“Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today!” proclaims Phil Connors (Bill Murray) in “Groundhog Day.” This moment of existential crisis marks Phil’s turning point as he realizes that even if he can’t alter his situational circumstances, he can change himself—a lesson that also applies to the craft of performance. Here are some of the top time loops from films and TV and what they can teach you about acting.
1. “Groundhog Day” (1993), dir. Harold Ramis
Murray uses emotional scaffolding to provide structure to his depiction of temporally trapped weatherman Phil. Although Phil initially uses the time loop as an opportunity to give in to his most hedonistic desires, he realizes that the libertine lifestyle becomes tedious over time and strives to become a better person. To demonstrate his character’s gradual change of heart, Murray broke down each scene into “Good Phil or Bad Phil” before building out more nuanced emotional states.
Lesson for actors: Showcase character development through emotional micro-progressions. You can apply this lesson to your own craft by spending the time getting to know your character inside and out. Figure out their backstory, super-objective, and motivations using the exercises in our guide to character development. Once you fully understand the character and their story arc, see how you can show it across scenes in tiny moments of emotional growth.
2. “Triangle” (2009), dir. Christopher Smith
While most time loop films end with the protagonist managing to escape their chronological incarceration, “Triangle” switches things up by having Melissa George’s Jess return to the original loop as an implied purgatory: She’s eternally punished for being a bad mother by being trapped on a murder ship. George amplifies the film’s emotional resonance by physicalizing its claustrophobia, careening into the ship’s walls so that it feels like they’re literally closing in.
Lesson for actors: Make your physical surroundings work for you. Before filming, take a few minutes to move through your performance space. Consider how the environment might inform your character’s posture, energy, and movements. Create a connection with each part of the set so that the space around you isn’t just scenery—it should feel like a non-sentient scene partner.
3. “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014), dir. Doug Liman
Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt use a physical vocabulary to make their alien-battling characters, Major William Cage and Sergeant Major Rita Vrataski, larger than life. The initially unwitting warrior Cage stumbles around in panic for his first few loops, but by the final loops, he’s a lean, mean Mimic-fighting machine whose agile efficiency in combat is nothing short of balletic. To carry off her own physically demanding role (while wearing an 85-pound suit, at that!), Blunt worked out for two-and-a-half hours a day, six days a week.
Lesson for actors: Use your body to help tell the story. If you want to next-level your own body language game (Sisyphean recursion or not), start by studying movement techniques. Once you have a grasp on the ways mannerisms, movement, and other forms of physicality impact performance, practice externalizing your character’s interior states with your body.
4. “The Final Girls” (2015), dir. Todd Strauss-Schulson
Max (Taissa Farmiga) finds herself stuck in a time loop of a camp slasher film her now-deceased mother starred in. Farmiga expertly balances true grief and fear with comedy by leaning into the plot’s campy elements—especially the epic final battle scene—creating a touching yet hilarious homage to ’80s slasher films.
Lesson for actors: Inhabit the genre’s performative space. Becoming one with the genre you’re cast in is a matter of immersion. Study the genre and subgenre(s) your project falls within until their rhetoric feels like your native language. If you’re in a horror film, fear and uncertainty should be your lifeblood; if you’re in a rom-com, allow optimistic possibilities to flood the corners of your heart.
5. “Before I Fall” (2017), dir. Ry Russo-Young
The onscreen chemistry between Zoey Deutch’s Samantha and Logan Miller’s Kent is palpable, growing from a one-sided crush to mutual affection throughout seven iterations of a single day. The nuanced progression of their longing looks, openness, and unabashed sincerity makes the budding romance feel genuine.
Lesson for actors: Create chemistry by being vulnerable and present. You’ll usually be given more linear time to develop emotional reciprocity than in a time loop film, so use it to your advantage! To reach sizzling levels of organic chemistry, “satisfy the page and then some,” advises casting director Caroline Liem. “Bring your own personal stamp. Allow each moment or beat to breathe—to connect truthfully—before moving on.”
6. “Happy Death Day” (2017), dir. Christopher Landon
In this black comedy slasher, college student Tree (Jessica Rothe) must figure out who murdered her, before dying in the time loop turns into death IRL. What really sells the story is Rothe’s mastery of microexpressions, making her “recurring journey funny, sad, scary, frustrating, boring, and everything in between,” according to media critic Robert J. Gannon.
Lesson for actors: Master the art of facial expressions. To enhance your performance with genuine facial expressions, learn about microexpressions, think about how you would feel in your character's circumstances, and embrace any emotions—your feelings will naturally show on your face.
7. “Palm Springs” (2020), dir. Max Barbakow
The rom-com “Palm Springs” follows Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti) as they come to terms with being stuck in a time loop together (and falling in love!) while attending a wedding. This setup meant double the potential for technical errors, so Samberg and Milioti were especially vigilant when it came to continuity. “In terms of visiting the same scene over and over, I had a master script with me at all times with very precise notes about calibrating exactly where she is with having to repeat the same dialogue over and over and over again,” Milioti said about her process.
Lesson for actors: Really (and we mean really!) study the script to ensure technical precision. To refine your own abilities with technical precision, engage in rigorous script analysis: Break down each scene, keep an eye out for patterns, and thoroughly study the language to understand its subtext. When it comes to filming, remember that the script supervisor is your friend. Their job is to ensure continuity (whether across the hellish landscape of infinite temporalities or just across multiple takes), making them the Virgil to your Dante. But above all, be sure to give your best performance, since strong acting can outweigh even the most startling continuity errors. Or, as the Oscar-winning film editor Walter Murch said, “emotion, story, and rhythm” have a greater impact on a story than “three-dimensional continuity.”
8. “Russian Doll” (2019–2022)
The depiction of a “quantum multiverse, looping never-ending death cycle, exterminating angel, no-exit level” time loop on “Russian Doll” is, according to its co-creator and star Natasha Lyonne, “not for the faint of heart.” She should know: Lyonne put in the work on both sides of the table to take on Nadia, a game developer who dies on her 36th birthday again and again (and again). “It’s shocking how much work it is,” she noted. And Charlie Barnett, who portrays Alan—a man stuck in a time loop adjacent to Nadia’s—similarly prides himself on his commitment to the craft. “I need to walk in there secure with my own choices and my own thoughts,” he said. “I can go anywhere within there.”
Lesson for actors: It’s always worthwhile to put in the work. Though you likely won’t need to perform a Möbius strip shedding of this mortal coil like Lyonne and Barnett, try to treat each role like it could be your last. Take the advice sprinkled throughout this article to ensure you’re (over)prepared for filming. Prep physically through movement coaching and dialect work; mentally with script analysis and emotional mapping; and technically by reading your lines aloud (and committing them to heart!) and visualizing each scene. Who knows? It just might help you transcend the temporal treadmill.