Doubling heights: The unsung heroes of 2026's hottest film

Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights might have divided audiences and critics, but it definitely got them talking.

Whether it was reviews, opinion columns or social media feeds, everyone seemed to have a red-hot take to contribute to the discourse around the literary adaptation.

And one shot, of main character Heathcliff rippling, heavily scarred back, bathed in candlelight during one intimate scene, definitely set tongues wagging and fingers tapping.

It became a point of fixation for audiences who'd taken to hyper-analysing actor Jacob Elordi's portrayal of the tortured anti-hero opposite Margot Robbie as his lover Cathy.

But there's a chance that it wasn't actually the Australian actor viewers saw on-screen.

BBC Newsbeat's been speaking to body doubles - the unsung heroes who helped to bring director Fennell's interpretation of Emily Brontë's classic novel to life - to find out how it was done.

In a competition for the most unusual job interview question, Bo Ponomari takes some beating.

"Do you have a hairy back?"

That's what the Ukranian actor and body double, who also worked with Pedro Pascal in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, was asked before securing his role in Wuthering Heights as Elordi's stand-in.

Even though he's nine inches shorter than the famously tall star, producers considered Ponomari's physique similar enough to cast him as a double.

He tells Newsbeat he spent about an hour in make-up having prosthetic scars applied to his back, and recalls director Fennell carefully checking to ensure they matched Elordi's.

On-set, Ponomari says, his job involved helping crews to test camera angles, lighting and provide alternative shots when Elordi was busy filming other scenes.

But he confesses he has no idea whether the back viewers saw on-screen in the final cut belonged to him.

Ponomari says the final product can be a "mixture of everything", with some scenes featuring the main actor, while others are a stunt performer or body double.

Ponomari says big film productions are divided into a first unit and a second unit.

"First unit is when you have the actor doing very important scenes like dialogue scenes, close-up scenes of his face, emotional stuff.

"And then you have second unit that does stunts or anything that does not necessarily need to involve an actor.

"That's when the body doubles, hand doubles, back doubles come in handy."

The process helps film crews stay on schedule and be cost-effective, but doubles can also be used when actors can't - or don't - wish to do a scene.

"You have some actors that [for] religious reasons, or they have personal reasons, they just don't want to do this, and that's absolutely fine," Ponomari says.

"You have a division of people, actors, doubles that are willing to do that."

But, believe it or not, Ponomari's stand-in role might not have been the most surprising on the Wuthering Heights set.

Lucy London is 25 years old, but acted as a double for a 14-year-old during filming.

Because of strict rules around the length of time child actors are able to work, and the fact she is 5ft (1.5m) tall, London tells Newsbeat she is often asked to stand in for them.

In Wuthering Heights she took on the role of young Cathy, played by teenager Charlotte Mellington.

And London says stepping into a child's shoes can be liberating.

"As adults, we overthink: 'How am I coming across? How's everyone perceiving me?'," she says.

"But children don't really do that... It's a lot of fun.

She says being an adult can be boring, so getting to be a child for a day - and on a movie set - isn't a bad line of work.

"I mean, it's a win-win situation really," she says.

It's no secret that stunt performers often take on the more dangerous moments where a lead actor could get hurt.

But, as Nikita Mitchell explains, that isn't limited to big, on-camera set pieces.

The British stunt performer acted as a stand-in for Margot Robbie on the set of Wuthering Heights after the two worked together on 2023's Barbie.

Mitchell says doubles can sometimes spend weeks or months training with stars before shooting so they can mimic their movement perfectly on camera, and she tells Newsbeat the Australian actress is "quite brave" about doing her own stunts.

"Her brother is a stunt performer back in Oz and she did say to me once if she hadn't been an actress, she might have gone into stunts," she says.

But Mitchell did step in during some of Wuthering Heights' dicier scenes to make sure the star was safe.

She says this included one where Robbie's character Cathy is on the edge of a cliff and another where she gets thrown into a tree by Heathcliff.

Mitchell was on hand to test the harness and wires beforehand, and to help ensure Robbie's safety when it was her turn.

But she also stepped in to literally take the fall for Robbie during a scene where Cathy tumbles from a wall when she's spotted scoping out the grounds of a mansion owned by her future husband, Edgar Linton.

Mitchell says the "eight to 10ft" (2.4m to 3m) fall didn't worry her, as she's tackled 150ft (46m) cliff drops - on wires - in the past.

Like Ponomari, she says it can be "disappointing" when audiences never see a scene you've worked on, but agrees it's "just part of the game".

But, whether they make the cut or not, stunt actors and body doubles - who are compensated by the day - do still get paid for their time.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.