From the fierce ballet prodigies of Pretty Lethal to the tap-dancing Ronnie Reed in The Bride!, the past year has seen an explosion of dance on the big screen. Behind some of these film’s more technical sequences are dance doubles—professional dancers who step in for the actors and execute the choreography. But what does the process of being a dance double actually entail? And how do performers book these roles?
From Concert Dance to Getting Cast
Dancers are unlikely to encounter an audition notice calling for a double. Instead, such roles often emerge during a film’s development process, and are often offered to performers already involved in workshops or early rehearsals. Maidie Widmer, a London-based ballet dancer, joined the ballerina action thriller Pretty Lethal in this early phase, working closely with choreographer Will Tuckett to develop the film’s dance scenes. Toward the end of that process, director Vicky Jewson came to a rehearsal and noticed that Widmer physically resembled Iris Apatow, who had been cast as Zoe. Widmer was subsequently brought on as Apatow’s dance double. “I already knew the choreography, so I jumped at that opportunity,” says Widmer. “A couple weeks later, we were in Budapest and we filmed there for about six weeks.”
Professional connections also proved key in the casting of Luke Hickey as a dance double in The Bride!. Hickey, a tap dancer, was introduced to director Maggie Gyllenhaal at a Dorrance Dance rehearsal in New York City after artistic director Michelle Dorrance, a choreographer for the film, suggested him for the project. Shortly after, “I got a call asking me to audition for this character, Ronnie Reed,” Hickey says. While Jake Gyllenhaal was cast as Ronnie, Hickey was brought on as his dance double and worked with Dorrance for six weeks before shooting the dance scenes in Brooklyn. The filming involved long days on set in which Hickey would dance on camera. A variety of clever angles, close-ups, and postproduction technology were used to blend Jake’s face with Hickey’s body.
Stunt Teams and Actors as Co-Workers
While long filming days are par for the course for dance doubles, the performers working on Pretty Lethal had to adapt to another element of the film: collaborating with the stunt coordinator and stunt doubles on the film’s many fight sequences. “We had to really lean into those stunts, because your center of gravity is in a very different place,” Widmer says. “You have to have trust in your body and your partner or, if you’re on a wire, the person that’s controlling it. It’s so physical and it took a bit to get into it, but once we did, it was one of the things I enjoyed the most.”
Another vital component of being a dance double is cultivating a strong relationship with the actors. While doubling Millicent Simmonds in the role of Chloe in Pretty Lethal, UK-based ballet dancer Aimée Casey learned some ASL in order to communicate with her acting counterpart. “Honestly, just as a human, not even in terms of work, that was a very cool experience,” Casey says. “It meant that we got quite close because she was often the person teaching me a bit of sign language.”
A Collaborative Approach
The question of credit inevitably arises in discussions of dance doubling, but Widmer, Casey, and Hickey say that their experiences with actors were positive, reciprocal collaborations, grounded in the understanding that they were working towards a shared goal. “I was lucky that Jake was giving me lots of screen tips throughout the process,” Hickey says. “[As a double] it’s about finding a great relationship with the person so that it never feels competitive. It only feels that we’re both after the same thing—trying to make this character as dynamic as possible.”
Similarly, the Pretty Lethal dance doubles developed close working relationships with the film’s acting cast. “We were all working towards the common goal of making these characters special,” says Widmer. “Everyone was open to listening and collaborating, and never once did it feel like there was a power imbalance.” The openness of the actors in Pretty Lethal facilitated a “really creative environment,” says Casey. “They were very grateful for the support, because a double’s role is also to make things easier for the actor on set in general.”
Making Yourself Marketable
For aspiring doubles, Hickey emphasizes the importance of broadening skill sets. “Dancers should train as actors and as singers, too,” he says. “The training never stops. Give the director or the casting agent no excuse not to put you in that position. And with that training comes confidence and a well-roundedness that will bring more of us into those spaces.”
Casey advises dancers to strike what she calls an “impossible balance” of being open to new experiences and also clear about your skill set, an approach she believes helped her secure her part in Pretty Lethal. “[Casting directors] will ask questions like ‘Do you have experience in film?’ And I said, ‘Yes, in short film,’ rather than ‘No.’ It might not be the ideal experience, but you can still draw on those skills and advocate for yourself. It’s about being comfortable with saying yes to things you haven’t done before. That mindset is quite employable.”