You might think movie stars are superheroes who can do anything on the set, but the reality is that most of the impressive on-screen actions are done by professional stunt doubles. Every good actor has his or her stunt person, and some of them even have multiple. And it is not just crazy scenes like jumping from a burning building or high-speed chases on the streets, but also some specific assignments like dancing, playing, or some instrument. If you want to know more about the amazing stunt doubles behind some of the most famous Hollywood actors, get yourself comfortable and keep reading!
1. Chris Hemsworth
To portray a convincing body double to this famous actor a man has to put in some effort! Bobby Holland Hanton had to work out every day to keep up with Hemsworth’s physical appearance. “When filming, I train twice a day, one-and-a-half hours in the gym daily, six days a week. When we’re shooting we may get a 40-minute window for lunch, so that’s when I need to hit the gym,” he said.
Another very important part of this job is being prepared for danger and multiple injuries. He popped his rib out on set, snapped his groin clean off the bone, and blew his shoulder out.
2. Brad Pitt
Being Brad Pitt’s body double might seem like an honor, but Phill Ball said it’s at times “bizarre and boring”. One of the weird examples of this is him having to shave his hands. He also tweeted that he is already bored with his Brad Pitt hair extensions because he feels confused about his identity sometimes. But the compensation for this task is probably worth losing some arm hair over.
Even though being a double for Brad Pitt in the movie World War Z was not the most exciting experience, Phill Ball did not have to pull any life-threatening stunts.
3. Chandler Riggs
Stunt doubles are not only reserved for famous adult actors, but even some child actors have them! One of them is Chandler Riggs who had a 33-year-old stunt woman while filming The Walking Dead. It might seem strange that a grown woman is playing a male child, but her smaller figure made her perfect for this role. This proves that you can make anything happen on screen.
This role was positively rated with critics, so much so that he received numerous awards for it, such as Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Television Series and many others.
4. Dave Bautista
You might think that a former MMA and WWE fighter like Dave Bautista might not need a stunt double, but he used one for his role as Drax the Destroyer in The Guardians of Galaxy. He said that he related so much to Drax’s character that it’s remarkable. “Simple things like the tattoos, the tragedy—because, you know, I had a bit of tragedy in my life as well,” he said.
Even the physically strongest actors might need professional stuntmen sometimes. Some actions performed on-screen require not only great strength but great skills also. That is why you should never try it at home!
5. Ian McKellen
For his legendary role in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ian McKellen had not one, but multiple body doubles. The reason for this is their different heights which had to match the hobbits so they look smaller. Hobbits also had to have dwarf-sized doubles during the production of this movie. But this is not the only movie where McKellen had body doubles, he also had them for his X-men movies!
Even though this role did not have some unbelievable neck-breaking stunts, he still needed body doubles to fit his role and the general appearance of the movie, as many other Hollywood stars do.
6. Harrison Ford
Vic Armstrong, stuntman for Harrison Ford in the first three installments of the Indiana Jones series, had a very important role in this production because he served as a stunt arranger/stunt coordinator while also playing a Nazi soldier in Raiders of The Lost Ark. For the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he, unfortunately, could not take part as Ford’s double as he was busy on another movie.
The movie was The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in which he again gave a great performance. Good stuntmen can in some cases be crucial for the movie’s success.
7. Karen Gillan
Gillan has played roles in some pretty big-budget films such as Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers series as well as the Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. For her role as Ruby Roundhouse in the latter one, she had not one but two body doubles helping her. It’s not clear which one of them performed those amazing dance-fighting scenes in the movie but she sure did a good job!
The role promoted this beautiful Scottish actress into an “accidental action star” and gave her some pretty useful skills such as handling nunchucks and in her words, beating up men.
8. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Maybe you would think that a big and strong actor such as "The Governator" Arnold Schwartzenegger might not need a stunt double to assist while filming his scenes, but you might be wrong this time. Peter Kent took the punches instead of this famous Austrian-born bodybuilder for a very long period, appearing in popular movies such as The Terminator Series, Air America, Kindergarten Cop, True Lies, and Jingle All the Way.
Kent performed his task very well and by the end of his collaboration with Arnold Schwarzenegger, he decided to continue his career as a stunt coordinator, which is still his job.
9. Zoe Saldana
In the blockbuster Guardians of Galaxy, Zoe Saldana plays Gamora, a somewhat alien orphan on a mission to redeem the sins of her past. “I was just excited to be asked to join by James Gunn and to also play someone green. I’ve been blue before [in Avatar],” she said. During the production of the movie, she had professional help--a stunt double called Chloe Bruce, a professional martial artist.
