When it comes to making movies, there’s nothing that Hollywood can’t do. Thanks to green screens, CGI, and other high-tech tricks, anything can happen on the big screen, from death-defying explosions to flying dragons. But not all Hollywood sleight of hand involves special effects. Sometimes, all it takes is a body double to pull the wool over an audience’s eyes—especially when it comes to nude scenes involving high-profile actors. Here’s a list of popular stars who have used body doubles in their films—we bet some of them will surprise you!
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1. Isla Fisher
For her raunchy role in the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers, Isla Fisher tried to convince producers to nix the nude scenes altogether.
“My argument was, if you see a character’s breast, she’s no longer funny. You see her as someone sexual rather than as someone funny,” she explained in a 2009 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I lost that argument with the producers. In fact, they wanted her to be naked, I think, through five scenes.”
In the end, Fisher had a body double for the majority of her racy scenes with co-star Vince Vaughn, including shots with quick glimpses of her boobs and butt. She also had a hand double for the raunchy scene in which her character gets grabby with Vaughn’s crotch under the dinner table.
2. Mila Kunis
Mila Kunis agreed to show off some of her own skin in the 2011 rom-com Friends With Benefits—but not all of it.
“I showed side-boob, and I figured I can’t just give away everything all at once,” she said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I gotta let it all out in little pieces here and there.” So Kunis used a body double for a butt scene in the movie. Finding the right rear end was an interesting process—the Black Swan actress said she looked at dozens of derrières in an effort to find one that most closely resembled her own. Of course, the movie’s casting director also had a say in which tush was chosen, as did Kunis’ makeup artist.
3. Penelope Cruz
When Penelope Cruz’s pregnancy started to show during the filming of the 2011 film Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, producers decided a body double was needed for some of the full-body scenes. According to Cosmopolitan, Cruz’s sister Monica—who is a well-known model and actress in Spain—agreed to stand in for the star.
4. Vera Farmiga
Actress Vera Farmiga says was 100 percent willing to bare it all during the making of the 2011 movie Up in the Air—despite the fact that she had given birth just weeks before shooting began.
But according to a 2009 article in the Times Union, director Jason Reitman suggested Farmiga use a body double. “I’ve done nudity quite a bit,” Farmiga explained to Times Union. “But Jason was prudish about me being pregnant.” Farmiga went on to explain that she thought she looked great after giving birth and even convinced Reitman to let her film a take of the nude scene. But, much to her dismay, the version that made the final cut of the film is the one that featured her body double.
5. Natalie Portman
According to IMDB, Natalie Portman used a body double for a scene in the 2011 stoner comedy Your Highness, which required her to jump naked into an icy lake. Caroline Davis, who actually took the plunge, was a young Irish student who said she was paid about $500 to perform the stunt. “I’m a film studies student so I jumped at the chance to be on set,” said Davis. Was the pun intended?
6. Freida Pinto
Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto didn’t have a choice when it came to her nude scene with Henry Cavill in the 2011 fantasy-action film, Immortals. In an interview with The Orange County Register, she revealed: “I wasn’t even asked to do the scene. The director said there would be a body double and that was it. He pretty much knew what he wanted, and he felt like he didn’t need me for the scene.”
7. Keira Knightley
In a 2012 appearance on the Jonathan Ross Show (as reported by The Daily Mail), Keira Knightley explained her reasoning behind requesting a body double for a sexy scene in the movie Domino.
“I have this policy in films where I say, ‘You can have the top half but you can’t have the bottom half,’ and it kind of works quite well,” she said. When Knightley saw there was a scene in Domino involving a racy strip tease performed in a barely-there thong, she decided to put in a request for a butt double. Fortunately, the director was happy to oblige, and just like Mila Kunis, Knightley was heavily involved in the “butt-casting” process.
In the end, the Love, Actually star said they picked a double with a “lovely bottom.”
8. Anna Kendrick
Pitch Perfect star Anna Kendrick also had a funny experience choosing a body double for her 2016 flick Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. In an interview with E! (as reported by People), she explained: “When you choose a butt double they’re like, ‘Is there anything you want?’…Then they showed me three pictures and were like, ‘This is the only one that could be you. This is the only one that isn’t seven feet tall.'”
9. Liam Neeson
Legendary actor Liam Neeson admitted he refused to expose his backside in the 2014 Western A Million Ways to Die in the West. The scene involved Neeson’s character falling to the ground with his pants down, prompting a character (played by Charlize Theron) to place a flower in between his butt cheeks.
In an interview with Andy Cohen on the talk show Watch What Happens Live (as reported by People), Neeson said he requested that his longtime stunt double Mark Vanelow do the scene for him. “I said to Mark: ‘Mark, this is a sign of our friendship–would you ever do this scene where Charlize Theron puts a daisy in your butt?’ Luckily for Neeson, Vanelow said yes.
10. Lena Headey
Game of Thrones fans know that one of the most intense scenes of the entire series occurred when Cersei Lannister was forced to walk naked in front of hundreds of people as punishment for her incestuous relationship with her cousin, Lancel.
The actress who stood in as a body double for Lena Headey was Rebecca Van Cleave, who told Entertainment Weekly that it was an intense but rewarding job. “It was one of the scariest, most wonderful, most gratifying experiences I could have imagined…I never in a million years would have thought I would be in Dubrovnik surrounded by hundreds of extras and crew members throwing food at me, but it was amazing.”
11. Mandy Moore
This Is Us star Mandy Moore opted for a body double for her role in the 2004 romantic comedy Chasing Liberty. “I’m a pretty modest girl, and [the scene] called for my character to strip down and jump into the river and splash around,” Moore said in 2004, as reported by People. “She was a little tipsy [in the scene], and I decided that was a part of the script I would call in a body double for, and she did a great job.”
12. Owen Wilson
When it came to using a body double for his nude scene in the 2006 comedy You, Me and Dupree, actor Owen Wilson said he didn’t have a say in the matter. “The director made that decision not to use my butt, I don’t know how to interpret that,” he joked in an interview with People.
13. Luke Wilson
According to Slate, Owen’s brother Luke Wilson also used a body double for one of his butt-bearing scenes in the 2006 movie My Super Ex-Girlfriend. However, in Luke’s case, it was entirely his decision to opt for a stand in. “Physically it was kind of a tough year,” the actor admitted. “I thought it might be a good time to sit on the bench for that scene and let some other kind of more athletic guy take over there.”
14. Willem Dafoe
One of the first things actor Willem Dafoe learned about his lead role in the 2009 psychological horror film Antichrist was that he would have a porn star doubling for him in a couple of racy scenes. In an interview with AV Club, Defoe explained: “[Director Lars von Trier] described very, very little [about the project]. We had a script…He showed me a few visual things, like where we were going to be shooting. But that was about it. He also told me that for two brief little shots, he wanted to use a porn double. He didn’t want me to do it. That was about it.”
15. Jennifer Aniston
Back in 2012, the DailyMail caught a glimpse of Jennifer Aniston’s body double during the making of the movie We Are the Millers. Aniston, who was 43 at the time, was more than happy to show off her own fit physique in a lace bra and panties. However, she did enlist the help of a body double when the scene got action-heavy and required her to flee from a burning building while still scantily clad.
16. Kevin Costner
According to The New York Times, Kevin Costner used a body double in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Reportedly, Costner was too shy to bare all in a scene which involved his character skinny-dipping underneath a waterfall while Maid Marian (played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) looked on.