Fringe Casts Shawn and Aaron Ashmore Twins to Play Alternative Versions of the Same Character

If you're making a TV show about alternate realities like Fringe is, then why not hire twins to play different versions of themselves on the show? That's exactly what Fringe is doing, as acting siblings Shawn and Aaron Ashmore will guest star this fall on Fringe playing the alternate twins of each other.

Show Patrol reports that Shawn Ashmore and Aaron Ashmore have been cast to play the pair of doppelgängers on Fringe in an episode likely to run around November. It's the first time the twins have acted together in 15 years.

"We're having fun with it, running around on set and fooling everybody," says Shawn Ashmore. "It's been fun. It's a huge experience and a good show."

According to Shawn the twins wouldn't have pulled the stunt casting for any show, but the excellence of Fringe convinced them to go for it. They normally turn down opportunities to act together.

"It's usually because the stuff that came along is kind of hokey, but I think the quality of Fringe is really high and the episode is done well and our characters are intelligent," Shawn Ashmore said. "We're going to have some fun."

Both actors are veterans of sci-fi and fantasy movies and TV. Aaron Ashmore played Jimmy Olsen during a long run on the CW show Smallville. Shawn Ashmore portrayed the character Iceman in the X-Men movies.

Fringe is a hit FOX show about a government investigative team led by FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and including Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson). The premise revolves around the fact that there is an alternate universe to our own, and the two "sides" are currently on a collision course that could lead to the destruction of one or both.

Cast members such as Torv and Noble have played "alternative" versions of themselves on the show, but with Shawn and Aaron Ashmore on board Fringe won't even need to utilize trick photography to show us doubles of whatever character the twins play.

For more articles, links, and reviews of Fringe see my blog On the Fringe.