And no matter how they do it, whether by CGI or good old fashion rubber masks, it always looks ridiculous. Right away you’re taken out of the story because the actors look like they’re in a dinner theatre production of THE GIN GAME.
It’s hard to predict what someone will look like in thirty years. There was that Facebook feature going around recently that would project what you would look like old. Why would I want to see that? And certainly why would I want to post it? Especially if I were dating someone I hoped would turn into a long-term relationship. Hard enough to seal the deal without her thinking I’m going to morph into Keith Richards.
I remember once on CHEERS we did a dream sequence where everyone was old. It was weird then and even weirder now that you can actually compare the projection to real life.
For all the magic that Hollywood can do – making people fly, blowing up planets – they still can’t age actors to where they look natural. And what’s worse is when older actors get work done and as a result don’t look real in real life.
The only way I would ever end a series by projecting into the future is by hiring Clint Eastwood to play the older version of the lead character – even if the lead character was a woman. Otherwise, I’d find a different finale.
25 comments :
Great example of this
Watch Giant with Rock Hudson and see what they thought he would look like old.
Then look at the real Rock Hudon.
Not close.
I'm not sure it matters whether you age them and it looks ridiculous but it's at least them, or you show a completely different actor and everyone complains.
The ending for Gotham was like that...They jumped forward a mere 10 years. Bruce (a teen for most of the show) was now supposedly late 20s. But you only saw him in the suit, so it didn't matter that it was actually same actor, but it was. For the rest, they added some gray hair. But Selena Kyle had a COMPLETELY different actress. For a mere 10y jump. And she was 20yo in real life, so not that big a stretch. It made NO sense. I have to assume there was something else going on behind the scenes.
But I felt ripped off. At least she wasn't named Darren when they made the switch.
P.
Shows you how little confidence they have in their output. Truly confident people would shut down for 30 years and film (and show) the finale when the actors have aged into it.
BOYHOOD did it...
wg
Ken, Kelsey Grammar said that the Frasier reboot is looking like a lock in 2020. Do you have anything to do with it? Any thoughts? My guess would be Frasier is now the father/"Martin" character to an adult Frederick... I just hope they don't do the 1000th version of conservative dad/liberal son.
There is one very notable exception to this bad-makeup rule, and that is special effects artist Dick Smith. He did wonders aging Max von Sydow for his role as Father Merrin in The Exorcist. That was the first film I saw starring von Sydow, and I just assumed he was as old as the character he was playing -- that is, until I started seeing him in other roles.
I thought old age makeup was done well in one movie this year, but saying which movie and which actor would be a spoiler.
What's even worse are attempts to make older actors look much younger via makeup. St. Elsewhere once broadcast a two-part episode (around 1986) that took place decades earlier; James Stephens (from the TV version of The Paper Chase) replaced Norman Lloyd as Dr. Auschlander, whereas Ed Flanders and William Daniels played younger versions of their characters - unforgettable, and not in a good way.
Of course, in a comedy this sort of thing can work wonderfully in brief flashbacks, as with Andre Braugher's character on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
I agree with you, Ken, that this can frequently be stupid. One of the reasons I came to this conclusion is the fact that a young actor playing the older version of a character is an incredibly hard thing to make convincing. As an audience member, I cannot immerse myself in the performance; I always find myself returning to the idea that I'm watching a young person play old.
One rare exception to this was Robert Downey Jr. in the film Chaplin. He did a tremendous job playing Chaplin in the scenes where he was older. It's still the best example of young playing old that I think I've ever seen.
Polywogg, just for the record, Cameron Bicondova, who played Selina Kyle for nearly all of Gotham, stated that she did not feel comfortable playing the older version of her character on the series finale. She and the producers then found a different actress to play the older Selina.
If you can make it past College’s lengthy Keaton-in-blackface segment, you’ll be rewarded with one of the more dyspeptic conclusions in silent comedy- the empty-nested Keaton and Anne Cornwall characters, withered in old age make-up, with Keaton snapping at his now-elderly sorority sweetheart..... followed by a shot of their separate tombstones.
Anonymous beat me to it. I was going to mention how silly James Dean looked in his "aged" make up in "Giant."
