Sisters Rooney and Kate Mara dazzled in glamorous black gowns as they joined their onscreen lover Orlando Bloom at the Bucking Fastard premiere in Venice today.
The sisters are acting together for the first time in the strange, dream-like film loosely based on the real story of British twins Freda and Greta Chaplin who spoke in unison in their own language, shared the same dreams, and loved the same man.
Rooney, 41, oozed glamour in a custom Louis Vuitton dress which featured a huge balloon detailing and chic Aquazzura heels while Kate, 43, stunned in a plunging glitzy Armani Privé number.
Orlando, 49, looked dashing in a black tuxedo as he arrived on the red carpet arm in arm with his co-stars.
The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and director Werner Herzog said that playing co-dependent twins, called Jean and Joan Holbrooke, came so easily for the Maras that they didn’t even need the two weeks of rehearsal which he had planned for – he sent them home after five days.
Rooney Mara said: ‘It was quite daunting, the idea of playing the same person, but we found pretty quickly that having had a lifetime together and all the history and a childhood of playing together there was a world between us, we didn’t have to work very hard to create it at all.
‘I have never laughed so much, we had so much fun. It was a once in a lifetime experience.’
Sisters Rooney and Kate Mara dazzled in glamorous black gowns as they joined their onscreen lover Orlando Bloom at the Bucking Fastard premiere in Venice today
The sisters are acting together for the first time in Bucking Fastard, a strange, dream-like film loosely based on the real story of British twins Freda and Greta Chaplin
The sisters looked the spitting image of one another in their spaghetti-strap dress on the red carpet
Kate added: ‘Once we figured out the rhythm of speaking in unison it felt like a song, it was very musical.’
She added that director Herzog: ‘Wrote me and my sister a beautiful letter asking us to be in this about a year ago. We were both so thrilled because we have been wanting to work together for a while, but nothing made sense.
‘This one was immediately a no-brainer, and then it just so happened that it was these sisters who are so connected that they speak in unison and they dream the same dreams.
‘It was so perfectly presented and the script was so special, and odd, so it’s an obvious thing to say yes to. But it kind of felt like it would never happen just because it was like too good to be true.’
The film is set in Ireland and also stars Domhnall Gleeson as a social worker trying to help the women, and Orlando Bloom as their lover.
The Chaplin sisters actually lived in York and shot to notoriety in the 1980s when they were at the centre of a bizarre high-profile court case which saw each of them jailed for a month.
They were prosecuted at York Magistrates’ Court for breach of the peace for harassing a local truck driver, Ken Iveson.
They were found guilty and jailed for one month. Herzog named the film after a verbal slip made by the Chaplin sisters in court.
During the bizarre real incident: the twins made the same verbal slip simultaneously while in court, ‘bucking fastard’.
Rooney, 41, oozed glamour in the spaghetti strap dress which featured a huge balloon detailing while Kate, 43, stunned in a plunging glitzy number
Orlando, 49, looked dashing in a black tuxedo as he arrived on the red carpet arm in arm with his co-stars
Rooney, Kate and Orlando posed with the film’s directer Werner Herzog (L-R)
The sisters shared a sweet embrace on the red carpet together
Kate opted for a silver and black sparkly number for her red carpet appearance
Her younger sister stole the show in a dramatic balloon dress
The film is set in Ireland and also stars Domhnall Gleeson as a social worker trying to help the women
Orlando Bloom will play their lover Gareth Mulroney
Raya Abirached looked incredible in an elegant white gown
Vitalina Ghinzelli wore a Mary Poppins-style pink gown
Pansy Ho oozed glamour in a thigh-high split royal blue dress
George Clooney was back for day two of Venice Film Festival after receiving his honour
They lived for a time in hostels and shelters as their parents were not able to cope, but then lived independently in London before moving back to York into their old family home.
The identical twins wore the same clothes, walked in step and spoke at the same time as each other and are now buried next to each other in death.
