Shawn Ashmore has opened up about casting directors flipping a coin to decide which twin brother would book a commercial role.
The 45-year-old Canadian actor, known for playing Iceman in the X-Men franchise, and his identical twin Aaron Ashmore, 45, who starred as Jimmy Olsen in Smallville, have spent decades being mistaken for each other by fans and industry professionals alike.
The confusion reached new heights recently when viewers of Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia discovered Aaron had joined the cast in season three in 2023 as Gil Timmins, with many assuming it was Shawn in the role. One fan took to the Ginny & Georgia Reddit page last year to share their amazement, writing: “This whole time I thought I was watching Shawn Ashmore from the Rookie.”
The post continued: “It turns out that Shawn Ashmore and Aaron Ashmore are twins. I had seen Shawn in the Rookie play Wesley, a very sweet and kind husband and very unlike Gil. It turns out the actors are twins!”
The revelation sparked a flood of replies from equally stunned viewers. “You’re telling me these are two different people?” one bemused Redditor asked. Another added: “I am glad I am not the only one who got so confused thinking I was watching Shawn Ashmore the whole time.” A third user wrote: “I was like omg that’s literally the same person, wtf. Then realising they are twins, and they are genetically, literally the same lol.”
The brothers were born on October 7, 1979, in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, with Shawn arriving first by a single minute. Both got their start in the entertainment industry as children appearing in commercials, and their nearly indistinguishable appearances created unique situations in those early days.
In fact, Aaron was originally cast in his first commercial but fell ill on the day of filming. Shawn subbed in as his double, beginning a pattern of professional substitution that would follow them throughout their careers.
Shawn recounted the unusual casting practices they faced during an interview with the outlet. “When we were doing commercials, they would call us back in after we both auditioned,” he said. “And [they] said, ‘We love you guys both. And so it’s fair, we’re gonna flip a coin so that you guys can see it’s not preferential treatment.'”
He added: “That happened four or five times where they’d say, ‘Hey, come on, come in, we’re gonna hire one of you. But so that the other one doesn’t get their feelings hurt or they don’t think it’s personal, we’re gonna flip a coin in front of you guys.'”
The twin confusion has been compounded by their overlapping television work. Shawn appeared in Smallville for a couple of episodes as Eric Summers, while Aaron played Jimmy Olsen across 53 episodes of the same series. Aaron’s more recent role as Gil Timmins on Ginny & Georgia, which he played for two years across 14 episodes, only reignited the long-running case of mistaken identity among streaming audiences.
Neither brother has publicly commented on the latest wave of Reddit confusion about their identities.