In pretty much any movie that requires the actors to do anything more than run down the street, chances are they’ll have a stunt double who’s trained to do the things that would put the actors at too much risk of injury. That stunt double always has to resemble the actor or actress as closely as possible, though, so as to totally fool the audience into thinking it’s the actor actually doing a flip through the air.
You can thank these daredevils for performing all of the most captivating stunts. Here are some of the most popular celebrities and their stunt doubles that you never knew were actually in the movie!
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sophia Crawford
Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer got to see Gellar for a whopping 144 episodes of the hit show, but it wasn’t her all the time. Her lookalike double ended up in a significant percentage of the show’s runtime. Multiplied times 144, that’s a heck of a lot of screen time for a stunt double!
Hugh Jackman and Richard Bradshaw
While these two aren’t exactly dead ringers, they definitely are close enough that you honestly can’t tell the difference when they’re flying through the air berserk-style, claws bared. The important thing is that they’re both muscular beyond belief!
Megan Fox and Carino Marcus
Hardly a fanboy remembers the first three Transformers movies and the more recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies without thinking of Megan Fox and her magnificent, um, physique. Well, she wasn’t the only one running around on set with such excellent features. Her double had to perform all of the stunts and still look good doing it!
Faye Marsay and Kasey Michaels
Though she’s certainly at the bottom of the “hot females in Game of Thrones” list, some fans likely still had the hots for Faye Marsay’s Waif. But there’s another woman out there who’s arguably more attractive than Marsay is!
Carrie Fisher and Tracey Eddon
To this day, Carrie Fisher’s scenes in Return of the Jedi remain fanboy favorites, but she wasn’t the only gorgeous body getting goldenly tan. Filming out in the desert can be absolutely tortuous, but I’m sure that the crew had no problem with it when these two lovely ladies were walking about!
Emilia Clarke and Rosie Mac
Emilia Clarke is known far and wide amongst Game of Thrones fans as being the most attractive actress in the entire series. Then you take a look at her absolutely stunning stunt double and….wow! Anybody out there who wants to marry Emilia but thinks she’s way out of your league? Here’s your chance to still marry Khaleesi!
Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Molinari
This one actually requires a double take. In the time it takes you to figure out which one is which, you could probably finish watching Now You See Me in its entirety! If I were Mark Ruffalo, I’d just hire this guy to attend all of my red carpet and press junket events and take it easy by the pool.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Olivia Jackson
Mad Max: Fury Road was a wild success, but it likely wasn’t just the crazy stunts and amazing special effects that caught the eye of fans. The five-woman entourage that accompanied the two lead stars were a welcome sight in a desolate world filled with horrific, inbred people. No doubt it was the Victoria’s Secret model Rosie who caught the most attention, but we’re pretty sure her stunt double is almost just as stunning!
Jaimie Alexander and Ky Furneaux
Even while she’s all tatted up, the beautiful Jaimie Alexander still looks great. Her Blindspot double looks so remarkably similar to her that you’d likely go cross-eyed trying to figure out who is who during the show’s action sequences.
Bryce Dallas Howard and Whitney Coleman
It isn’t easy running from dinosaurs in high heels. Just ask Bryce Dallas Howard’s stunt double Whitney! It’s very likely that she was in far more shots in Jurassic World than most fans suspected, but we simply had no clue because the facial appearances are almost identical.
Tom Hardy and Jacob Tomuri
Ladies, this one’s for you. Have you dreamed of marrying the rugged Tom Hardy but have found yourself dejected at the fact that he’s married? Well, your second chance has arrived. His Mad Max: Fury Road double could probably fool even Hardy’s own mother!
Tobey Maguire and Chad Cleven
Andrew Garfield wasn’t the only Spider-Man actor who needed a double. Many fans downright hated Spider-Man 3, while the crux of their issue was perhaps the “emo Peter” that Maguire simply couldn’t pull off without looking absurd. Even his double couldn’t prevent laughter from the audience, though his double does look almost eerily like him.
Zooey Deschanel and Monica Braunger
Zooey has been breaking hearts in the hit comedy series New Girl since 2011, but it seems strange that a show like that would need a stunt double. Either way, they couldn’t have found a girl who looks more like Zooey! Anybody else reminded of the twins from The Shining?
Robert Pattinson and Paul Darnell
Any fangirl would absolutely swoon if they saw their teenage Twilight crush, but two of them? They’d be dead on the spot! While Pattinson was the eye candy looking all pale and brooding for the camera, it was Paul who was doing all of the action choreography. Good thing he looks so much like him, otherwise every eagle-eyed fangirl would have spotted the difference immediately.
Lena Headey and Doreena Moore
Lena Headey may be known for her diabolical roles in films like Dredd and Game of Thrones (yes, technically a show), but Lena Headey can bring it in the action genre when she wants to. Her action-filled role in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is pretty incredible, but made so only by her very convincing lookalike double!
Margot Robbie and Ingrid Kleinig
Every fanboy who saw Suicide Squad got a little stiff in the pants when they saw Margot Robbie in some very small shorts, but that pair of legs didn’t only belong to her. That’s because her dedicated and almost as stunning stunt double Ingrid did most of the heavy lifting (literally).
