Part 1: What is a Body-Double?
By Wyatt Elling
You might not know it, but your favorite movie stars are actually made up of many different people. Just about every time a well-known actor is on screen, but you can't see their face, it's probably not them. Television and movie production schedules are hectic and directors don't want to waste their star's time with close-up body shots, long-distance shots, or establishing shots. And if a scene requires nudity or a special focus on shapely body parts, you can bet a specialized body-double is involved.
A body-double is an anonymous actor who stands in for a credited actor in a variety of circumstances. The most common and most talked about role for the body double is taking the place of a high-profile celebrity in a nude scene. This can happen either because the actor or actress is uncomfortable with actually appearing naked on screen, or because they simply aren't in good enough shape to maintain the illusion of having a perfectly sculpted movie-star body. Catherine Bell (JAG), famously body-doubled for Isabelle Rossellini in a nude scene in Death Becomes Her. Body-doubling came into the spotlight with the controversy surrounding Julia Robert's body-part doubling in Pretty Woman, and the use of a totally different person on the movie poster.
Many professional body-doubles have a body part specialty that gets them more work, both in movies and in modeling. Second-unit productions on film sets often cover the pick-up and close-up shots of specific actions that the stars don't have the time or the physical assets to do. Any shot involving hands, feet, legs, arms, and anything else without a recognizable face usually defaults to body part doubles. These doubles have cultivated a particularly strong feature of their bodies, and are in high demand. Many actresses that are beautiful on-screen are composed of the best features of several doubles. This helps maintain the magic Hollywood illusion of flawless beauty while speeding up the pace of production.
Another more intensive category of body-doubling is called photo-doubling. Photo-doubles are real actors on the production who are seen in their entirety on-screen. They stand-in for the stars in various situations, and must have the same physical build, style, and coloring. Often they'll take the place of a movie-star in a long-distance shot, the establishing shot of a scene, or an over-the-shoulder shot. Photo-doubles must learn the exact same blocking and dialogue as the regular actors, and usually appear with credited actors. The dialogue of the credited actor is dubbed over later, but photo-double's performance is critical to maintain the momentum of the scene and to keep the other actors on cue. Actor specific photo-doubles allow one star to essentially film two scenes at once, and greatly speed up production.
Stunt-doubles are the most well-known type of double, and are some of the most commonly used. Stunt-doubles replace an actor for scenes that require dangerous stunt work or advanced choreography. This can range from falling off a building and catching on fire to slipping on an icy sidewalk. Stunt-doubles work with risk professionally and have an understanding with film studios. If real actors get hurt, productions can grind to a halt and the insurance problems can be enormously expensive. Stunt-doubles can also take the place of actors to protect the other actors in a scene; if someone is playing a street-fighter, but doesn't actually have advanced screen-fighting experience, it can be very dangerous to have them wildly punching and kicking. In one notorious incident, Kurt Russell was actually fighting for his life in a scene from Escape from New York where a giant gladiator came at him with a spiked club.
In a milder variant on stunt-doubling, many films employ the use of skill-doubles. Most actors don't know how to do much of anything, so when they have to play a trombone or dance the foxtrot, directors call in professionals to do the hand and footwork. There is demand for just about every type of skill doubling you can think of, from skiing, to playing baseball, to skilled driving, to keyboard typing. Everything cool you ever see a star do in a movie, they probably can't actually do it. There was a major controversy over 1983's Flashdance. There was a lot of professional dancing including advanced break-dancing moves. Audiences were wowed by Jennifer Beals performance. The problem was that Beals actually had 3 different body-doubles, including a man.
On the technical side of body-doubling there is the stand-in. Stand-ins take the place of actors in the hours before a scene is ready to shoot. They don't have to look exactly like the star in question, but they have to have the same height, hair color, build, and wardrobe. Stand-ins are arranged on movie sets in the place of the real actors ahead of time. This allows the director and the tech crew to adjust the lighting, lock-in sound levels, focus the cameras, and practice the real-time adjustments and movements necessary for blocking. It isn't uncommon for body-doubles to serve as stand-ins before the credited actors arrive.
The body-double business is booming, and it can be a great way to break into show business, get onscreen, and make connections. High-profile doubles can make names for themselves and command huge paychecks, especially if they become the official doubles big-name celebrities. Check back next week for Part 2 of "Double Your Work with Body Doubling: How to Get Hired as a Body Double."
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