If you’ve seen any movie, chances are you’ve also seen a stunt double at work. Some professional stunt doubles specialize in action work; they’ll fly, jump, punch and take a kick instead of the main talent headlining the movie or TV show. Others are just stand-ins who allow the crew to do the set-up for a scene. Stunt doubles are used for all sorts of things in:
- Comedies
- Dramas
- Action scenes
To be a stunt double, you have to be a skilled professional but you also have to look like the person you’re standing in for. In some cases, celebrity stunt doubles are so alike that it makes you wonder if they’re related. Is it ever uncomfortable for the stars to see someone dressed and styled exactly as they are? Do they hang out after work to prank people?
Stunt doubles are used in a way that they blend seamlessly into the movie so that we don’t notice them. To celebrate the awesome work that they do, here’s a compilation of some of the most impressive stunt double and celebrity lookalikes captured behind the scenes:
Carrie Fisher and Sandi Gross sunbathing on the set of Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983).
Flavorwire.comAmy Poehler and Will Arnett with their stunt doubles, Patrick Hancock and Tiffany Scott on the set of Blades of Glory (2007).
Flavorwire.comHarrison Ford and Vic Armstrong on the set of Indiana Jones.
Flavorwire.comGerard Butler and Ele Bardha on the set of Machine Gun Preacher (2011).
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Mark Ruffalo and his stunt double Anthony Molinari filming on location for Now You See Me in New York City. Molinari has done stunt work for stars such as George Clooney, Zach Galifianakis, Joe Mantegna and Vincent Gallo. He has an impressive filmography that includes Dark Mass, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and Sons of Anarchy.
Flavorwire.comChristian Slater with his stunt double Marc Shaffer on the set of ABC’s The Forgotten. Shaffer has worked on movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure and TV shows like True Blood, The Mentalist, Shameless and Castle.
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Flavorwire.comLynda Carter and Jeannie Epper on the set of The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1975-1979). Epper is considered to be one of the greatest stuntwomen who’s ever lived. According to Women You Should Know, she would receive $250 a day to be hit by moving cars, crash through winds and leap from tall buildings.
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Reese Witherspoon and her stunt double Marny Eng on the set of Don’t Mess With Texas. Marny is an actress, stunt double and stunt coordinator with a career that goes back to 1993. Her most notable work includes: Inception, X0Men 2, X-Men: The Last Stand and I, Robot.
Flavorwire.comCameron Diaz and her stunt double Kimberly Shannon Murphy on the set of Knight and Day in Seville, Spain. Kimberly has been a stunt double in Zombieland, The Hunger Games, Enchanted and the JJ Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek. In an interview with Bleeding Cool, she talked about how the stunt world is a man’s world: “Obviously, it’s kind of a man’s world. There’s fewer movies you see of women doing action and there’s more movies of men doing action, though I think that’s starting to even out and there’s more women doing action movies that centre just on them. That’s definitely exciting to see, so I hope that continues and becomes a bigger thing.”
Usmagazine.com
Usmagazine.comAshley Benson and her stunt double on the set of Pixels. In the film, Benson played Lady Lisa, a beautiful warrior from a 1982 video game called Dojo Quest. Ashley Benson is mostly known for her work in Pretty Little Liars, Spring Breakers and Bring it On.
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Robert De Niro and his stunt double on the set of Dirty Grandpa. The film is a comedy that also stars Zac Efron. In the movie, Zac’s character is forced to drive his grandfather, a former Army Lieutenant-Colonel, to Florida for spring break.
Usmagazine.comMargo Robbie and her stunt double Ingrid Kleinig taking turns riding a motorcycle on the set of Suicide Squad. Ingrid’s filmography includes Mad Max Fury Road, The Hobbit, The Great Gatsby and The Great Wall. In an interview, she spoke about how she got started in the business: “I spent my formative years training extreme sports of one sort or another, but fell into professional stunt work when performing with physical theatre company, Legs on the Wall, for the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney.”
Usmagazine.com
Mark Wahlberg and his stunt double Dan Mast on the set of Transformers: Age of Extinction. The 26-year-old is based in California and he’s been doing stunt work for the past five years in films that include After Earth, Divergent and Battleship. He said that working on the set of Transformers was different than anything he had ever done before because the director, Michael Bay, likes to work at a very fast pace.
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