10 Actors Who Needed Body Doubles For Ridiculous Reasons

The business of filmmaking is complicated and challenging at the best of times

yet at others it's potentially dangerous and even degrading. This is precisely why stunt and body doubles exist

to prevent actors from suffering the risk of serious injury or feeling pressured to expose more of their skin than they'd like

But beyond the obvious reasons, actors will sometimes employ the services of a double for highly unexpected reasons

be it to perform a speciality task they're unable to do, to give the director a slightly different take of a scene

or even to boost their own ego. In the case of these actors, each used a double for a rather peculiar or surprising reason

It wasn't always their fault, and in many cases the absurdity makes a wacky amount of sense

but each nevertheless serves as a testament to the amount of unseen work

that goes into even the simplest movie scene. So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture

here with actors who needed doubles for ridiculous reasons. Wesley Snipes would only shoot close-ups and dialogue, Blade Trinity

It's fair to say that the troubled production of Blade Trinity is much more interesting than the film itself

as demonstrated by a hilarious report from Patton Oswalt about Wesley Snipes' disruptive behaviour on the set of the threequel

Snipes bristled with writer-director David S. Goyer throughout shooting, to the extent that the two would ultimately only communicate through post-it notes

Plus, unless he was required to be on set to shoot a close-up or a dialogue scene

the actor spent most of his time confined to his trailer smoking weed

This resulted in his stunt double reportedly performing a larger-than-expected volume of

the actor's shots, even those which weren't action-centric or necessitated a stunt double

This was corroborated by a journalist who visited the film's set, adding

quote, Not only was he not prepared to help his fellow actors during their close-ups

but if the shot involved anything less than a front-on close-up, he called for a stand-in to do the acting for him

It means Wesley Snipes' stand-in was in more of Blade Trinity than Snipes himself was

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Roger Moore thought his running was awkward. James Bond. Roger Moore may have been rather long in the tooth by the time he finally decided to quit

the role of James Bond but did you know that any time he had to run on screen across all seven of his films of his tenure the scene was in fact carried out by a stunt double This wasn due

to any physical inability on Moore's part, but that he thought he looked awkward when running

and presumably didn't want either himself or the 007 character to look too silly

After all, Moore's Bond dressing up as a clown and bedding women decades younger than himself

was the utter pinnacle of dignity, right? Even so, one suspects these days it's a basic requirement

that any actor playing Bond can pull off a badass-looking run. Jack Black couldn't play the electric guitar properly

School of Rock As an immensely talented actor-musician, Jack Black seemed like a note-perfect choice

for the role of guitar-shredding teacher Dewey Finn in School of Rock. But there was one minor, unexpected complication

Though Black has proven through his work in Tenacious D that he can rock an acoustic guitar with the rest of them

at the time of the movie's filming, he rarely dabbled with the electric guitar

and therefore had to actually learn how to play the instrument to a basic level

However, Black only performs a small amount of the playing himself, and for the solos, a double was drafted into play

Given it's no secret that Kyle Gass is the more accomplished guitar player in Tenacious D

it actually does make a bit of sense. Granted, it's reasonable to assume

that Black would know enough about music to probably fake the solo to a decent standard, but apparently that wasn't the case. Willem Dafoe's

penis was too big. Antichrist. It's not terribly surprising that Willem Dafoe had a stunt penis for

his role in Lars von Trier's searing psychological horror film Antichrist, given the amount of graphic

male nudity on display throughout. However, the real reason certainly is a shock. The controversial

filmmaker, of all people, thought that Dafoe had a, quote, enormous that was too big. As for quite

what qualified Defoe's member as being oversized for a film like Antichrist, Von Trier said

quote, everybody got very confused when they saw it. And if on the off chance you are curious about

quite what a confusingly large penis looks like, it doesn't take much to find footage of a younger

Defoe sharing his impressive endowment with the world. And if that ain't a self-esteem boost for

an actor, what is? Natalie Portman didn't want to dive into cold water, your highness

Pretty much the only reason anyone remembers the 2010 stoner comedy Your Highness is for the

sequence in which Natalie Portman heroine strips down to a metal thong and takes a dip in the nearby lake And while you be forgiven for assuming that Portman had a stunt double for the strip scene itself that actually not the case Portman did get down to her undergarments herself

but when it came to getting wet, she deferred to a body double because the water was, quote

really, really cold. Coming mere months after the Black Swan controversy, where Portman's dance double claimed the Oscar-winning actress

did much less of the work than the studio claimed, this story didn't help the actress's reputation for precociousness

