Here’s Who’s Doing All The Real Skating On Spinning Out

Netflix's new show Spinning Out takes viewers to the ice as it follows Olympic figure skating hopefuls. But since it's a TV show and not a documentary, not all of those axles and loops and spins are being performed by the stars themselves. The Spinning Out actors can skate onto and off the ice, but the big tricks are being pulled by skating doubles.

Because this is a series about ice skating, it's natural that the actors themselves were trained to be on the ice in some capacity. Close up shots of them striking a pose, entering or exiting the rink, or skating a simple move are likely real.

When star Kaya Scodelario landed the role of Kat Baker last year, she tweeted that she was planning to do some ice skating training. "Very excited to start work on this in the new year... [Kat's] story is so beautifully complicated and near to my heart. This isn't just girl meets boy.. I promise. Now, time to train!!" she said, adding the hashtags "#mybuttsgoingtobesobruised" and "#watchoutxmasicerinks."

And while she definitely did some of the easier skating, Scodelario had a few doubles throughout the season. (More on them in a minute.)

The same can likely be said for January Jones, who plays Kat's mom and whose character used to be a pro skater as well. She likely trained to do simple moves to make close up shots easier. Back in April, while the show was filming, Jones posted a picture of figure skater Tonya Harding to Instagram with the caption, "Me r n." It's easy to see, during the flashback scenes, that some of the less daring shots of skating Carol Baker really are Jones.

According to their Instagrams, other stars like Amanda Zhou, Kaitlyn Leeb, and Willow Shields also hit the ice for their roles as skaters Jenn, Leah, and Serena respectively. But Shields also gave a behind the scenes glimpse at how some of the skating shots were actually filmed — and there was no ice to be found. "New Job title: Filming lying on my stomach on rotating mechanisms in front of a blue screen," the actor captioned the below photo.

Two of the show's stars who are definitely doing all their own skating are Johnny Weir, who played Gabe, and Jonathan Van Ness, who played Bruce. Weir is a two-time Olympian in figure skating, which means no skating double was required for his role. Van Ness is not a professional skater, but he has been training on the rink for some time. Bruce didn't pull any moves on the ice that JVN himself couldn't do.

As for everyone else, the hard moves were performed by trained skating doubles. January Jones' skate double was Emma Cullen, a young Canadian skater. Meanwhile Scodelario's character Kat had four skating doubles throughout the 10 episodes. Her jump double was Kim Deguise Léveillée, a Canadian skater and coach who was the 2014 junior national champion. Léveillée was also the skating double for Kat's sister Serena. Kat's regular skating double was Michelle Long, another Canadian skater. Two women also played Kat's pairs skating double. In episodes 3 and 4, Elizabeth Putnam did the pair skating as Kat. Putnam is a two-time Canadian bronze medalist in pairs skating with her partner Sean Wirtz. In episodes 7 and 10, Evelyn Walsh was Kat's pairs double.

Walsh performed alongside Justin's (Evan Roderick) double Trennt Michaud. The duo was especially good at Kat and Justin's signature move — the lasso lift. That's when the woman does the splits above the man's head and he spins her around. "I think we did 20 lasso lifts [to get it right for one scene]. It was awesome," Walsh told The London Free Press of her Spinning Out stunt double role. Justin's regular skating double was Dylan David Moscovitch, who won a silver medal at the 2014 Olympics with the Canadian team.

The other two doubles used throughout the series were Lilika Zheng, who skated for Jenn and Madeline Schizas who skated for Leah. Even though so many different doubles were used for the real actors, the end result is seamless. So much so, that you could swear it really was Scodelario out there on the ice — and not four different skaters all with different strengths performing at different times.