Actor Replacements That Fooled Us All

Most of us are used to the idea of an actor getting a role and, you know, acting the part.
We'll even accept a stunt double for scenes where the actor needs to jump out of a plane.
But for the most part, if we're watching Gary Busey we want to see Gary Busey.
Wait, why do we want to see Gary Busey again?
"hahaha."
As it turns out, we're not always watching who we think we're watching, and that happens
much more often than we realize.
There have been plenty of times when actors were swapped out, and us in the audience never
even noticed.
Natalie Portman
The heated kiss between Thor and Jane Foster in Thor: The Dark World's post-credits scene
is one of the steamiest moments in all the Marvel movies, and with good reason: actor
Chris Hemsworth isn't making out with his costar, Natalie Portman.
The scene was shot after principal photography had wrapped, and Natalie Portman was unavailable.
Portman told the New York Daily News, "I couldn't get there because I was working on my own
film...and so they put his wife in my wig and costume, that's why it was so passionate."
Yup, Hemsworth was locking lips with his real-life wife, Spanish actress and Fast & Furious star
Elsa Pataky.
The switcheroo certainly saved a lot of trouble for the crew.
While filming other kissing scenes in the Thor series, Portman said that, since she's
so short, "They usually had a ramp for me to walk up so I could land somewhere near
his face."
Because that's the only way to make this turn into something like this.
Bruce Lee
After Bruce Lee's untimely death on July 20, 1973, one of his greatest passion projects
was left unfinished: Game of Death, of which Lee had already filmed about 40 minutes.
Five years later, director Robert Clouse picked up the pieces and was forced to create a brand-new
plot using Lee's previously filmed scenes, shots from older Bruce Lee projects, and even
footage from Lee's real-life funeral.
In addition to archival film, Clouse also hired stand-ins to play Billy Lo, Lee's character
in the new version of Game of Death.
In Clouse's Game of Death, Lo both receives plastic surgery after a brutal fight and later
fakes his own death and wears a disguise, making it easy for Clouse to replace Lee with
other actors.
Although some parts weren't exactly seamless…
"Well, sitting right there by the telephone, just waiting for you to call.
Patience, that's not one of our virtues."
Michael Pitt
It's hard to imagine anyone more villainous than Hannibal Lecter, but the TV series Hannibal
gave us just such a character in Mason Verger.
As the sadistic meat-packing tycoon, Boardwalk Empire star Michael Pitt spends the latter
half of the show's second season tormenting the other characters.
Pitt delivers a terrifying performance as Verger, who showrunner Bryan Fuller called
"The Joker to Hannibal's Batman."
But while Mason Verger returned in Season 3, Michael Pitt didn't.
Joe Anderson took over the role and had to spend the entirety of the season covered in
heavy prosthetics.
Fortunately, Anderson's vocal performance was flawless, resulting in a seamless transition
between the two actors.
"There, now we can talk face to face."
Nicholas Brendon
Nicholas Brendon appeared in all but one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and yet, surprisingly,
he wasn't the only person to play Xander Harris, Buffy's geeky pal and perennial punching bag.
Brendon's twin brother, who uses the stage name Kelly Donovan, often took Brendon's place
when the actor wasn't available or when Buffy's supernatural shenanigans required more than
one Xander on screen at once.
Donovan made his most memorable appearance on Buffy in the fifth season episode "The
Replacement," in which a demon creates a second Xander who threatens to take over the original's
life.
In the episode "Intervention," Donovan replaced Brendon entirely during some action scenes
when Brendon had pneumonia and couldn't come to the set.
Gene Hackman
It might be hard to imagine now, but in the '70s, only one big-budget superhero franchise
ruled the silver screen.
Even before the first Superman film became a breakout hit, director Richard Donner was
already working on a sequel.
Unfortunately, during filming, Donner clashed with producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind
about the film's budget, and although Donner had already filmed roughly 75% of Superman
II during production of the first film, he was replaced by A Hard Day's Night's Richard
Lester.
In order to secure a director's credit, Lester reshot quite a bit of Donner's footage, substantially
changing Superman II's story and tone in the process.
The way the Salkinds treated Donner didn't sit well with the cast.
Reportedly, Christopher Reeve was openly furious about Donner's dismissal.
According to the book Superman vs. Hollywood, Gene Hackman, who played Lex Luthor in both
films, flat-out refused to show up to finish shooting Superman II.
With Hackman absent, Lester and the Salkinds were forced to use body doubles and voice
impersonators just to finish the movie.
Josh Pence
In 2010, Armie Hammer made headlines—and picked up a couple of awards—for his portrayal
of identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in The Social Network, but he couldn't have
done it alone.
On the set, Tyler was actually played by Gangster Squad star Josh Pence.
Later, Pence's face was digitally replaced with Hammer's by the special effects team.
In order to prepare for the dual roles, Hammer and Pence attended a "twin boot camp," where
together they worked out each twin's particular quirks and mannerisms, and while Pence's career
hasn't taken off like Hammer's, he's become more positive about his Social Network experience
over time.
Josh Dallas
For such a small role, Marvel Studios sure had a lot of trouble casting Fandral the Dashing,
the Asgardian warrior.
