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
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