12 Actors Who Were Not Fans Of The Special Effects Used In Their Movies

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No one hates Green Lantern as much as Ryan Reynolds hates Green Lantern.

Actors often criticize certain aspects of their own movies — the script, the direction, their performance, etc. But as computer-generated imagery continues its reign in Hollywood and certain technologies continue to advance, actors have a whole different facet of their work to critique.

Universal Pictures

Here are 12 times actors didn't hold back about the CGI used in their own movies.

In 2019, after the trailer for the "weird-ass movie" Cats was released, Jason Derulo lamented on Sirius XM's Andy Cohen Live that they "CGI'd [his] dick out" of the movie. Though perturbed at the situation, he was ultimately understanding of the decision. "[It was] to make it as cat-like as possible. I think that's what it was about."

A critically-panned box office flop, Green Lantern is pretty famously hated by Ryan Reynolds. He even takes jabs at it several times in the Deadpool movies. But in 2021, he decided to actually sit down and watch the film for the first time — and live-tweet the whole thing. He praised the cast and took shots at other aspects of the movie, but he also criticized his computer-generated costume saying it looked like it was "made from old Frogger pixels." He then sarcastically tweeted a closeup photo of the suit with the caption, "See if you can spot the CGI!"

They spent 6 hrs each day turning Peter Sarsgaard’s head into an over-inflated beach ball. But the GL suit is a onesie made from old Frogger pixels.

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 17, 2021

Twitter: @VancityReynolds

Two years later, Reynolds was back at it again. In 2023, at the Just For Laughs comedy festival, he explained that he felt that while filming the movie, "too much money" was being spent on CGI. And he went on to say, "When there was a problem, rather than say, ‘okay, let’s stop spending on special effects and let’s think about character’...the thinking was never there to do that.”

Ryan Reynolds waves at a movie premiere

In a 2023 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Cage expressed his disdain for how his cameo in The Flash turned out. Cage explained that he thought his character was supposed to "literally just be standing in an alternate dimension...witnessing the destruction of the universe." However, in the final cut of the movie, with the use of CGI, he was "fighting a giant spider."

Nicolas Cage as Superman shoots lasers out of his eyes at a giant spider

Cage continued, "I did not do that. That was not what I did... It was CGI, okay, so that they could de-age me, and I’m fighting a spider. I didn’t do any of that, so I don’t know what happened there.”

Nicolas Cage as Superman continues to shoot lasers out of his eyes at a giant spider

4. Ewan McGregor — Star Wars: Episode II (2002) & Episode III (2005)

Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan Kenobi holds a lightsaber

In a 2021 interview with Pedro Pascal for Variety, Ewan McGregor shared his fond memories of acting with a Yoda puppet on the set of the first Star Wars prequel, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. However, when the puppet was swapped out for a "digital version" in the next two films, it wasn't "nearly as endearing...so when it was suddenly computer generated, it didn’t feel like Yoda...anymore."

A digitally-rendered Yoda stands with arms extended

5. Colin Firth — Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

A digitally de-aged Colin Firth points a gun

In a 2017 Screen Rant interview, when asked about the de-aged version of his character Harry from the Kingsman sequel, Colin Firth said the digitally altered version of himself was pretty unrecognizable. "My wife, when she saw me," he said, "didn't recognize my young self. She said, 'who's he?'"

Colin Firth sits at a table with a microphone during a press event

Firth continued, "He did fine as a young Harry fleetingly in the movie, but I don't think it looked like the real [me]. I mean, there's plenty of evidence — photographic evidence — one can compare, but it didn't remind me of my young self." And in case you're wondering, here's a side-by-side with a real-life younger Firth:

A digitally de-aged Colin Firth side-by-side with a real life younger version

6. Willem Dafoe — Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Willem Dafoe in his Green Goblin costume

In a 2023 interview with Wired, when asked if he was CGI in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Willem Dafoe responded that there were "a couple of shots that were really fuzzy." He added that the whole thing was "silly because the de-aging thing, they don't have down yet."

Willem Dafoe holding a paper printed with Google autocomplete searches about himself

"And what's the point?," he continued, "I don't look that much older. I don't think, anyway. It's the creams."