Even though they are not physically identical, it was not a problem to make the stunts realistic because production used prosthetic faces to recreate the distinct color and facial characteristics of Saldana’s character.
10. Ryan Reynolds
Even though he opted to do his stunts in the past, after some serious injuries Ryan Reynolds decided to let the professionals handle this for him. During the making of both parts of Deadpool, Alex Kyshkovych, a talented Russian stuntman, helped him with the physically demanding scenes. The lack of their physical resemblance is not such a big problem in this case because of the bodysuit the main character is wearing.
But this is not the only movie role where Kyshkovych showed his talents. He also did some stunts in the movie Arrow, as well as in the movies from the X-men franchise.
11. Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman’s stunt double in the now-classic movie Black Swan, Sarah Lane, claimed that she was the one behind most of the challenging dancing scenes shown in the movie. “Of the full body shots, I would say 5 percent are Natalie. All the other shots are me. The shots that are just her face with arms, those shots are Natalie. But that doesn’t show the actual dancing,” she said.
This movie was controversial for many reasons, and this just created additional drama. The movie production stood behind Portman claiming that she did the majority of those scenes by herself.
12. Megan Fox
This beauty’s stuntwoman was so dedicated to her job that she ended up breaking her neck during one of the shootings. Stacey Carino did not even realize it at the time, but much later when she did an x-ray. She later said that she knows exactly the moment when she broke it, but at the moment it did not seem as serious. You would be paralyzed if the neck broke, right? Doesn't really seem so.
But Carino is not the only superwoman in this case. She admitted that Megan is also a true fighter, working her best to do most of her running and fighting scenes alone.
13. Jennifer Garner
Shauna Duggins is not just a professional help to Garner’s stunts in the movies, but she is also a personal friend to the famous actress. Duggins is quite respected in her field, given that she was the first stuntwoman ever to be nominated for an Outstanding Stunt Coordination Emmy. She said that men used to dress up to do women’s stunts and that it’s time to take matters into woman’s hands.
She collaborated with Jennifer on the movies such as 13 Going on 30, Elektra, Daredevil, and Arther but also in the TV series Alias. No wonder they became such good friends.
14. Lucy Lawless
It would be very hard to film all the Xena: Warrior Princess without some professional help for the stunts. Zoe Bell, a famous stuntwoman name in Hollywood, appeared in an incredible 66 episodes of the show for Lucy Lawless. But this talented stunt double and actress did so much more! She appeared as a stuntwoman but also as an actress in The Hateful Eight and in her documentary called Double Dare.
But even more famously, Bell took the job of Uma Thurman’s stunt double for the Kill Bill series. Keep on reading to find out more about her role in Tarantino’s masterpiece!
15. Uma Thurman
Zoe Bell is a real superwoman, isn’t she? Quentin Tarantino himself was so fascinated by this New Zealander that he made her the star of his movie Death Proof, whose plot also revolves around a stuntman. “I’ve physically kicked so many men’s asses and I can feel proud of that. But what I’m recognizing with age is my vulnerability is a source of strength, which seems so ironic,” she claimed.
Some of her other amazing roles include another Tarantino’s classic Once upon a time in Hollywood, Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok in which she was Cate Blanchett’s stunt double, and many more.
16. Emilia Clarke
The Mother of Dragons, Emilia Clarke, had a stunt double while filming Game of Thrones in Spain. During these six months, a model called Rosie Mac was a part of the production as her body double. The interesting thing about this is that Rosie did not even audition for this part. In her words, she just posted a selfie with her long blonde hair on Twitter as she usually does.
One of her modeling agencies phoned her wanting her body measurements, but she was unaware that it was for double for Daenerys. Surely it was quite a positive surprise for her!
17. Penelope Cruz
It seems strange that a strong bearded man would play a body double for a beautiful woman, right? Then you either probably haven’t seen Zoolander 2 or you were fooled by the subtlety of these actions. In case you didn’t notice, an actual man was doing the motorcycle scenes for Penelope Cruz in this comedy movie. Even though this movie was quite funny, it did not come close to the original Zoolander.
Its box office success was very low, coming from a $55 million budget and cashing only $56 million. But we can be sure that this is not because of the stunts.