Still, it all blew over pretty quickly, and Your Highness faded fast into obscurity

Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack mid-production, Apocalypse Now. To be clear, there's nothing funny or ridiculous about a heart attack

but the production's response to dealing with a 36-year-old Martin Sheen's mid-shooting coronary sure was absurd

The shoot was a famously hellish one, and when Sheen suffered a heart attack on location in the Philippines

even the actor himself worried about the costs it would incur, a production already massively

over budget. Rather than panic investors and cause the plug to be pulled, Sheen claimed he

was suffering from heat stroke and insisted that the production shoot around him. During the six

weeks he spent recuperating, his brother played a body double for any shots not showing Sheen's

face, with the rest being filled in once he returned to set. Credit where credit's due

though, you'd never know by watching the movie itself. Even if it's flatly insane that production

wouldn't shut down after its lead actor almost dropped dead. Appropriately balmy for Apocalypse

Now, Russell Crowe couldn't convincingly write mathematic equations, a beautiful mind. No matter how brilliant an actor might be, there are some innate aspects of certain professions

that are virtually impossible to imitate within just a few weeks or months of research

Short of pulling a Daniel Day-Lewis caliber feat of method acting, people in that profession will

be able to recognize a faker a million miles away. And that was the problem faced by Russell Crowe

and director Ron Howard while shooting the best picture winning drama A Beautiful Mind

where Crowe played legendary real-life mathematician John Nash. Because Crowe was unable to convincingly write equations with the natural flow of an actual mathematician

Howard hired the film's math consultant Dave Beyer to also play Crowe's hand double for scenes which

required an equation to be written down. Hilariously, Bayer even trimmed his nails in

order to match Crow's, unaware that Crow had since grown his out to match Nash's. As a result

Bayer had to wear acrylic fingernails for much of the shoot Dakota Johnson had butt tattoos Fifty Shades of Grey Given how much of a fuss was made about the amount of graphic sex in the Fifty Shades franchise you be surprised how much of the rutting was actually carried out by body doubles

And while one could perhaps understand that lead actress Dakota Johnson wanted to preserve some of her modesty during the more in-your-face sex scenes

that's actually not the reason she had a butt double throughout the erotic thriller trilogy

Because Johnson had tattoos on her bottom, and these were deemed not to suit the nature of her mousy, demure protagonist Anastasia Steele

the call was made to have a non-tattooed butt double perform any scenes that glimpsed the character's bum

The film's cinematographer said, We did have a butt double for Dakota, and I had the pleasure of casting a non-tattooed bottom

As for Johnson herself, she called her tattoos annoying due to the sheer amount of times she has to have them covered up for roles

Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson couldn't stand each other, The Fate of the Furious

The real-life beef between the Fast and the Furious stars Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson

is no secret, with each not-so-subtly calling the other out on social media

and fans noting their total lack of direct interactions in 2017's The Fate of the Furious

It subsequently emerged that this was completely intentional, to effectively eliminate their time physically on set with one another

Throughout the film, there are many obvious tells. For instance, one interaction conspicuously takes place over the phone and was likely recorded separately

Elsewhere, the action sequences naturally utilise stunt drivers, again ensuring Diesel and Johnson didn't need to be in the same vicinity

And in other scenes, one of the characters is generally facing away from the camera

due to one side of the interaction being carried out by a double

Despite the mutual benefit of both men getting along and making the best movie they could

complete with, you know, actual physical interactions between them, ego seemed to win out

This was rather hilariously reflected by the film's poster, which also depicted the two facing away from one another

Gert Frobe didn't know how to play golf. Goldfinger. Gert Frobe gave arguably the most iconic and unforgettable villain performance

of the entire Bond franchise as Oric Goldfinger. Yet despite his fantastic screen presence

the actor required a double for one major aspect of his character

For the memorable golf contest between Goldfinger and Bond, he didn't know how to play golf, and so for any shot where the actor's face isn't visible, a golf-savvy double is actually playing the part

It does seem a bit daft, because ultimately, how hard can it be to make an actor look good at golf