First, Chuck star Zachary Levi was set to play the goateed Asgardian, but had to drop
out when NBC ordered more episodes of Chuck's third season.
Next, Marvel cast Queen of the Damned star Stuart Townsend in the role, but Townsend
departed shortly before filming due to mysterious "creative differences."
Marvel eventually found its Fandral in a then-unknown actor named Josh Dallas, who finally brought
the classic character to the screen.
But the trouble didn't stop there.
Between Thor's premiere and the start of filming on Thor: The Dark World, Dallas landed the
role of Prince Charming on ABC's fairytale drama Once Upon a Time.
Because of Once Upon a Time's rigorous shooting schedule, Dallas couldn't join his fellow
Warriors for their big screen return, and Marvel needed to recast the part.
Their choice?
Zachary Levi, of course, who was finally free to take the role.
"Perhaps next time we should start with the big one."
Penelope Cruz
Mónica Cruz has been an accomplished dancer and actress for years, and while she's had
featured roles in several foreign movies, she's probably most famous in America for
her part in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides—in which she played her sister, Penélope.
Penélope took over from Keira Knightley in Rob Marshall's 2010 sequel and played the
part of Angelica, Jack Sparrow's love interest.
While filming, though, Penélope learned that she was pregnant.
In order to minimize the risk to Penélope's unborn baby, Marshall hired Mónica, who looks
a lot like her older sister, to serve as a stand-in.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Penélope said:
"I did a couple of months of training and did what I was able to do, but I couldn't
do everything, just what was safe.
Monica came at the end to do some scenes.
She's a dancer and very good with a sword because she's done a film herself."
Neither Penélope nor Mónica returned in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No
Tales, but the Cruz family is still a big part of the franchise: Javier Bardem, Penélope's
husband, plays the film's lead villain.
Lena Headey
As Cersei Lannister, Lena Headey plays the ultimate villain on HBO's Game of Thrones.
So viewers watched with a bit of sadistic glee when the character was literally and
figuratively dressed down… and then paraded through the streets of King's Landing in nothing
but smears of filth.
The scene is intense and humiliating, and drawn out so the audience can experience her
awkward humiliation.
The craziest part, however, is that we're not even watching Headey in the scene.
The entire walk is performed by a body double seamlessly merged with Headey's facial expressions
and body language to make one awkward, horrible walk to the Red Keep.
Brandon Lee
The son of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, the charming and talented Brandon Lee
was set to take Hollywood by storm.
Sadly, while filming his breakout role in The Crow, Lee was shot by a prop gun that
had a dummy round left in the chamber.
He died later at the hospital.
To complete the film, Lee's friend and stunt double Chad Stahelski stood in for him while
special effects were used to give him Lee's face.
Meanwhile, another stunt double helped finish out some of the action scenes.
The result is a movie in which Lee's role is perfect, and there's no indication of the
tragedy that befell him.
Jennifer Aniston
Friends was a massive success and Jennifer Aniston is arguably the biggest star it produced.
Which makes it all the more unusual that it took years after the show was off the air
for someone to finally notice an episode where Aniston inexplicably disappears.
A fan watching a Friends marathon happened to notice a strange scene in “The One with
the Mugging,” from the ninth season.
Aniston is standing next to Matt Leblanc, except it's not Aniston at all.
Seems that Aniston's stand-in was on set that day and, for whatever reason, her scene wasn't
edited to remove her from the shot.
The presence of a stand-in isn't such a crazy thing.
After all, stand-ins are on set to replace actors when they're not available.
It's just that they usually don't end up in the final cut.
Shemp Howard
The Three Stooges were under contract to produce eight films in 1956.
Unfortunately, four films into their contract, Shemp Howard died of a heart attack at age
60.
And in the 1950s, no one gave a damn if you died or not.
Your contract needed to be fulfilled, and thus was born the "Fake Shemp."
Producer Jules White set about producing four brand new films, each starring Shemp, by cutting
together old footage with new scenes featuring Joe Palma, an actor who had long filled supporting
roles in the Stooges' films.
They just filmed him from behind or with his face obscured.
"Hey Shemp, we're in here!
We got a lot of work to do, so shake a leg!
"Hold your horses, will ya?"
The deception was so obvious that its legacy still lives on today...
The Cast of Evil Dead
The term "Fake Shemp" was actually coined by director Sam Raimi because he needed to
use quite a few of them during production of Evil Dead.
As star Bruce Campbell recounted in his memoir If Chins Could Kill, because the film was
so ultra low-budget, Raimi and the actors couldn't always work on the same schedule.
Raimi needed to film what he could, when he could, and with whom he could.
This meant no fewer than 18 stand-ins were used during production.
That's pretty incredible, as the end result shows no sign that so many extra people were
involved.
Even though the film is still notoriously ridiculous.
"Shut up!"
"hahaha."
Harrison Ford
On the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Harrison Ford suffered a pretty severe
back injury that sidelined him for several weeks of filming.
Steven Spielberg, however, was prepared for any eventuality.
Ford was swapped with his longtime stunt double, Vic Armstrong.
Armstrong acted so much like Ford that he managed to confuse Spielberg on-set more than
once.
A number of action scenes were filmed without Ford, including the epic fight between Indy
and the massive warrior on the mine conveyor belt.
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Actor Replacements That Fooled Us All

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