18. Gal Gadot
She is Wonder Woman--she doesn’t need any help doing her stunts, right? Not so much. Some scenes are too complicated even for the best of actors, especially if the actress is pregnant like Gal Gadot was in Wonder Woman. That is why her scenes in the movie, which included risky jumping or fighting, were made by a stuntwoman called Alicia Vela-Bailey. This girl is a true Wonder Woman when it comes to doing stunts.
This talented stuntwoman performed her actions in a great number of Hollywood hits such as Avatar, Divergent and Lights Out to name a few. She can truly do it all!
19. Margot Robbie
Harley Quin is a pretty dangerous woman, isn’t she? So playing her has to be demanding. That is why Margot Robbie needed all the help she could get from her stuntwoman Ingrid Kleinig who is a famous Hollywood name when it comes to stunts. She made a great performance in the movie Suicide Squad, as well as in the movies such as Mad Max: Fury Road, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Justice League.
Kleinig has done some pretty demanding stuff while filming, and holding her breath underwater for five minutes straight during the production of the movie Suicide Squad is surely one of them.
20. Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis has had some truly demanding roles, which required true neck-breaking actions. It's not surprising that this Die Hard has not one, but multiple stunt doubles. The leading stunt double is Stuart Wilson and he is not just a double, he is a stunt coordinator and fight choreographer. When asked what is the worst part of being a stunt double he mentioned the feeling of invisibility after the stunts are filmed.
“If you pull off a stunt that’s dangerous or technical, and it comes out right and everybody loves it, for 20 seconds you’re somebody. And then you go back to obscurity again,” he said.
21. Olivia Munn
This movie star was called out for false claims regarding her doing her own stunts in the movie X-Men. “Psylocke is such a powerful, lethal character. It was important to me that I was able to do all of the stunts because the more believable it is, the better it is for the audience — and the only way to make it believable is for me to actually do it,” she once said.
Olivia might have done a lot of scenes by herself, but it is not fair of her to disregard her stuntwoman Julia Rekaikyna who surely did her best in this way.
22. Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp is not shy to admit that he is not a fan of doing his own stunts. He does his part with his great acting and leaves the physically challenging scenes to the professionals. He learned his lesson during the movie On Stranger Tides where he hurt his back and was left limping for a few weeks. Filming a big-budget Hollywood movie might sound glamorous, but it is often very dangerous.
On the set of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, a stuntman got severely injured while delivering the scene. The producer said that it was the scariest thing he had ever witnessed.
23. Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson’s stunt double is one of the most popular and praised stuntwomen on the scene. Her name is Heidi Moneymaker and she did Scarlett’s stunts for the role of Black Widow in Marvel’s Avengers. Moneymaker has her Hollywood credit well deserved, being the face behind challenging scenes in more than 70 movies! She says that the worst thing she could imagine is having to work a desk job for her living.
Apart from Scarlett Johansson, Heidi Moneymaker served as a body double for a lot of Hollywood A-listers. Some of them include Drew Barrymore, Julianne Moore, Michelle Rodrigues, and Ruby Rose.
24. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
It is not easy to look like The Rock, right? It’s a good thing his stunt double is related to him then. Tanoai Reed had been Johnson’s stunt double ever since 2002 in the movie The Scorpion King. When asked about his job, he told the reporters: “I’m jumping off buildings, I’m getting hit by cars, I’m crashing stuff…I feel like I’m 83 sometimes”. It surely is not easy for the body.
Reed claims that he never thought that he would be in such shape after his “football years”. But to keep up with the mighty Rock you have got to step up your game.
25. Michael J. Fox
In the movie Back to the Future, Fox had to perform some pretty demanding stunts. Most of them he managed to do by himself, but for some of them, he did need to reach out for professional help. He had a full team of stuntmen assisting his scenes, one of them being Charlie Croughwell. This stunt double, despite being a bit shorter than the actor, is quite physically similar to Fox.
For that reason, their collaboration continued in several other movies. but that might not be the only reason, since these two became good friends during the making of the movie.
26. Angelina Jolie
This amazing actress looks so powerful and fierce on-screen that it is hard to believe she has any help doing it. Janene Carleton was her stunt double during the production of the movie Salt. When asked what was the worst part of this job, she said it was not just the physical intensity of the scenes, but the form you have to maintain to resemble the actress you are working for.
And when the actress in question is Angelina, it sure is a tough job. Carleton says she was hungry for three straight months but she took it as a part of the job.