They were renowned for their unique lifestyles and characters, which often saw them blurt out the same sentences at exactly the same time.
Greta died from ovarian cancer aged 64 in 2007, followed by Freda’s passing in 2020 from unknown causes.
The pair are buried beside one another at a cemetery in their hometown of York.
Until shortly before Freda’s death in May she would visit her sister’s grave every single day, those close to the family say.
The siblings are best known for the court case in the early 80s, which was covered by reporters from Brazil, Sweden and the US as well as all across Britain.
York lorry driver Ken Iveson claimed they hounded him for years. It was said they had developed an obsession with him, possibly because a joint crush had been spurned.
Those in attendance were stunned when, during the case, Freda and Greta uttered the same words at the same time, seemingly without rehearsal or prompting.
Press reports at the time record them saying: ‘No, no, no, no, no. It’s not true. It’s not true. We haven’t been near him, we haven’t been near there, it is a bitter, bitter lie.’
They looked effortlessly stylish in similar white dresses at the photocall earlier in the day
(L-R) Domhnall Gleeson, Rooney Mara, Werner Herzog, Kate Mara and Orlando Bloom
One report at the time of the court case said their deputy headmaster placed the blame for their extreme closeness on their mother.
‘It was quite clear that they had a doting mother who never allowed them a separate identity,’ he said.
A magistrate jailed each of them, then aged 38, for a month for breaching the peace.
After serving their sentences the twins were the subject of much media interest and took part in two documentaries about their lives – A Pair of One by Julia Darling (1987), and The Twins by Journeyman Pictures (1994).
In their later years they lived quiet and relatively reclusive lives together in a semi-detached house in York.
When Greta died friends and neighbours feared how Freda would cope.
A family friend, who wants to remain anonymous, said: ‘I thought within a week she would have died.
‘They did absolutely everything together: putting their headscarves on looking at one another and not at a mirror. They even hoovered together.
‘But she did manage. She had a cat and a dog and worshipped them. She lived on nothing. She ate bread and cheese or toast and cheese – not butter or anything.’
The friend also revealed Freda left her family home to a local cat shelter, which is now looking after pet cat, Molly.
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Freda Chaplin died aged 77 in May, 13 years after her twin Greta died of ovarian cancer and carcinomatosis aged 64. She has been buried with her sister in Fulford Cemetery, York
The Chaplin sisters were famous for being inseparable and living their whole lives in complete unison, wearing the same clothes, walking in step and talking at the same time
Media interest continued after their conviction, and two documentaries were made of their lives — A Pair of One by Julia Darling (1987), and The Twins by Journeyman Pictures (1994)
Freda has been buried with her sister at a family plot in Fulford Cemetery, York. Proceeds from the sale of the twins’ semi-detached childhood home in Tang Hall will be left to charity
She said: ‘She (Freda) loved cats. She had one or two – she had Molly when she died.’
The friend added Freda had been suffering from cancer and had been living at the family house up until she was taken into hospital in April.
She said: ‘She phoned me up one day and said: ‘I am poorly’.
I said: ‘Get yourself to bed, get a hot drink, and keep warm – and start eating more food than what you are’.
‘The following morning, they were pushing her out to an ambulance. That was the last I saw of her.’
She added: ‘She wasn’t really well. She had cancer a while back. She used to say to me: ‘well I wouldn’t let my twin have treatment so I am not having any.”
Belinda Poulter, Freda’s solicitor for many years, said: ‘She was quiet but had some strong views about animal welfare and felt very strongly about that.’
She said around 10 people attended Freda’s funeral and that she was buried ‘on top’ of her sister in a double plot which is awaiting their headstone.
Freda and Greta were the daughters of James and Elsie Chaplin.
It was said that Freda and Greta had been ordinary children but as teenagers they became ultra-dependent on one another. They would scream when teachers made them sit apart in school, and would resist efforts to distinguish or divide them.
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