Anne Hathaway and Jolene Van Vugt
These two ladies look so similar that many movie sites assumed the right image was Hathaway when they saw it before The Dark Knight Rises even released! Granted, they are both wearing masks, but even so, you can’t deny how spot-on they got this.
Karen Gillan and Joanna Bennett and Jahnel Curfman
Is this Lara Croft after a couple runs through a cloning machine? This is actually Karen Gillan and her two stunt doubles for the upcoming Jumanji reboot. If you’re wondering who is who, Gillan is in the middle. I think I speak on most guys’ behalf when I say that this movie would be a box-office-breaking hit if all three of these amazing women appeared together!
Adrianne Palicki and Alicia Vela-Bailey
Before Gal Gadot owned the role, Adrianne Palicki had a small bout as Wonder Woman in a pilot episode for a show that ultimately never saw the light. She still looked pretty fantastic doing it, though, as well as her stunt double who had it where it counts!
Chris Pratt and Tony McFarr
Alright, ladies, here’s another one for you. The handsome and charming Chris Pratt just recently became single, so this time you have two Pratts to choose from! His Jurassic World stunt double must be quite in shape for him to have run around an island for several weeks straight. Apart from Chris’s slightly longer face, these two are practically brothers.
Nicole Kidman and Alicia Vela-Bailey
Adam Sandler’s movies aren’t generally known for being, you know, good, and his 2011 film Just Go With It is simply one of his many flops. For all its shortcomings, however, it did produce this image of Nicole Kidman and even more attractive stunt double. Maybe if both of these women had appeared onscreen together this movie would have made some extra dough!
Melissa Benoist and Shauna Duggins
Melissa is without a doubt the cutest girl to ever don the blue and red suit, but we’re pretty sure her gorgeous Supergirl stunt double is right behind her. Chances are you’ve never been able to spot Shauna from Melissa in the show, because the two are almost interchangeable.
Scarlett Johansson and Amy Johnston
Ask any fanboy who their favorite female superhero is and the name Scar-Jo will likely be mentioned more than a few times. Well, it would appear that there’s another very attractive woman out there who looks strikingly similar to the Black Widow herself — same great body and everything!
Andrew Garfield and William Spencer
It’s no surprise that a Spider-Man actor would require a stunt double — after all, Garfield may be fit, but he isn’t exactly an acrobat. Finding a stunt double for a character who wears a mask is super easy, but what is surprising is how similar these two look when the masks are off!
Michael Douglas and Mike Runyard
The aged acting veteran was a welcome addition to Ant-Man, but he couldn’t be expected to perform all of his own stunts. As such, they brought in someone who could, but they probably could have just used him for the entire movie since he looks exactly like him! We wouldn’t blame you if you had to stare at this for more than a few moments.
Colin Firth and Rick English
They play proper English gentleman in Kingsman: The Secret Service, and their names both embody their ethnic class! Firth was without a doubt the favorite in the 2014 flick, but he wasn’t the only one performing such daring Bond-esque stunts. Fortunately, the production was able to utilize someone who looks so much like the Oscar-winning actor that there’s probably almost as much of him in the movie as Firth!
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Tanoai Reed
Pretty much the only way to tell these two apart is the fact that The Rock has slightly larger biceps and pecs! Tanoai is not only Johnson’s stunt double, but he’s also his cousin. That explains how they both have those same chiseled features and same wide grin!
Johnny Depp and Tony Angelotti
You might have assumed that someone as swashbuckling as Johnny would do all of his own sword fighting, but he leaves that for the pros. The pro in this scenario being his very own stunt double, Tony. He could walk down the street and easily be mistaken for the character he fills in for!
Lynda Carter and Jeannie Epper
There have probably been as many different iterations of Wonder Woman as there’ve been of Spider-Man, but Lynda Carter is fondly remembered as the original. Her double Jeannie was certainly a robust woman (a physical attribute greatly desired for Wonder Woman’s stunt double!), and they probably could have exchanged the two sporadically and no one would have known!
Mark Wahlberg and Dan Mast
After Megan Fox left the Transformers movies, many male fans were pretty disappointed. The female fans, on the other hand, were pretty ecstatic when Marky Mark became a part of the franchise, but he was hardly the only eye candy walking around on set. With features like that, it’s pretty surprising that Dan Mast hasn’t been cast in his own movie!
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Peter Kemp
It’s a bizarre phenomenon indeed when you can find someone with the same physique as the Governator! His Commando stunt double probably had triple the challenges than most have — he had to be as large as Arnold, be strong enough to do his stunts, and look just like him as well. The man should have received an Oscar just for that!
Chris Hemsworth and Bobby Holland Hanton
Well, ladies, it seems you have a third option! Women have been swooning for the dashing and rugged Aussie’s golden locks and beard (not to mention his impeccable abs) ever since he first donned the cape and branded the hammer. But it’s Hemsworth’s stunt double who does a lot of the heavy lifting. Fortunately for the film industry (and women everywhere), his double happens to look pretty damn close to him!