" features a notable scene wherein the young titular protagonist runs across a pair of whimsically dunderheaded identical twins while lost in an alternate dimension. The characters are named Tweedledee and Tweedledum and are based on numerous 18th-century folk poems variously attributed to John Byron, John Pope, and Jonathan Swift. In an early epigram by Byron, the two characters agree to have a battle but are startled by a crow, and forget to fight each other. It wouldn't be until the publication of "Through the Looking Glass," and John Tenniel's illustrations therein, that Tweedledee and Tweedledum would be depicted as identical twins.

In Carroll's book, the twins reenact the Byron epigram and flee when a crow appears. Some might say that Tweedledee and Tweedledum represent easily distracted governments, or merely the capriciousness of children. Either way, Tweedledee and Tweedledum lodged themselves in the cultural consciousness and have been there ever since.

Tim Burton's blindingly successful 2010 adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" wasn't so much a new telling of the story as a sequel. It featured a 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returning to Wonderland after a decade away, finding that the magical kingdom had succumbed to war and tyranny. Alice would have to take up a sword and fight the armies of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) to restore peace. She is also said to be destined to slay the Jabberwocky . Those days won't become frabjous on their own.

In Burton's "Alice," Tweedledee and Tweedledum were both played by actor Matt Lucas. Lucas' face could clearly be seen on screen, but the filmmakers used extensive motion-capture technology to turn them into bizarre, squat, egg-shaped beings. Matt Lucas also played Tweedledee and Tweedledum in James Bobin's 2016 sequel "Alice Through the Looking Glass."

Here's what he looks like outside the motion capture suit.

Matt Lucas is a British actor who might be best known for his work on the 2003 sketch comedy series "Little Britain," which he created with his longtime performing partner David Walliams. He and Walliams also ran "Come Fly With Me," a hit travel mockumentary series in 2011, and multiple other shows besides.

Lucas has long been a prolific performer on British television, having first appeared in four episodes of "The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer" in 1995. He wrote and appeared in the sketch comedy show "Mash and Peas" and in the 1999 series "Rock Profile," also both of them with Walliams. He soon became ubiquitous in British comedy, appearing alongside Sacha Baron Cohen (Lucas wrote an episode of "Da Ali G Show") and French & Saunders. Some might even recognize him from the cult series "Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire" or the 2006 adaptation of "The Wind in the Willows" in which he played Mr. Toad.

Lucas was easy to spot, as his round face and bald head made him attractive and striking (Lucas has had alopecia since he was six years old). Also in 1999, Lucas made the move into high-profile features, appearing in Jake Scott's raucous crime film "Plunkett & Macleane." He had a brief cameo in "Shaun of the Dead," but his first major American role was voicing a character in the animated adaptation of "Astro Boy."

"Alice in Wonderland" was his biggest hit yet, as the film made over a billion dollars worldwide . Thanks to green screens, fat suits, and clever compositing, Lucas was able to play both characters on screen at the same time.

While Lucas played both Tweedledee and Tweedledum, a second actor was present in every one of his scenes to serve as Lucas' stand-in. A behind-the-scenes featurette has raw footage of Lucas in his all-green Tweedle suit acting opposite an uncredited double. Lucas' two stunt doubles for "Alice" were Martimiano Nito Larioza and Ernie Reyes, Jr., but the man in the behind-the-scenes featurette is clearly neither of those men. The double's name is also not listed in the film's credits.

Lucas and his double, however, both played both parts. So that Lucas didn't have to mime a scene partner, the double donned an identical green Tweedle suit, and the two could slap and kick each other and look at each other's eyes, assuring continuity and authentic interactions. Each one of Lucas' scenes would be filmed twice, with him as Tweedledee and his double as Tweedledum, and again with the roles reversed. Then, in post-production, the double's performance would be overlaid by Lucas, making two of him on camera. The two performances would serve as a reference for the extensive CGI animation. A photographic element of Lucas' face would then serve as the animated basis for both Tweedles' faces, essentially shrinking a realistic, computer-generated human visage onto an animated body.

Recall that Alice grows and shrinks several times in "Alice in Wonderland," requiring the Tweedles to be shorter than she in some scenes and taller in others. Lucas and his double would wear stilts for the "tiny Alice" scenes, to ensure correct eyelines, but the actors' movements were not motion-captured for those scenes; it seems that actors on stilts don't move the same as actors without.

Lucas is hardly an obscure figure, having become a mainstay of the British comedy scene. He also has a prolific film and TV career, both in England and in America. The year after "Alice in Wonderland," Lucas had another enormous success appearing in Paul Feig's comedy "Bridesmaids," a film that made over $300 million on a $36 million budget. He also played a voice in the weirdly successful animated film "Gnomeo & Juliet," a film that also only cost about $36 million, but that made $193 million. He appeared in the adaptation of Emil Zola's "Thérèse Raquin," called "In Secret," and in John Cameron Mitchell's unusual sci-fi romance "How To Talk to Girls at Parties."

Lucas has a small role as the notorious drag performer Divine in the 2013 film "The Look of Love," and turned up in the beloved "Paddington." Most recently, Lucas was seen in the musical hit "Wonka," and will play a small part in Ridley Scott's "Gladiator II." All the while, he's remained a modern institution on British comedy television.

This is nothing to say of Lucas' prolific career on British TV, where he has appeared on dozens of sketch comedy programs and sitcoms, served as a guest star on numerous game shows, and served as writer/producer on all the projects he works on with Walliams. He appeared in 15 episodes of "Doctor Who" as Nardole, one of the companions of the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), and played the Satanic Aleister Crowley in the DC Comics show "Legends of Tomorrow."

He also gave acclaimed performances as Thénardier in various concerts and full-bore West End productions of "Les Misérables." You can't throw a rock without hitting Matt Lucas.

Lewis Carroll's notorious twins have appeared in multiple cinematic adaptations of "Alice in Wonderland" over the decades, of course. Indeed, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is one of the more cinematically adapted British children's stories, so many actors have taken on the roles.

The Tweedles had a short scene in a 1915 silent adaptation of "Alice," although that footage has sadly been lost forever. In 1933, they first appeared in live-action and were played by Roscoe Karns and Jack Oakie in Norman Z. McLeod's adaptation. A mass audience might know the characters best from the 1951 animated rendition from Disney wherein they were played by J. Pat O'Malley.

John Bailey and Ray Trickett played Dee and Dum in a 1962 Australian musical TV special, although that production is wholly obscure. In 1976, Bree Anthony and Tony Richards played the twins in a delightful, musical XXX version of "Alice in Wonderland," and that film, directed by Bud Townsend and starring Kristine De Bell, is lighter and more fun than even the Disney animated version.

In 1985, Irwin Allen produced a TV movie version of "Alice" featuring Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence in the roles. That special, like many Allen projects, was chock-full of celebrities, including Red Buttons as the White Rabbit, Sammy Davis, Jr. as the Caterpillar, Telly Savalas as the Cheshire Cat, Anthony Newly as the Mad Hatter, Ringo Starr as the Mock Turtle. And that's not even all the recognizable names from that version.

In the celebrated 1999 miniseries, the Tweedles were played by Robbie Coltrane and George Wendt, and that, too, was an all-star affair, featuring Martin Short, Whoopi Goldberg, Gene Wilder, Christopher Lloyd, Ben Kingsley, and many, many others.

"Alice" adaptations will remain plentiful, so keep your eyes peeled for each generation's Tweedledee and Tweedledum.