It goes both ways. It often takes me out of a movie when an older actor is playing a kid. Garry Cooper in "Pride of the Yankees" is one example. There's no way that I could believe that he was a college age Lou Gehrig. Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonerful Life" is another example. The only reason you know he was supposed to be in high school is because they tell us he is. Certainly not by the way he looks.
Several years ago on "America's Most Wanted" they were looking for a fugitive that had been on the run for twenty-plus years. They had a forensic artist sculpt a bust of how the guy would look twenty years older. It looked remarkably like the actual person and led to his eventual capture. So, it's not impossible to guess how someone might look in the future.
Slightly off topic, but still related. One of my favorite closing lines from "Cheers" is from the episode, "I'm Okay, You're Defective." An senior Lilith and an adult Frederick are in a lawyer's office to hear Frasier's will. Instead, the lawyer starts talking about Sam's sperm count. Lilith's response, "That damn bar!" Not so funny here, but in context it made me laugh.
M.B.
Ken, just gotta say I love the "Clint as any old classic character" idea.
I'd pay good money to see him as Diane Chambers...
I thought they did a nice job of aging Hayley Atwell in that Captain America movie.
Director Richard Linklater probably agrees with you. He is making a film of the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. The story spans about 18 years,late 1950's to mid to late 70's. He is filming the movie over 18 years so that the same actors can play their roles without resorting to make-up. Strikes me as a little drastic. MERRILY is an underrated,underappreciated Sondheim show. It's disappointing that it'll take so long to be seen.
I wasn't going to mention this, but, now it seems somehow appropriate. My wife has heard your name a number of times, but she saw your punim for the first time on the M*A*S*H series finale special last night, and she said you look like an "old Zak Bagans."
Who needs computer programs? I looked at my parents, my uncles, and older cousins and realized how I would look at age 60: (1) hair receding to the point that I would need it kept real short to avoid resembling Bozo the Clown. (2) age spots everywhere and (3) a baggy saggy chin.
I'm looking forward to THE IRISHMAN (even though it clocks at two and a half hours) because I was told computer trickery is used to make some of the actors look younger for the flashbacks. More disturbingly, a new movie featuring a digital James Dean has been announced/threatened. What do you think the future of movies will be? Would you like to see Natalie Wood in the inevitable GAME OF THRONES movie? Come on, you know you would.
I've always been struck by the difference between "old" Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, in which I thought the old-age makeup on a 25-year-old Welles was actually pretty good, and the actual aged Welles we all knew. It's like the same guy in parallel universes, one of which he didn't gain 200 pounds in.
There's an episode of Star Trek in which Shatner, Kelley, Doohan and Nimoy were artificially aged. Not even close.
The only truly convincing job of ageing makeup was on David Paymer in "Mr. Saturday Night".
Flipping to film but the ending sequence of the Harry Potter films was entirely this. The aging makeup/prosthetics looked straight out of community theatre. Comparing it to the actors now is even more yikes.
Interesting that in The Crown, they just cast older actors because there's just too much life experience that latex can't recreate.
Tangentially related are the movies/TV episodes where the discrepancy is played for laughs. I loved how in the Wet Hot American Summer "prequel" all the actors, ten years older, played versions of themselves a few years younger than in the original movie. It was utterly ridiculous and worked perfectly. Ditto for forty-something Will Forte playing a twenty-something Doug Kenney in A Futile and Stupid Gesture, which Martin Mull's afterlife Doug Kenney points out. I just found out that David Wain directed both, so I guess he should get the credit.
Most people age into getting saggier and droopier, and that's hard to do cosmetically in costume. I just recently had a friend send me a picture of me from about 12 years ago. Sigh.
@Brian Fies: The real makeup miracle of Citizen Kane was with Kane as a young adult. They somehow managed to reduce the prominence of his Orson’s jewels and beadiness of his eyes and made him look considerably more dashing than he did in real life. I think there’s an interview somewhere in which Welles says he came to rue that makeup because it made his real-life aging look harsher than it really was.
The Deadly Years episode of Star Trek had awful aging makeup, as you say. One of the big problems was Kirk’s hair. In the initial stages, they “age” Shatner by combing back his hairpiece to make it look thinner. But when it was time to go full grey, Shatner apparently wasn’t willing to let them make a fully receding toupee, so suddenly elderly Kirk has a full, thick white mane with a hairline that is even further forward than his normal piece.
I found Chris Evans in Avengers: Endgame to be quite convincing.
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