7 Clever Ways Movies Hid Their Stunt Doubles

6. Penelope Cruz's Male Stunt Double Was Covered By A Helmet In Zoolander 2

Zoolander 2 Penelope Cruz helmet
Paramount Pictures

Have you ever been watching a vehicle chase and noticed that you can't see anybody's face? Everybody seems to drive with their windows wound up, every car seems to have blacked-out windows, and everyone who rides a bike always seems to wear a helmet.

While this can be an easy detail to overlook in the moment, the main reason these scenes are shot like this is because it's easier to hide the stunt doubles.

This method was put into practice in Zoolander 2, where Valentina Valencia (Penelope Cruz), the bike-riding love interest of Derek Zoolander, required some special treatment in order to be effectively portrayed on-screen. With motorcycle riding being such a difficult skill, Cruz was unable to complete many of her shots by herself, and so, the use of a stunt double was required.

What's funny about this whole thing is that Cruz's double was a long-haired, bearded man. On-set photos of the double sporting a skin-tight red leather outfit were snapped while the movie was in production, and the guy didn't look to chuffed with his character's decidedly feminine costume.

Needless to say, the helmet was an essential piece of kit here, but while you're actually watching these scenes, you don't really think twice about who's underneath the visor.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!