It’s perfectly natural that when an actor reaches a certain age, they need a little help to stay fresh and youthful, whether that’s done with makeup, plastic surgery, or a little digital manipulation. This is especially necessary when they reach the ripe ol’ ages of 15 to 18. Talk about over the hill!
The “kids” who played the Losers Club in ‘It: Chapter One’— Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh (now 17), Jaeden Martell (originally Jaeden Lieberherr) as Bill Denbrough (16), Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier (16), Wyatt Oleff as Stanley Uris (16), Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie Kaspbrak (15), Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben Hanscom (16), and Chosen Jacobs as Mike Hanlon (18) — were needed to film some flashbacks for the sequel ‘It: Chapter Two’. And while most actors don’t change much 0ver the course of two years, that isn’t the case when it comes to adolescents. The various actors were between the ages of 13 and 15 when they filmed ‘Chapter One’ in 2016, but by 2018, when ‘Chapter Two’ began filming, they’d sprouted up.
So director Andy Muschietti is using that new-fangled de-aging technology to shave a couple of years off the actors.
“From the beginning, we knew that that would be part of the budget, the visual effects to address that. So we’re going to de-age the kids.”
This is a bit different than the de-aging process used in the Marvel and ‘Star Wars’ movies because it’s not a case of removing wrinkles or gray hair. The kids are actually taller, and in most cases leaner. Their faces have changed as they’ve shed their baby fat. And what are they going to do about their voices?
This is a unique situation, but it’s a problem that is popping up a little more frequently. Will Warner Bros. do the same with the ‘Shazam!’ franchise which also happens to star Grazer? Will Netflix use it as the cast of ‘Stranger Things’ continues to age, including Wolfhard?
You can catch the digitally de-aged cast when ‘It: Chapter Two’ opens on September 6.
Source: Total Film
