7 Actors Whose Height Is Not What We Expected
Did you know that Chris Hemsworth is an entire foot taller than Natalie Portman?
Hollywood may act like height is just a number, but the camera has a whole different agenda. In real life, plenty of these leading actors are shorter or taller than fans assume, and the difference becomes obvious the second you stop and do the math.
Take Gossip Girl, where Penn Badgley is 5-foot-8.5 while Blake Lively has a 5-inch-10-inch advantage, yet they still look perfectly matched thanks to camera tricks and careful footwear. Or True Detective, where producers managed to make Woody Harrelson (5-foot-9) and Matthew McConaughey (5-foot-11 3/4) appear like they’re basically the same height. Then there are the bigger production fixes, like raised platforms for Natalie Portman in Thor: Love and Thunder and forced perspective in Bombshell.
By the end of these seven casting and filming choices, you’ll never look at on-screen “tall” the same way again.
1. Penn Badgley In Gossip Girl
Despite the 5-inch-10-inch height advantage Blake Lively had over Penn Badgley's 5-foot-8.5-inch height, they became one of the most famous TV couples. Thanks to clever camera work, audiences were unaware that Lively was wearing heels while filming.
Getty Images2. Woody Harrelson In True Detective
Despite the fact that Matthew McConaughey is 5 feet 11 3/4 inches tall and Woody Harrelson is only 5 feet 9 inches, the producers of True Detective somehow managed to make them appear to be the same height.
Getty Images3. Jude Law In Genius
In the film Genius, Jude Law, who stands 5 feet 10 inches tall and is just under an inch shorter than his co-star Nicole Kidman, is made to look much taller than her. Despite the reality of the difference in their heights, Law was able to create the illusion of towering over the actress onscreen.
Getty Images
4. Leonardo DiCaprio In The Aviator
Cate Blanchett portrays the legendary Katharine Hepburn in the film, wearing a multitude of beautiful outfits, all accompanied by high heels, as seen in many scenes. Blanchett, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall, should have been nearly as tall as Leonardo DiCaprio, who is 6 feet tall in heels.
Getty Images
5. Natalie Portman In Thor: Love and Thunder
A noticeable height difference exists between Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, but they are not the first on-screen couple to face this issue. To make them look better together on screen, Portman (who is 5 feet 3 inches tall) had to be filmed walking on a platform that was raised one foot in the air, as Hemsworth is 6 feet 3 inches tall.
Getty Images
6. Margot Robbie In Bombshell
The drama Bombshell employed a common filmmaking technique to make its two tall leading actresses, Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman (both 5'10"), look even better on screen. In order to achieve this, their co-stars were made to appear taller than they actually were, including Margot Robbie, who is only 5 feet 6 inches tall.
Getty Images
7. Robert De Niro In The Intern
Although Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro are both a modest 5 feet 8 inches tall, Anne was required to wear heels throughout the filming of the movie. This made it necessary to pose them in the iconic photo taken at the film's premiere, with De Niro towering above Anne Hathaway. It is unclear why the filmmakers felt it necessary for De Niro to appear taller than Hathaway.
Getty Images
Penn Badgley and Blake Lively’s height gap in <em>Gossip Girl</em> is the kind of mismatch that only works because the show actively hides the heels.</p>
It’s the same kind of money math as asking a partner to split rent equally despite income disparity.
Next comes <em>True Detective</em>, where the producers make Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey look like they’re standing in the same world, even when they’re not.</p>
Then <em>Genius</em> flips the script, with Jude Law (5-foot-10) built to look taller than Nicole Kidman, even though the real numbers say otherwise.</p>
By the time you reach <em>Thor: Love and Thunder</em>, Natalie Portman is literally filmed on a raised platform so the Chris Hemsworth height difference doesn’t steal the scene.</p>
Moviemakers are highly skilled at making height differences between actors appear more pronounced than they actually are. This is done through a combination of camera techniques, casting choices, and clever set design.
Camera techniques such as low-angle shots and forced perspective are used to make the taller actor appear even taller while the shorter actor appears even shorter. On the other hand, high-angle shots have the opposite effect.
Once you notice the tricks for Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, and Natalie Portman, “they look the same height” stops feeling like magic and starts feeling like math.
Want another fairness fight, read whether roommate bills should be split by room size.
