10 Actors Who Were Made Younger for a Role Through Special Effects

Despite all the power of modern computer graphics, changing the appearance of actors in movies is still a difficult process. Some experts argue that sometimes it is easier to create a dragon on the screen than to change a person’s face so that it looks natural.

Sometimes it turns out badly (think of Henry Cavill’s smeared mustache in Justice League), and sometimes it’s delightful.

Today we will talk about a dozen actors who, with the help of special effects, were made in the film much younger than they really are.

10 Sheryl Lee, Twin Peaks

The third season of the cult series has retained all its distinctive features: surrealism, the unreality of what is happening, a lot of mysteries and half-hints to the truth. The events in it take place in such a way that the present, the past, and the future are intertwined together, for which the characters, by definition, must look different.

Everyone was waiting for the appearance of Laura Palmer in the final, puzzling over how she would look and what Lynch would come up with. Actress Sheryl Lee, who played Laura in the original show, was already in her 50s and no makeup would have made her young again, so she had to take on the graphics.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be average: the young heroine appears in the frame for a very short time (perhaps in order to save money), and although she looks not her years, she is still not a copy of the blonde that Twin Peaks fans remember.

9. Sean Young, Blade Runner 2049

Cyberpunk from Denis Villeneuve is hard to blame for the fact that he has something wrong with the picture. The visual component here turned out to be on the level, including the rejuvenation of actress Sean Young, who plays the replicant Rachel.

In the first part, she was only 23 years old, while at the time of the sequel she crossed the line of 55 years, but not being a person in the world of the film, she had to remain young. Thanks to special effects, she quite succeeded: even in close-ups, if you do not consider every pixel, the face looks realistic.

8. Kurt Russell, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Part 2″

Kurt Russell in the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy played the alien deity Ego, who once visited Earth and became the father of Peter Quill.

In order for the aged Ego to tell the story of his youth with graphic flashbacks, it was vital for Marvel to rejuvenate the actor.

Already having experience in this business (although the result was not always good), the team did everything at the highest level. Looking at the character in his youth, and after looking at the real photos of the actor of those years, it is impossible to find the difference.

7. Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean

The fifth film of the movie saga, which failed for the most part, showed the viewer the young Jack Sparrow, when he had not yet become a “formidable” pirate, but was already an adventurer. Despite the impressive budget of the picture, Johnny Depp’s rejuvenation process was clearly spent less than it should have been.

Because of this, his face seems unreal: eyes, lips, facial expressions – all this moves somehow at random, completely killing naturalness. However, not the best graphics at this moment is far from the main problem, and if they had done everything perfectly, a wave of negativity would still have awaited it, although it proved to be successful at the box office, collecting almost $ 800 million.

6. Carrie Fisher, Rogue One. Star Wars Tales»

The appearance of the young Princess Leia in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Stories ”was conceived to a greater extent not for the sake of promoting the plot, but to play on the feeling of nostalgia among fans of the star saga.

Due to the frankly careless study of this fragment, only anger was aroused. Everyone saw perfectly well that this mannequin on the screen was not at all the young Carrie Fisher. Everyone sincerely wondered how the creators did not notice this and why they left frankly bad shots.

5. Anthony Hopkins, Westworld

Anthony Hopkins was the main name in the credits of Westworld, so when the idea came up to show him as a young man, HBO did not skimp, spending a decent amount, but invited the wrong people.

Yes, in the young Creator you can easily recognize the older version, but this is precisely the problem. He doesn’t look young: he’s still the same old man, just wearing a rubber mask.

4. Robert Downey Jr, Captain America: Civil War

Speaking about Kurt Russell, we mentioned that Marvel has a history of rejuvenating actors, and the case of Robert Downey Jr. is one of them.

Recreating his digital past in front of the public, he shows his parents alive and well, as well as himself in his youth. Does it look like? More than. No annoying little things, all the details are worked out with maximum precision.

3. Michael Douglas, Ant-Man

The flashback of Michael Douglas’ character in the Ant-Man sequel shows a 25-year-old version of him, and he does it well. When he enters the frame, the effect is so strong that you are mesmerized by the screen, seeing a great overall picture.

If you thoughtfully consider speech and facial expressions separately, then there are many mistakes, but no one does this. Everyone just looks and exclaims “What technology has come to!”.

2. Orlando Bloom, The Hobbit

Orlando Bloom is a phenomenal man who, at 42, looks 30, but still, for the role of an immortal elf, even his appearance had to be processed on a computer. As a result, the difference between a living person and a painted one became clearly visible: Legolas was no longer so “spiritual” and attracted the eye only because of his unnaturalness.

Considering what a gorgeous dragon they made out of Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando’s appearance clearly could have been done better.

1. Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

In some ways, a unique case, because Brad Pitt here is not only getting younger, but also getting old, and he does it in reverse order.

Watching the first part of the film of a decrepit grandfather, the viewer was delighted (after all, 10 years ago the graphics were not so advanced), and then did it again when a very young hero appeared before him.

Even now, these shots look very dignified next to the very fresh Marvel projects, which are not easy to compete with.