I keep hearing media types misusing the term “body double” to mean lookalike or double, as in “person who resembles another person in an attempt to fool onlookers into thinking they are that person”. That’s not what a body double is.
Today someone on MSNBC mentioned Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis as someone who has had to employ a body double because of threats to her safety. She may unfortunately feel under attack, but her doppelgänger is not a body double.
“Body double” is a term of art from the movie business that refers to someone who appears in below-the-neck shots in place of an actor who won’t do nude scenes, or perhaps has the wrong body type for the character. The term became well known from Brian DePalma’s 1984 film of that title, featuring a woman employed in that profession.
Now I hear it being used incorrectly all the time. Time to stamp this out! When you hear it being thrown around incorrectly, please point it out and suggest that lookalike, ringer, stand-in or just plain double are the right words for what you mean.
Isn’t this body double also someone “who resmbles another person in an attempt to fool onlookers into thinking they are that person?” When Tia Carrere stripped down and got into the hot tup the body double they used certainly fooled me into thinking it was her at the time.
The Tia Carrere case is a correct use of the term, yes. You saw her get into a tub, you saw a body (not hers) in a cutaway shot, and it cleverly fooled you into thinking it might be her but presumably it wasn’t. A common substitute used in movies all the time.
Fani Willis is not using a “body double”, she has someone who looks like her bravely appearing in public to draw the attention of those who might do her harm. We’ll leave the moral question of whether putting someone else at risk is ethical aside for now - presumably that person knows what she’s doing and has agreed to it. But she’s more a “face double”, but that’s not a term anyone uses.
So what would be the proper term for someone who is meant to resemble an actor - for instance, the stunt people who do dangerous things while having a body outline that resembles Brad Pitt or something, if not “double”?
That’s your problem in a nutshell. When there are no good phrases available people are more likely to appropriate a similar term rather than create wholly new ones.
“Body double” was apparently added to the lexicon around 1981. I’m curious how long it lasted as referring solely to someone who is used specifically for nude scenes, before being expanded to mean, “any sort of a stand-in, regardless of why they’re used.”
“Destiny guides our fortunes more favorably than we could have expected. Look there, Sancho Panza, my friend, and see those thirty or so wild giants, with whom I intend to do battle and kill each and all of them, so with their stolen booty we can begin to enrich ourselves. This is nobel, righteous warfare, for it is wonderfully useful to God to have such an evil race wiped from the face of the earth."
“What giants?” asked Sancho Panza.
“The ones you can see over there,” answered his master, “with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long.”
“Now look, your grace,” said Sancho, “what you see over there aren’t giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone.”
“Obviously,” replied Don Quijote, "you don’t know much about adventures.”
It seems the dictionary defintion agrees with the OP:
someone who appears instead of an actor in some scenes, or instead of a famous person in public, usually where their body is seen but their face is not seen clearly: - SOURCE
That said, what would you call a person meant to stand in for anyone other than an actor because they look like them?
But stand-in is also a term of art in the film industry. They’re essentially body doubles that don’t appear on screen, but are used in rehearsal to setup shots, poses, lighting, makeup, etc.
Also, a minor quibble, body doubles don’t necessarily have to be shot from the neck down. They could be far in the background and out of focus, or they may just be shot from behind, such as when the main actor is playing multiple characters in the same scene.