In order for Zach Galifianakis come convincingly pat twins, the FX sitcom leans on one uncredited stand-in who very closely resembles him. Meet Dillon Peddicord, the quintessential “guy who looks choose a guy.”


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FX/Ringer illustration
Tuesday’s Season 3 finale that Baskets was, for most viewers, a showcase the the FX sitcom’s signature acting talents. The slightly off-kilter comedy, i m sorry premiered in January 2016, adheres to the life, friends, and also family of Chip Baskets, a down-on-his-luck clown trained at among the finer French clown academies. ~ flunking out of clown school and also being jilted by his wife, that tolerated him just as a method of gaining a green card, Chip tries to uncover fulfillment (and employment) in his hometown the Bakersfield, California, whereby his commitment come clowning artistry no appreciated and also where—in the show’s fictionalized version of Bakersfield, in ~ least—the rodeo and also Costco room the peak of culture.

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Both the somber, misunderstood Chip and his much more frenetic the same twin brother, Dale, a career-college founder who covers his very own insecurities with blustery tantrums, space played by The Hangover and Between 2 Ferns star Zach Galifianakis, that cocreated the series and continually switches between the 2 roles. As the show—which, according to Galifianakis, has been renewed because that a fourth season in spite of fragile (and falling) ratings—has matured, it’s make time for the hopes, dreams, and daily routines the not just Chip and Dale, but additionally their endlessly patient and also endearingly low-affect friend, Martha (played through comedian Martha Kelly), who works as a Costco insurance allowance saleswoman; your mother, Christine Baskets (Louie Anderson in drag); and, lately, Christine’s love interest, Ken (Alex Morris), the “Carpet King” of Colorado. Bring away together, the show’s main point characters, expanded cast, and also boldly bland locations are as unassuming, sympathetic, and, at times, staunchly untelegenic as anything top top TV.

Anderson, that won one Emmy for ideal Supporting gibbs in a Comedy collection after the first season, has end up being Baskets’ emotionally center, and also he maintained both the pathos and the comedy coming on Tuesday’s finale, a family-first episode about a retreat come a rustic cabin. With Chip and also Dale occupying the same confined an are for lot of the finale, Galifianakis obtained a many minutes, too—and so did who behind the scenes that landed the project by looking a lot prefer him.

Although my wife and I laughed and also emoted in ~ the appointed time while city hall the finale, us weren’t fixated just on Anderson or Galifianakis. We were likewise on the lookout because that the blurry earlier of every Baskets twin’s head, the telltale sign of who standing in because that Galifianakis while he played the other brother. Whenever us spotted a stand-in, we pointed in ~ the screen, scoring the most points every minute during one wild midepisode scene, i m sorry featured an extensive slap fight in between Chip and also an apoplectic Dale, that in the expectancy of two seasons has actually been dumped through both a wife and also fiancée.


The secret sauce of that scene (and plenty of others) isn’t part of the series’s forward-facing cast. He is an uncredited male of many trades called Dillon Peddicord, who’s served as a stand-in and also body double for Galifianakis in 27 that the 30 Baskets episodes, dating back to the pilot. The purpose of the component Peddicord theatre on the show is not to be noticed, and also from all appearances, he is played it to perfection: “This is in reality the an initial time I’ve spoken to anyone about my experience on Baskets,” he tells me by phone. When an FX PR person emailed me around “talent easily accessible for interviews,” she certainly did not have actually him in mind.

“I wish it was me being the just double,” Peddicord states of the slap fight. “At some point it is , at part points the isn’t.” Peddicord says that as soon as the personalities aren’t in slapping range, and also during one heat of dialogue later on in the scene, some component of him is on screen, yet when the actual slapping occurs, he’s not cleared to participate. “I’m kind of jealous,” he says. “Whenever yes sir anything physical, they carry in the stunt doubles.” Naturally, the stunt doubles space Galifianakis look-alikes, too, return the main one, Haydn Dalton—who’s worked with Galifianakis on lot of projects—passes because that Galifianakis only once wearing a fake beard. On Baskets, every Chip-and-Dale dual scene is a logistical quandary. “Zach requirements to be so numerous places in ~ once,” Peddicord says. “And then being his double, periodically I must be two locations at once, and also it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness, we require so plenty of Zach Galifianakises ~ above this set right now,’” the says.

Peddicord didn’t do much to gain discovered; he just happened to it is in in the right challenge at the best time. A aboriginal of Baltimore-D.C. Suburb Westminster, Maryland, Peddicord relocated to L.A. Five years ago, hope to find work in the to chat industry. He included his head shot come a spreading website, but he wasn’t actively submitting self for functions at the time that a casting company contacted him; he to be busy functioning on what he classifies together a “high-end citizens truck.” before he was bearded, Peddicord taken into consideration Kim Coates indigenous Sons the Anarchy his celebrity doppelgänger, yet once he grew out his face hair, world started telling him the he looked favor Galifianakis. The casting company saw the exact same resemblance and called that in to be a human body double. “I can’t think that the opportunity just presented itself choose so,” the says. “You don’t hear the literal stories of Hollywood phone call up: ‘Hello Dillon, would certainly you choose to it is in in a TV present with Zach Galifianakis?’”

