I’ve often wondered what it would be like to know someone who was in the movies, and now I finally do. And I have to admit, it’s kind of cool.
We just watched An American Pickle, which stars Seth Rogen as a Jewish immigrant who gets preserved in a vat of pickles and wakes up 100 years later in modern-day New York City, attempting to fit in with the assistance of his last remaining descendant (also played by Rogen).
Director Brandon Trost concedes that filmmakers have been doubling people numerous times before, using a combination of split-screen photography, body doubles, CG-assisted-dots-on-the-face technology, and tons of invisible post-production trickery. All of this was used on An American Pickle, but with one specific caveat.
Normally, you’d shoot one side of the “person whose face you need to see,” and then immediately set up the other side with that actor playing the second person in that same location, in real-time. But in American Pickle, while every scene featuring both characters was shot twice, they were shot months apart, as Rogen didn’t want to wear a fake beard. As a result, everything featuring Herschel was filmed first. Rogen shaved his enormous beard off, and the movie went back to each location and had to re-shoot the scenes again, using the exact same lighting, camera position, and movements.
A key part of the success in making all this work was Ian Poake, who was Rogen’s body double for both characters throughout the film.
Ian grew up right across the street from where I still live. He is the same age as my youngest son, and the two would occasionally play together. Ian had the acting bug from an early age. I remember going to see him play the Cowardly Lion in a middle school production of The Wizard of Oz, where he stole the show. To no one’s surprise, Ian went on to study acting in college and has pursued acting as his career ever since. An American Pickle is his biggest role to date.
Poake never actually spoke dialogue as Rogen’s double, only emoting with his face to Rogen’s off-screen playback, and sometimes had to literally say what he was doing physically so Rogen could follow with his eyes. Here’s a behind the scenes look at some of this movie magic. (Ian is the guy on the left.)
Rogen says that Poake made his performance “much better.”
“It was in some ways very selfless,” Rogen said. “He was compensated, but in some ways, a very selfless thing for him to do was essentially act in an entire movie with the understanding he would be removed from it later.”
Like Rogen, Poake played both roles and was opposite Rogen “in almost every scene.” He’d frequently just “sit there and look at me,” the star explained and was totally “malleable” and adept when it came to blocking.
“I remember telling him, specifically, like ‘The better job you do, the less it will seem like you exist,” Rogen told Meyers. “Thriving for complete evaporation on your part — that’s the bulls-eye you’re really trying to hit,’ and he really did an amazing job.”
Perhaps as a reward for a job well done as Rogen’s double, Ian did get to have a small speaking role in the movie, playing opposite Rogen in a bar scene as Devon.
It was wonderful to read what Gregory Lawrence, a reporter for Collider, had to say about Ian: “It seems like a technically impressive, and ultimately thankless job — but I, for one, thank Mr. Poake, and can’t wait to see him in a role where his dang face is on screen.”
Here’s the trailer, and I should note that even if we didn’t have this connection to the movie, we found it to be quite an enjoyable film.
I wish Ian the best of luck; I’ll be sure to tell everyone I know that I knew you way back when…
And here is a little bonus of Ian from back in his high school days:
It’s always fun watching people you know in a movie. Very cool. We had a movie shot in our home a few years back. It’s always fun to go back and watch it and see the home, we raised our girls in.
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that is pretty cool. what was the movie?
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It makes us feel special to know a famous person. Ian is a great reminder that “ordinary” people can make their dreams come true.
As a side note, from the Radnor video it seems I may have been in your neck of the woods in 2011 for the AT&T National golf tournament that was played at Aronimink Golf Club. Starwood points got me in the pro-am. I had to buy a golf shirt because my luggage was delayed and the golf shop at Radnor Valley Country Club was the only place open. The whole area looks like a fabulous place to live.
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yes, you were right in my neck of the woods; I’ve heard Aronomink is a nice course. I’ve been to the country club for a couple of events. Who was the pro you played with?
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I played with Troy Merritt. He was a very young pro. Since then he has won twice on the PGA Tour. It was a real pleasure to play with him. The tournament was held at Aronimink because the regular site near D.C. was being prepared for the U.S. Open. Aronimink is a classic Donald Ross course. That’s a very good thing, and the clubhouse is amazing. The pro-am was the only way I’d ever get to play there. 😄
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that must have been fun being out on the course with a pro. Do they offer any golfing advice when you are with them?
And those rewards points have given you many opportunities!
