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Did you really see the actor you were expecting to in these movies?
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00:00Either through the use of some crafty makeup and prosthetics, or long-forgotten recycled footage from the past,
00:07these movies tried their very best to pull the wool over our eyes and have us believe
00:11that certain actors were present on set during the shooting of said films.
00:16I'm Ellie for WhatCulture, here with 10 movies that tried to fool you into believing an actor was in it.
00:21Number 10. Gene Hackman, Superman 2
00:24After the unquestionable success of Richard Donner's first Superman flick back in 1978,
00:30it was safe to assume that the director would be given the freedom to take the series in whatever direction
00:35he pleased.
00:36However, around three quarters of the way through shooting Superman 2,
00:39Donner eventually decided that enough was enough after butting heads with the producers over the sequel's overall budget.
00:46He was then replaced by Richard Lester, but this didn't exactly go down well with the rest of the cast.
00:52In particular, Gene Hackman was less than impressed by the treatment of Donner.
00:56So, when the time came to reshoot certain parts of the movie, the Lex Luthor actor outright refused to play
01:02ball.
01:03This forced Lester to think on his feet to ensure one of the series' key players still played a significant
01:08part in the movie.
01:09In the end, body doubles and voice impersonators were used to trick audiences into thinking that they were actually watching
01:15Hackman on screen
01:16at various points in the flick, when in reality, the actor was likely just chilling on a beach somewhere.
01:209. Bruce Lee – Game of Death
01:23Though many people are likely clued up on the fact that Bruce Lee infamously passed away
01:27just before the legendary Enter the Dragon landed on our screens in 1973,
01:32it often gets overlooked that the star was actually midway through shooting another project at the time.
01:37The iconic star had already produced 40 minutes' worth of footage for Game of Death
01:41before the project was immediately put on ice whilst he got to work on Enter the Dragon.
01:45Then, five years on from his passing, director Robert Klaus decided that he wanted to complete the film
01:51that Lee himself had been directing up until that point.
01:54Needing to work around the fact that his leading man was no longer with us,
01:57Klaus utilised footage from some of Lee's older work,
02:00and also combined shots from the actor's genuine funeral in order to guide the project in the direction he was
02:05now taking it.
02:06Stand-ins were also convincingly used to play Lee's character of Billy Lowe at certain points too.
02:11However, on one awkward occasion in the flick, it is painfully obvious that a Bruce Lee cardboard cutout
02:17is being used in the reflection of a mirror.
02:19But at least they tried, eh?
02:21Number 8. Roy Scheider – Iron Cross
02:23Similarly to Bruce Lee, Roy Scheider tragically passed away before he could finish up work
02:28on his last ever screen credit in 2009's little-known thriller Iron Cross.
02:32So, the decision was made to use technical wizardry to complete the one final scene that remained for him to
02:37shoot on the flick.
02:38This was still a few years before the likes of Paul Walker and Peter Cushing were digitally brought back to
02:43life
02:43in the likes of the Fast and Furious and Star Wars franchises, however.
02:47So, more than a few people were sceptical over just how successful the end results of a CGI realising of
02:52the iconic star of Jaws would turn out.
02:55In the end, the technical team behind the flick massively succeeded in convincing those watching that it was in fact
03:00Scheider on screen,
03:02through the combination of the aforementioned CGI and a prosthetic mask of the star's face.
03:06Number 7. Hugo Weaving – Avengers Infinity War
03:09For the longest time, it seemed as though all hope of Hugo Weaving returning to the MCU as the formidable
03:15Red Skull had been lost.
03:17This was largely down to the fact that Weaving himself wasn't overly keen on reprising the role.
03:22So, you can understand why fans around the world all immediately lost their minds when the iconic Captain America villain
03:28unexpectedly showed up in the epic ensemble feature that was Avengers Infinity War as the guardian of the Soul Stone.
03:36In fact, they were so taken back by the character's re-emergence that they may completely have missed the fact
03:40that Red Skull was actually being played by another actor altogether.
03:43Marvel Studios had in fact drafted in The Walking Dead's Ross Marquard and made him look almost identical to Weaving's
03:49Red Skull for both Infinity War and Endgame.
03:51With the character's appearance in the flicks being largely a secret beforehand, most people simply assumed that Weaving had been
03:57having us on this entire time and returned just in time for the gigantic event.
04:02Number 6. Oliver Reed – Gladiator
04:05British movie star Oliver Reed died in 1999, midway through shooting for Ridley Scott's Gladiator.
04:11Back then, throwing together a CGI version of Reed and finishing off the rest of his scenes via digital restoration
04:16wasn't as common a backup plan as it is today.
04:19But that still didn't stop the visual effects team working their arses off to lace a digital version of Reed's
04:24face on top of the doubles for various wide shots.
04:26When that simply wasn't an option, outtakes and even the same pieces of footage used earlier in the movie were
04:32substituted in to full audiences in thinking Reed was actually present on set.
04:37Though the film's visual effects supervisor Rob Harvey wasn't completely convinced by the end result, his work helped get Reed
04:43posthumously nominated for a BAFTA a few years later.
04:46So you definitely have to class all of this as making the best of a terrible situation.
