Confession: I recently saw the new Fantastic Four movie, and fell asleep halfway through.
I blame those new recliner seats at nearly every movie theater; the lights down low, my body parallel, belly full of popcorn, and I’m out. From what I hear, though, the flick is half-decent. Good reviews, high Rotten Tomatoes score, etc.
And one character comic books fans were most stoked about upon the new iteration of the superhero squad was the return of the Silver Surfer. In this film, the metallic and intergalactic villain equipped with a platinum surfboard is played by Emmy Award-winner Julia Garner. But she had a stunt double, a real surfer, by the name of Tehillah McGuinness.
Tehillah, or “Tee,” is a former pro surfer, born in South Africa, and currently residing in the UK’s premier surf zone of Cornwall. She’s been a surf and fitness coach for over 10 years, and out of the blue, about a year ago, she got a call from her agent, prompting her to coach an actress in an upcoming Marvel movie. That was Julia Garner (of Ozark fame) for the role of Silver Surfer (also known as Shalla-Bal) in 2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Speaking with CornwallLive about working with celebrities, the 37-year-old said she feels “equally committed to both normal people and celebrities when she is their surf coach. There is this untouchable aspect of celebrities. But when you spend time with them it’s a real learning experience. You realise how normal they are. I learned so much from them. I hope I managed to bring a sense of normality to the crazy world around them and ground them.”
As for the “surfing” aspects of the character, Tee wanted it to look as authentic as possible. She said it was all about “bringing real surf technique into a cinematic context. The project involved everything from technical coaching to doubling Julia on set for key surf movement and action sequences. It was all about making her look natural and believable as a surfer.”
Related: Nicolas Cage Goes Rat Sh*t Crazy in ‘The Surfer’ (Review)
To be honest, I wasn’t coherent enough during the film to critique the Silver Surfer on the authenticity to how surfing looks in real life. But I’ll take Tee’s word for it.
And Hollywood, for the most part, has butchered realistic portrayals of surfing. The 2015 remake of Point Break comes to mind. But Tee is stoked to see the world’s collide:
“It’s been an exciting ride — not just professionally, but in seeing surf culture intersect with mainstream superhero cinema in a really meaningful way. I have worked as a celebrity personal trainer for the past 10 years training cast members on various productions but this was a very special production for me.”
She added: “I offered Julia [Garner] to take her out surfing for real but I didn’t get the chance to. That would have been an amazing tick to get.”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in theaters now.
Related: Matt Archbold Talks Stunt-Doubling for ‘Point Break’ (Video)