Former IT Manager from Stamford becomes Oscar-nominated actor's body double
He joined a film extras agency in 2019, after a 37-year career in the civil service
A man from Stamford who left his IT Manager job and joined a film extras agency said he 'couldn't believe it' when he was asked to be the body double for a Hollywood star.
60-year-old Dale Farrow worked in the civil service for nearly 40 years, before he was offered voluntary redundancy in 2019. A few years later he'd been offered a job he could only dream of.
Not a bad first gig
Semi-retired and looking for something to do alongside playing in his punk band The Puncturists, Dale signed up for a film extras agency - hoping he might one day get as far as playing a background role in an episode of Emmerdale.
Once film productions resumed following COVID lockdowns, he was asked if he'd play just a small role - stepping in as a body double for two-time Oscar-nominated actor Jude Law in his upcoming Henry XIII biopic 'Firebrand'.
Dale, who was later also asked to step-in for the sex scenes, tells us he was shocked to find out who the leading actor would be:
'I got a phone call to say "would you be prepared to be involved in naked scenes but you wouldn't really be naked?" I told my wife and she just laughed. So I said "yeah, why not?", and then they said I'd get paid a lot more for doing that - so I said I'd definitely do it.
I'm quite a big chap, so I was thinking who a leading actor would be that's on the larger side. They announced that it would be Jude Law. I couldn't believe it, I thought "I don't look anything like Jude Law", but they said it's to do with the height and silhouette and the outline.'
'Jude Law took the time to talk to me'
Dale added that the star of the movie had quite a few interactions with him: 'He'd obviously gone to the trouble of finding out who I was. He came in and said "oh, hello Dale, pleased to meet you - I'm Jude", as if I wouldn't know who he was.
He sat down and had a chat for 20 minutes asking me how I was getting on and if I'd done this thing before, to which I said "no I haven't".
We bumped into each other a few times on set, and he was very pleasant and thoughtful.
There was no need to do any of that but he did, and he made the effort to have a chat with me, so that was quite exciting.
'It would be great to do something similar but I doubt I'll get anything like this again. Paddington 3 is being filmed at the moment so that would be good.'