04:51Number 5. Shemp – The Three Stooges
04:53Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell famously coined a nickname for anyone who had to be made up to look like
04:58another performer – Fake Shemp.
05:00The origins for this specific moniker stem all the way back to the 1950s, when Three Stooges performer Shemp Howard
05:07unexpectedly died of a heart attack in the middle of the trio's contract with Columbia Pictures.
05:11So in order to fulfil the remaining four shorts on the deal with the studio, a ton of old footage
05:16from Shemp's previous work with the group was infused into the subsequent projects.
05:21Also, a body double was subbed in when Shemp was required to be on set for the sake of continuity
05:26in certain scenes.
05:28Eventually, when the act went on to sign a new deal with Columbia, Joe Besser was brought in as Shemp's
05:32replacement until the trio stopped performing together in 1957.
05:36Number 4. Bela Lugosi – Plan 9 from Outer Space
05:40We've noted a number of fake Shemps on this list that actually worked a treat when all was said and
05:44done.
05:45The work done to fill in the blanks when it came to Bela Lugosi's appearance in Plan 9 from Outer
05:49Space does not fall into that category.
05:52Not by a long shot.
05:54With iconic Dracula star Lugosi only working with Ed Wood on an entirely different project for a matter of days
06:00before suddenly passing away,
06:02the director drafted in a backup to stand in for the unforgettable presence when the decision was made to use
06:07said test footage in Plan 9.
06:10The only problem was that the body double was a chiropractor who was much taller than Lugosi and looked absolutely
06:15nothing like him.
06:16For the most part, Wood simply wanted to use Lugosi's name value as a way of enticing other stars into
06:21appearing in his film,
06:22and giving the feature in general more credibility, regardless of the fact that the previously shot snippets of footage were
06:28largely unconnected to the later project.
06:30Also, the eventual chiropractor stand-in looked so unlike Lugosi that Wood had him cover his face with a cape
06:35in every shot.
06:37Charming.
06:38Number 3. James Marsden – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
06:41Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood isn't exactly what you'd call a film lacking in the famous faces
06:48department.
06:49Stuffed full of the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, and Brad Pitt,
06:53this wander through late 60s tinsel town is every bit as glamorous as it is unexpected on occasion.
06:59However, one of the most unexpected parts of the feature came in the form of a previously announced member of
07:04the cast
07:04being completely omitted from the finished feature.
07:07Now, it's not uncommon for an actor's part to be left on the cutting room floor, just ask Tom Hiddleston
07:11when it came to Avengers Age of Ultron.
07:13Yet most people weren't expecting him to appear in that MCU flick.
07:17James Marsden's casting in Once Upon a Time had been confirmed long before the flick ever landed, though,
07:22which made his eventual lack of appearance a little baffling upon release.
07:26Ultimately, those who were under the impression they'd be treated to Marsden going full Burt Reynolds, as reported,
07:31in the flick were no doubt left feeling like a bunch of fools shortly after the credits began to roll.
07:36Number 2. Crispin Glover – Back to the Future Part 2
07:39Clearly feeling there was money to be made in reprising his role of George McFly in the follow-up to
07:44the massively successful box office smash that was Back to the Future,
07:49Crispin Glover was determined to shoot his shot when it came to demanding his fee to return.
07:54Unfortunately, the actor and the studio couldn't come to an agreement on the star's salary,
07:58with the film's producer and writer Bob Gale offering him $125,000 to return,
08:04and Glover feeling it would take him $1 million to sign on after claiming he wasn't a fan of the
08:09script.
08:09Despite Glover being out of the movie, that still didn't stop the folks behind the flick bringing George back to
08:15the party.
08:15Jeffrey Wiseman was soon brought in as Marty's new father.
08:19However, instead of just heading in a new direction with George,
08:21Wiseman had his face covered with prosthetics to make him look exactly like Glover in an attempt to fool the
08:27audience
08:27into thinking he was still part of the flick.
08:29Understandably annoyed at these antics, Glover sued the producers over stealing his likeness.
08:34He'd eventually win this lawsuit and reportedly took home a tasty $760,000 for his troubles.
08:411. Natalie Portman, Thor The Dark World, and Avengers Endgame
08:45In the years that followed Natalie Portman's significant appearance in the MCU during Thor The Dark World,
08:51various reports noted how the actor wasn't best pleased with the decision to get rid of Patty Jenkins as the
08:56director,
08:57for that film, and the eventual direction her character was nudged in.
09:01Her dissatisfaction with the finished product also seemed to be highlighted in the fact that she refused to return
09:05for some last-minute reshoots for the end credit scene involving Thor and Jane Foster sharing a smooch on a
09:11rooftop.
09:12So we were duped into thinking it was Portman locking lips with Chris Hemsworth,
09:15when in actual fact, it was the star's wife, Elsa Pataki.
09:19This isn't the only time we've been fooled into thinking Portman was involved in the shooting of a scene on
09:23set either,
09:24as the actor was also knitted into Avengers Endgame using some previously unused Dark World footage.
09:30Of course, Portman did eventually return to the MCU in Thor Love and Thunder,
09:34where Jane Foster played a much more heroic role than we'd previously seen.
09:38Although, has anyone checked? Are we sure it was definitely Natalie Portman?
09:41We'll see you next time.
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