Movie characters who have been played by more than one actor/actress?

[kwassa]

110. How about two actresses playing the same role in the same movie?

"That Obscure Object of Desire" directed by Luis Bunuel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Obscure_Object_of_Desire

A dysfunctional and sometimes violent romance between Mathieu (Fernando Rey), a middle-aged, wealthy Frenchman, and Conchita (Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina), a young, impoverished and beautiful flamenco dancer from Seville (two actresses play one character—Conchita—each appearing unpredictably in separate scenes). The two actresses differ not only physically, but temperamentally as well.

Why did Bunuel do this?

In 1977, in Madrid, when I was in despair after a tempestuous argument with an actress who'd brought the shooting of That Obscure Object of Desire to a halt, the producer, Serge Silberman, decided to abandon the film altogether. The considerable financial loss was depressing us both until one evening, when we were drowning our sorrows in a bar, I suddenly had the idea (after two dry martinis) of using two actresses in the same role, a tactic that had never been tried before. Although I made the suggestion as a joke, Silberman loved it, and the film was saved.

The book does not identify the actress who had caused the "tempestuous argument," though Buñuel makes it clear (p. 250) that she was neither Carole Bouquet nor Angela Molina.

In Luis Buñuel: The Complete Films (2005), editors Bill Krohn and Paul Duncan identify the actress as Maria Schneider, writing (pp. 177-78) the following in regard to the idea of using two actresses to play Conchita:

... Buñuel found himself proposing it to Silberman when it became clear after three days of shooting that Maria Schneider was indeed not going to be able to play the part. Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina stepped in ...