27. Chris Pratt
During the production of the movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Chris Pratt’s body double was the amazing Tony McFarr. His stuntman career began in 2011 when he worked as a stunt double in the show Bones. His collaboration with Chris Pratt continued after filming the movie Jurassic World: the Fallen Kingdom in 2015. After this, they worked together on several movies, including Passengers and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
For the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Pratt made an amazing body transformation, losing a bunch of weight and getting bulked! His body double surely had to maintain this image.
28. Jennifer Lopez
If you had to choose a perfect body double for this beautiful actress and singer, it would have to be another beautiful curvy woman, right? Well, that was not the case for the producers of the music video for her single Follow The Leader. They choose a male stunt double who shockingly did look like her after all the makeup! In their matching black tracksuits and with braided hair you could hardly tell them apart.
The music video was filmed in Mexico, and if you did not know this fun fact before, you could never tell that those scenes were not filmed by Jen herself.
29. Ronda Rousey
How great do you have to be to film stunts for Olympic judoka, MMA fighter, and actress Ronda Rousey? Well, a black belt master like Caitlin Dechelle is one such person. These two girls, apart from both being able to kick anyone who annoys them, share a close physical resemblance. Dechelle is not a stranger to big Hollywood movies, having worked alongside Jackie Chan as well as Nickelodeon’s hit Supah Ninjas.
She has also played in nine episodes of Teen Wolf, and as a stunt double for Rousey in the famous Fast and Furious movie. This calls for some serious skills.
30. Henry Cavill
For his role in the movie Mission Impossible: Fallout, even the mighty Henry Cavill had to get a stuntman to help him with his tough scenes. His name is Adrian Mcgaw and he has a lot of experience doing stunts for Hollywood movies. His first gig was in Shortland Street, after which he performed his stunts for the shows such as Power Rangers where he appeared in a great number of episodes.
He provided his assistance for the stunts in other hit movies such as Justice League, Wonder Woman, Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and many more.
31. Awkwafina
For the movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings which is another Marvel sequence, Awkwafina worked with a greatly talented stuntwoman who is another true hero of the stunt double business. She worked on Jumanji: The Next Level, DC’s Birds of Prey, and might be working on the upcoming adaptations of Avatar. She says that even though she worked with Marvel Studios, she is still a big nerd for the movies.
“I got into being a stuntwoman at a gym that I trained at. Some people that saw me training were like, ‘Oh, do you do stunts? You should get into it!” she once said.
32. Tom Hardy
Tom Hardy’s stunt double for the movie Mad Max: Fury Road might be even bigger eye candy for the ladies than this famous actor. The internet went crazy when these two posted a picture together on the set of the movie. This New Zealander got his big break on the movie Lord of the Rings working as a stunt double and continued his career with the movies such as Avatar and The Hobbit.
His collaboration with Tom Hardy has gone much further than just the Mad Max movie, Tomuri worked with him ona number of movies, including The Revenant, Birdman, and the biopic Legend.
33. Michael Douglas
For his Marvel debut, Michael Douglas played a scientist and former hero Hank Pym. For this movie, as well as for a great number of other movies, Douglas used the help of his long-time friend and colleague, Michaell Runyard. These two share not just the years of working together, but also a great physical resemblance. For that sake, Douglas posted on his Instagram the picture from the set of the two.
“Seeing double on the set of #AntMan back in October 2014! Pictured with Michael Runyard, who has been my stuntman and friend for over 30 years! Wow!” he then wrote.
34. George Lopez
This comedy actor has, as well as many other actors, worked with a stunt double Eddie Fernandez. Eddie has been on the stuntmen scenes for a very long time, starting back in 1981. His skills in stunt driving, wirework, fight choreography, and fire burns made him a valuable asset on over 300 productions in Hollywood. Behind him is a great career, including the movies like 22 Jump Street, Backdraft, and countless more.
He has acquired grand knowledge when it comes to big-budget films, so it does not come as a surprise that he is often cast for movies that contain some kind of action.
35. Jim Carrey
During the production of the hit movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Jim Carrey worked with Tom Deakman. Being in Jim Carrey’s shoes is not an easy task, his energy and the way of movement is one of a kind, so it takes some skill to double his actions. Jim Carrey has often used the practice of body doubles in his private life, mainly to avoid paparazzi taking pictures.
Even though a stunt double’s job might be risky, sometimes really uncomfortable, and even dirty, working alongside a person such as Jim Carrey must be a great advantage. Anda great paycheck, of course.