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This is interesting, Jim. I’ve never really thought about how they do the double person shoots. A clever idea. It is nice to know an actor. I went to school with one of South Africa’s well known actors. He was a prat them and that hasn’t changed but it’s still fun to remember him as a boy.
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I guess some people never change…
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Omg that is so cool that you knew Ian from back in the day! Also this movie looks really good so I’m definitely going to be watching it!
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I hope you enjoy it if you get the chance to watch it. I think it is only on HBO Max right now…
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That’s very cool, Jim. My mom was an extra in a movie filmed in our area. We used to get the biggest laughs watching our old Chevy Impala cruising down the road in the film. Now, don’t forget your loyal followers when you become famous. I used to know that guy. He was into his WordPress stats!
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so your mom, and your car, are movie stars! What was the movie?
I might leave the occasional comment on other blogs once I become famous… 🙂
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It was called A Death in Caanan (1978) It was a pretty terrible movie. You may remember two of the stars of the film—Stefanie Powers (She was in the old TV series Hart to Hart with Robert Wagner.) and Brian Dennehy (He was in many films, but I’ll always remember his as the cop from the original Rambo movie.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Death_in_Canaan
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I remember both those actors. I may have to see if I can find A Death in Caanan on any of the streaming services…
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that’s so cool, jim! some kids you just know early on, are cut out to be performers. this looks like a fun film and it’s really interesting how this was done.now i will watch it with different eyes.
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yes, he just loved to perform…
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What a great opportunity for Ian. I am sure his hard work and devotion to his craft will pay off down the road with greater roles. The chance to work with Seth Rogen must have been as fun as work can get. I look forward to watching the movie! Great post!
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It seems like a great opportunity for Ian – he’s got his foot firmly in the door!
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I would agree that he is well on his way!
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That is cool. I didn’t know them personally, but I found out in recent years both the guy who played Alien and The Robot in Lost In Space (remake) and Dax Shepherd come from my area.
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that’s like two degrees of separation – not bad! 🙂
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How cool that you knew him before … What an interesting and involved way of making a movie.
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I’m sure it was a bit confusing at first for Seth and Ian, but they seemed to have pulled it off…
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Looks that way.
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I like the premise of the movie, as sort of a pickle version of Rip Van Winkle. That’s cool you know the nameless guy who played opposite Seth Rogen. I know what it’s like to be nameless, as this has happened to me in several stories posted by a certain blogger, who I will not name. But who knows, maybe with luck one day, both your friend and I will have our chance to become famous.
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LOL!
Just know who to remember when you become famous! But ummm…what exactly will you become famous for? 🙂
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I don’t know what I’ll become famous for, but I’d like it to be for something easy to do, such as the world’s best napper.
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I’ve thought about starting a contest for the world’s laziest man.But then that would require some effort…
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Great idea, though. Maybe if we wait around long enough, someone will start such a contest.
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I’m good at waiting for other people to do things…
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I’ll tell everybody that I knew Tippy when he becomes famous…
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I hope you and Ian both have your moment in the sun…
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Thanks, but if I do I’ll likely get sunburn.
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it’s a good source of vitamin d though…
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That’s true. At least I won’t get rickets.
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interesting to know how they shot the movie. We watched it a couple of weeks ago now I wish I knew all of this!
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wow – you are on top of the movie scene! Didn’t it just come out a couple of weeks ago?
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Yeah, it was on Netflix 🙂
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that’s good to know!
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Ahh! Wizard of Oz, A classic! How great that he got the chance to be in a movie. Hope its just the beginning of many opportunities for him.
Very cool that you know him. I don’t personally know any actors but I grew up with a boy who told me he would be President. LOL! He is a lawyer now. 🙂
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I hope to see Ian getting bigger and bigger roles. And I wanted to be President when I grew up as well… 🙂
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You’ll be a guest at the Oscars one day…
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the best thing about that possibility would be getting a blog post or two out of it 🙂
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And the after-show parties 😉
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and blog posts about those parties as well… 🙂
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Was he credited as being in the movie? I know a few famous sports people, some like Michael Schumacher who I met before they became well known.
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Ian did get a credit in the movie, since he did have a brief speaking part. How cool that you’ve met Michael Schumacher.
As an aside, I don’t know much about racing, but Lewis Hamilton seems to be on a different level than everyone else…
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It’s the car! I don’t like him at all.
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I think I remember you telling me that before, and I can’t recall if I mentioned Hamilton’s interview with David Letterman. I didn’t know anything about him (I didn’t even know he was a driver), but I thought he came across pretty well in the interview.
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