One of the most fascinating trends in the last year of movies was the notion of one actor playing two roles. Whether it’s Michael B. Jordan in Sinners,Robert De Niro in The Alto Knights, Theo James in The Monkey, and Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17, multiple A-listers got the chance to interact with themselves on screen. Although it’s a fun gimmick that can give some actors the chance to stretch outside of their comfort zones, it is quite challenging to play multiple characters with unique and distinctive personalities for an extended period of time. Holding these responsibilities over the course of the entire series would seemingly be an impenetrable difficulty for even the most talented of actors, but Anaconda star Paul Ruddpulled it off remarkably well in the underrated Netflix series Living With Yourself.
Netflix’s ‘Living With Yourself’ Puts a Smart Spin on a Familiar Premise
Rudd stars in Living With Yourself as the copywriter Miles Elliot, who is in the midst of a difficult relationship with his wife Kate (Aisling Bea), as they are struggling to conceive a child. Beyond the fact that Kate, a respected interior architect, is far more successful and fulfilled than he is, Miles is stung by the criticism that he is not present enough in their marriage. It’s after an unusual encounter with a co-worker that Miles finds that a cloned version of himself has been created, and that they may be able to team up to tackle their collective responsibilities. Living With Yourself understands the inherent conflict that comes with stories about clones. Eventually, only one of them will end up having complete control over their shared life.
Even before the sci-fi premise was introduced, Living With Yourself offered a more vulnerable and sensitive role for Rudd, who is best known for playing comedic, charismatic characters. Living With Yourself cast him as a man who has become trapped within the mundanity of his life. Despite aspirations of being a more exciting and involved person, Miles is both unable to take risks and not entirely sure what he would do if he was given the freedom of more time. Much of the joy of the early episodes of Living With Yourself comes from Miles beginning to realize how much of his life he has simply let pass him by; at the same time that he is reaching a new level of self-actualization, his clone is beginning to desire a life of its own. Ironically, it takes the presence of someone trying to impose upon his life for Miles to take accountability for his own responsibilities.
Cloning is a theme that has been tackled in countless sci-fi stories, but Living With Yourself takes a nuanced approach to the notion of creating a double, and the ethical question marks that it may spark. A clone does not have a backstory or past that they can draw upon, as they are ultimately made to embody someone whose life they cannot fully have. Living With Yourself is a unique spin on the concept because both versions of Miles have both virtues and flaws, making it more challenging to label one or the other as a villain. It’s also a savvy approach to what a realistic process of human cloning might look like, given that Miles is not entirely aware of what he is signed up for, and has no means of contacting the authorities because of the illegal nature of the scientific experiment.
Netflix’s Wonderfully Strange ‘Living With Yourself’ Has One of Paul Rudd’s Greatest Performances
Rudd is often a much better dramatic actor than he is given credit for, and Living With Yourself served as a unique way for him to play out the internal anxieties of a deeply troubled character. Part of Miles’ frustration with the existence of his clone is because of his own feelings of self-hatred, as he sees his new twin’s success as proof that he did not live up to his potential. Although Living With Yourself gives Rudd more than enough opportunities to show what a skilled physical comedian he is — particularly in a hilarious fight scene when both versions of Miles are brawling with one another — it’s a performance that also allowed him to dig into the insecurities of a middle-aged man. The chemistry he shares with Bea is also strong, as they convey the marital stresses of a couple who still loves one another, but does not feel that they have the same passion that they shared when they first met and fell in love. Given the sparsity of the extended cast, it’s impressive that the sheer force of Rudd’s charisma was able to keep the series moving at the right pace.
Living With Yourself is the type of experimental series that could have only existed in the era where Netflix was greenlighting high-concept projects that may have had limited commercial viability. It’s hard to imagine Living With Yourself existing on a network given the production budget and explicit content, and also because it’s a story that only works when serialized and available to binge. At the same time, it’s not a concept that could have worked as a feature film, as there are simply too many nuances and misadventures packed in between the major plot points in Living With Yourself for it to have ever worked as a streamlined movie.
Living With Yourself might technically be classified as a dramedy, but it’s not a sitcom, and its ambiguity might be its biggest strength. Although it was never technically classified as a miniseries, the lack of renewal after six years would imply that Rudd will never get the opportunity to play the role of Miles again. Great television should be as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. Like so much of Rudd’s best work, it is a show that is simply begging to be rediscovered and re-assessed.
- Release Date
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2019 – 2019-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
