Did They Really Do That? 7 Times Actors Had To Fake (or Not) a Professional Skill!

Acting is hard. Transforming in front of a camera and living out an entire story is difficult enough, but what if the character also has a very special talent vital to the story? Many shows and movies involve specific skills that can take years to cultivate, but actors don’t usually have the time to learn all those skills from scratch (I said "usually"). Here’s a list of times actors had to learn, or fake, a skill to sell it on camera. (And it must have worked out, as almost all of these shows are up for several awards at this year's Emmys!)

Sports

What’s not to love about a good sports show? The unity of the team, the fun of the game, and the thrill of victory all make watching shows and movies about sports such a blast. But creating shows about sports usually involve the actors to, you know, play the sport. Two very popular sports shows of recent years have been the heart-warming "Ted Lasso" and the gut-busting "Shorsey", about the games of soccer and hockey, respectively.

In Apple TV+'s "Ted Lasso", part of the audition process actually included a try-out of sorts, where the actors had to show their soccer skills along with their acting abilities. For some, this came easy. Cristo Fernandez, the man behind the lovable Dani Rojas, and Kola Bokinni, who plays team captain Isaac McAdoo, both played semi-professional soccer before they began acting. This undoubtedly helped with filming and is a reason their scenes on the field look so natural. Other actors had to put in a little more work. Despite being the ace of the team, Phil Dunster, who played Jamie Tartt, had very little experience with soccer before the show and had to rely on the sports choreographers and the editors to make his soccer wizardry come to life on screen.

In a vein more similar to Fernandez and McAdoo, Jared Keeso, the creator and star of the Hulu comedy series “Shoresy”, grew up playing hockey and played in the Canadian junior league for several years before switching to writing and acting. This experience helped in creating a show revolving around an eclectic Canadian hockey team, but the real magic came from the professional hockey players that had roles in "Shoresy". In order to maintain authenticity, ex-NHL stars Jonathan Ismael-Diaby of the Nashville Predators, Terry Ryan of the Montreal Canadiens, and Jon Mirasty of the Columbus Blue Jackets came in as players to help ensure victory for the Sudbury Bulldogs.

Cooking

Ask anyone who has ever burned a pizza in the oven -- you know how hard even basic cooking can be. Now imagine you get cast to play one of the best chefs in the world. The Emmy-nominated cast of FX's “The Bear” had this happen to them and had to put in some serious work to “work” in The Beef. The two stars of the show, Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri, both attended culinary school in Los Angeles to learn as much as they could in two weeks about being a professional chef. This included knife work, presentation, movement around the kitchen, and much, MUCH more. After this intense training, both actors graduated to real life and worked on the line of real, high-end restaurants in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. While White and Edebiri’s crash course in cooking was enough to prepare them for the role, it wasn’t quite enough to actually prepare the incredible dishes required for the camera. These dishes were cooked by two professional chefs: Matty Matheson, a Canadian professional cook who also plays the role of Fak, the restaurant handyman; and Courtney Storer, who happens to be the sister of the show's creator, Christopher Storer. They not only helped with the cooking but gave valuable tips to the actors to ensure that they looked like the real deal. 

Law

Most of the groundbreaking hidden-camera prank show "Jury Duty" is guilty of being a lie. The bailiff, the defendant, and all but one juror were actors. However, this one lovable juror, Ronald Gladden, was blissfully unaware that his entire experience had been carefully calculated. While the production team set up some absolutely ridiculous circumstances for Gladden, they had to ensure that he didn’t realize it was all fake. In order to ensure authenticity, the roles of the two lawyers and the judge were filled by actors who had real-life experience in a courtroom. Both lawyers were played by actors who either had been or were currently practicing law, and the honorable Judge Barinholtz was played by Alan Barinholtz, who had been a practicing lawyer for over 40 years. He said he based his character on every single crochety, grumpy judge he worked with in his professional law career. The previous experience must have been a big help, because the show was a smashing success and is currently nominated for 4 Emmy Awards!