John Laurens and Philip Hamilton are both played by the same actor – Anthony Ramos – in the Disney+ movie version of musical Hamilton, with the doubling up of roles reflecting on their respective arcs. Telling the story of American’s $10 Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, the musical features several figures from real-life history. While many of the characters in Hamilton are played by different actors, a select few see actors take on multiple parts.
While many of these are among the ensemble, there are some key roles in Hamilton where an actor plays multiple parts. Perhaps most notably, Daveed Diggs portrays Marquis de Lafayette in Act I, before switching to Thomas Jefferson in Act II, moving from “America’s favorite fightin’ Frenchman” to an American Francophile. There’s also Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Maddison, who goes from a major ally to a big rival of Alexander’s, and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler, the woman ignored by Alexander, who then becomes Maria Reynolds, who has an affair with him.
The other actor who doubles up is Anthony Ramos as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton, who immediately has a more obvious reason for the split: while the other characters mentioned above simply disappear from the story after Act I, Laurens is killed off before the interval, so this gives a way of giving Ramos an expanded role rather than having him in the first act and then not re-emerging. The death of Laurens also provides an intrinsic link to Philip Hamilton too: they’re the two characters who are not only killed off, but also in effect die for Alexander and to protect his honor – even being the ones to sing “Me? I died for him” in Hamilton‘s opening song, “Alexander Hamilton”.
The story arcs of the two characters match up as well. Not only are they two of Hamilton’s closest allies – his best friend and his son – but they also serve to highlight his development as a character. In “Ten Duel Commandments”, Laurens duels Charles Lee, with Alexander serving as his second being the one to encourage him. In Act 2, Hamilton tells his son Philip to aim his gun to the sky rather than shooting his opponent in a duel, showing how he’s grown from the hot-headed revolutionary who wanted to prove himself to more of an elder statesmen type. The music links them with this as well, as Philip’s songs – especially with the counting – contain elements of “Ten Duel Commandments”. Laurens’ death serves to help change Hamilton, and then Philip’s does again.
Having Ramos playing both of these roles not only makes it easier for the audience to see these parallels, and to greater invest in their journeys and deaths, but it also better highlights the tragedy of both characters since viewers have to see the same person die twice. The two figures are central to Hamilton‘s story, and the doubling up drives home the thematic point of that.