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top top Baskets, Peddicord has worked both together a stand-in—the person who subs in for the lead before filming for lighting and camera-placement purposes—and as a double, who replaces the lead on camera indigenous behind. On the pilot, he play both Chip and also Dale, but due to the fact that the 2 brothers have various wardrobes and hairstyles—Dale’s hair is straightened and differs from Galifianakis’s (and Peddicord’s) naturally curly locks—he soon dedicated for efficiency’s sake. “When there’s Chip and Dale scene together, two Zach Galifianakises are not enough,” Peddicord says. “And so what it came to be is the I’m always Dale in Chip-and-Dale-together scenes. Ns come in, they execute the hair, the wardrobe, and I am Dale because that the day.” Another double plays Chip. Peddicord still sometimes moonlights as the other brother, return he claims he’s “very much an ext in depth through my Dale work.” Peddicord says he likes losing himself in the an ext hyperbolic brother’s virtually manic personality, which the affectionately describes as entering “Dale mode.”

Galifianakis, that course, has to be both brothers every the time, switching back and forth consistently while working v each season’s out-of-order shoots. “Each scene where Chip and also Dale room together, Zach’s gotta execute it twice,” Peddicord says. “Meaning I need to do the once. Therefore I’ve got to it is in on the top of my video game to be sure that ns mimic Zach also to my ability, for this reason that once he’s law it for the an initial or 2nd time, he deserve to come in and make the seamless, together if Chip and Dale are certainly two various people.” Peddicord’s goal at all times, he says, is “figuring out what provides Zach’s life easier.” Peddicord generally doesn’t receive scripts prior to he gets to the set, for this reason he has to learn the dialogue quickly and be ready to improvise, which Galifianakis and also Anderson are often liable come do.

At 31, Peddicord is significantly younger 보다 the 48-year-old Galifianakis, but due to the fact that he’s normally not filmed from the front, the age gap no obvious. He is slightly taller 보다 Galifianakis, however they have similar builds, shaggy hair, and also facial features. “Zach and I look exceptionally similar,” that says. Peddicord resembles Galifianakis an ext than one of two people of the Chip doubles have, which, the says, has made the the de facto key double. “When we room in the same outfit, it’s an overwhelming to distinguish us, particularly from afar,” Peddicord continues. “We were in reality dressed together Renoir the Clown in complete wig one time, and also it was eerie. Jonathan Krisel actually lugged me over together a sidebar reasoning I to be Zach, i think it to be three different times. The critical time he started, ‘So this next scene ...’ and then he stares in ~ me. ‘Zach?’ ‘Dillon.’ ‘Ah!’”

Although a physical match from behind is the most an essential criterion because that a human body double, Peddicord effortlessly looks favor Galifianakis even when he is in motion. Top top one occasion, a friend of the stunt dual told him that he has Galifianakis’s gait. “I to be like, ‘I do? i was just walking!’” he says. The resemblance extends to temperament and personality, too. “That’s an additional thing that provides me a good double, and also to it is in that wall surface that Zach bounces the tennis sphere off of, to react off the in a suitable way,” he says. “I’m absolutely a kooky individual.”

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Peddicord ~ above Transparent together the cast and also crew have worked their means through 30 episodes, they’ve get an impressive much much more comfortable with complicated Chip-and-Dale scenes, which were an ext numerous in Season 3. As the editing and camerawork have actually become an ext adept and Peddicord has established how to track the camera and also time once to angle his head, the deceived has acquired tougher come spot. In part finished scenes, Peddicord even deceives himself. “There’s some components in Season 3 whereby I have challenge distinguishing where I end and also Zach begins,” that says. “I clock it periodically like, ‘Oh, it is Zach there.’ and also then I’m putting myself ago in the work of filming, i’m like, ‘No, that’s no Zach’s head there, that’s Zach’s head there. That’s certainly not head, it is Zach’s head, definition holy shit, that’s me back there! Wow, ns did a an excellent job back there!’”

On rarely occasions, Peddicord says, CGI has been used to assemble a scene, however only via tried-and-true tricks: for instance, ~ he and also the Chip body double have each run with a scene through Galifianakis, they could both be replaced in article by the “other” Galifianakis so the the viewer sees 2 Galifianakises interacting instead that one working through a double. At various other times, the crew have the right to use what Peddicord phone call a “cowboy switch,” so named for a method used in Westerns whereby a principal actor would certainly seamlessly change a stunt performer while the latter is surprise from see (for instance, after gift thrown behind a bar).

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Baskets’ unusual framework has set Peddicord’s experience apart native those of most doubles who ostensibly do the same job. “Most doubles don’t interact with their actor,” Peddicord says. “One woman ns met, she barely interacts with the actress she’s to be doubling because that for years, due to the fact that she come in on the days as soon as she’s not available. Working directly with Zach and actually participating is a yes, really rare opportunity.”

Peddicord claims his “greatest hit” to be the one time the did a stunt that made it come air. When the cast and crew were functioning on the Season 2 episode “Fight,” there to be no stunt performer top top set, for this reason the stunt coordinator verified Peddicord (as Dale) how to safely grab Galifianakis (as Chip) and also throw him the end the door. “The an initial take was absolutely too ginger,” he says. “And they were like, ‘You have to be a little rougher.’ through the 3rd take it to be perfect.”