Body doubles are a fairly common thing in Hollywood. They are often needed when stunts are being performed, or when a nude scene is needed by an actress who isn’t interested in doing it. There are apparently more specialized body double situations, as well. What does the casting notice look like for a "stunt head?"
Jena Malone’s role in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 required her character Johanna Mason to have a bald head. Yet, when she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week, she was sporting a full head of hair. As it turns out, the baldness was achieved through various special effect means, as well as the use of a bald-headed woman as a body double.
There was a woman that also had a bald head that was brought in to kind of also film some of my sequences...I had a stunt head, which was incredible...I think she already had a shaved head, I’m hoping.
The stunt head wasn’t the only means of making Malone appear bald. She was also fitted with a bald cap that included tracking markers. This allowed her head to be digitally altered to appear shaven, even though all her hair was stuffed under the cap. This is likely the reason that she had to shave part of her head, in order to make the cap fit properly.
So now you can add stunt head to the list of random movie jobs alongside things like butt double. Do you get paid scale for being a stunt head? We, like Jena Malone, hope her stunt head was either already shaved bald, or at the very least was looking to make a significant style change already.
For her part, Malone appeared to have been willing to shave her head, as it was something she’s done before, but the filmmakers decided it against it. It sounds like the filming schedule would not allow it. It gets difficult if you shave your head for one scene, then have the need for hair in the next one. You have to wait for a very long time before you can film the next scene. Check out the interview segment below.
A character in the Hunger Games without hair sounds like the most terrible thing ever. The hairstyles in that series are one of the highlights. Although nobody can beat Elizabeth Banks in that department.
