Seth Green in The Identical
It's a story of rock, religion and family — not the King himself
He’s got jet-black hair, a booming voice and a Graceland-like estate — but Drexel Hemsley, the fictional rock-and-roll star in The Identical, now in theaters, is no Elvis Presley. Rather, the film takes a footnote from Presley’s biography — that he had an identical twin who died at birth — and turns it into the movie’s central hypothetical: While Drexel becomes a national celebrity, what if an unknown but equally talented twin were also trying to make his own way in the world?
“I’ve had a lot of people approach me and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were such an Elvis fan,’” says Seth Green, who plays the best friend of Ryan Wade, the other twin and the film’s protagonist. “This movie just uses the notion of Elvis’ twin brother dying at birth to tell a story about nature-versus-nurture and the life you chose versus the life people choose for you. Even if you don’t like Elvis, or have never heard Elvis, or have a physical and mental aversion to Elvis, that’s not what this movie is.”
Real-life Elvis impersonator Blake Rayne plays both brothers in the film, but he spends most of his screen time as Ryan Wade, who grows up the son of a strict preacher (Ray Liotta) after his cash-strapped birth parents give him up in a secret adoption. But while Wade wrestles with heavy questions about identity and finding his calling, as the trusty sidekick and bandmate Dino, Green gets to be the eternal goofball.
“This guy is a career indulger,” Green says. “This is the guy that’s living the hardest life: the guy that’s always smiling, the guy that’s always drinking, always smoking, always womanizing. He’s a rolling stone. The only thing he’s on this earth to do is play the drums. As a result, I got to be in a really good mood the whole time.”
He’s got jet-black hair, a booming voice and a Graceland-like estate — but Drexel Hemsley, the fictional rock-and-roll star in The Identical, now in theaters, is no Elvis Presley. Rather, the film takes a footnote from Presley’s biography — that he had an identical twin who died at birth — and turns it into the movie’s central hypothetical: While Drexel becomes a national celebrity, what if an unknown but equally talented twin were also trying to make his own way in the world?
“I’ve had a lot of people approach me and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were such an Elvis fan,’” says Seth Green, who plays the best friend of Ryan Wade, the other twin and the film’s protagonist. “This movie just uses the notion of Elvis’ twin brother dying at birth to tell a story about nature-versus-nurture and the life you chose versus the life people choose for you. Even if you don’t like Elvis, or have never heard Elvis, or have a physical and mental aversion to Elvis, that’s not what this movie is.”
Real-life Elvis impersonator Blake Rayne plays both brothers in the film, but he spends most of his screen time as Ryan Wade, who grows up the son of a strict preacher (Ray Liotta) after his cash-strapped birth parents give him up in a secret adoption. But while Wade wrestles with heavy questions about identity and finding his calling, as the trusty sidekick and bandmate Dino, Green gets to be the eternal goofball.
“This guy is a career indulger,” Green says. “This is the guy that’s living the hardest life: the guy that’s always smiling, the guy that’s always drinking, always smoking, always womanizing. He’s a rolling stone. The only thing he’s on this earth to do is play the drums. As a result, I got to be in a really good mood the whole time.”
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