Willem Dafoe holding a paper printed with Google autocomplete searches about himself with an overlay of text reading, "And what's the point? I don't look that much older. I don't think, anyway. It's the creams"

7. Jeff Bridges — Tron: Legacy (2010)

A digitally de-aged Jeff Bridges in futuristic, glowing attire

Earlier this year, in an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Jeff Bridges talked about the process of getting digitally scanned for the sequel to his 1982 sci-fi movie Tron. "It’s the new thing," he said, "I got scanned and in the computer for when we did Tron 2. What was it called? Legacy." Bridges added that he wasn't the biggest fan of his digital rendering stating, “I wasn’t particularly fond of that recreation of myself.”

Jeff Bridges stands next to promotional posters for "Tron"

He made similar comments to Screen Rant in a 2017 interview. "I looked like a weird version of Bill Maher," he said, "I didn't like it. They didn't polish it."

A digitally de-aged Jeff Bridges in futuristic, glowing attire side-by-side next to a similarly-looking Bill Maher

8. Viggo Mortensen — The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn wearing a crown and armor

In a 2014 interview with The Telegraph, Viggo Mortensen revealed that while the first Lord of the Rings movie included special effects that felt "organic," he felt the subsequent sequels relied too heavily on CGI. "Whatever was subtle in the first movie," he said, "gradually got lost in the second and third."

Viggo Mortensen waves at a movie premiere

He went on to say that the director of the films, Peter Jackson, went a bit overboard when he realized what he could do with the effects. "Peter was always a geek in terms of technology," he said, "but once he had the means to do it, and the evolution of the technology really took off, he never looked back."

Director Peter Jackson waves at a movie premiere

9. Anthony Hopkins — Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Anthony Hopkins dressed as Odin wearing armor and an eye patch

Speaking to The New Yorker in 2021 about the Thor franchise, Anthony Hopkins who famously wrote "No Acting Required" on his first Thor script, called his role as King Odin in the films "pointless acting." He said, "They put me in armor; they shoved a beard on me. Sit on the throne; shout a bit."

Anthony Hopkins dressed as Odin wearing armor and an eye patch sits on a throne

10. Taika Waititi — Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

The CGI character Korg stands between Valkyrie, Jane Foster, and Thor

In 2022, while promoting his movie, Thor: Love and Thunder with co-star Tessa Thompson, director, co-writer, and actor Taika Waititi pointed out and criticized some of the VFX work in a particular scene, which he found to be questionable.

Taika Waititi poses next to Tessa Thompson at a movie premiere

While breaking down the scene for Vanity Fair, Waititi pointed to the CGI character that Waititi himself voices, Korg, and asked if it looked real. Thompson responded, "In that particular shot, no actually.” Waititi then asked, "Doesn’t he need to be more blue?," before pointing to Thor and asking if he even looked real. The two actors also agreed that something looked "very off" about Thompson's character Valkyrie.

Tessa Thompson and Taika Waititi pose at a movie premiere

Thompson did defend the VFX artists by saying that Korg's hue may differ depending on the light, but it didn't stop people from criticizing Waititi for calling out the effects in his own movie, especially since Marvel Studios had recently come under fire over the poor working conditions they provided for their VFX artists.

Tessa Thompson and Taika Waititi pose at a movie premiere

11. Shia LaBeouf — Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox stand next to each other

In a 2010 interview with FHM, Shia LaBeouf revealed he "hated" the Transformers sequel. Along with a writer's strike, LaBeouf also cited the visuals as a major cause of the film's issues. "I got confused," he said, "I couldn't see what the fuck was going on, you know with certain robots...I couldn't decipher what was happening."

A van labeled "Department of Antiquities" is parked near two crouching people as a giant robot looms in the background

12. And finally, Michael Keaton

Michael Keaton as Batman sits in the cockpit of a vehicle

In a People magazine interview earlier this year, Michael Keaton discussed how important it was for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (the sequel to 1988's Beetlejuice) to have practical effects over digital ones. He said the movie "had to feel handmade" because "what made it fun was watching somebody in the corner actually holding something up for you, to watch everybody in the shrunken head room and say, ‘Those are people under there, operating these things, trying to get it right.'”

Michael Keaton waves in a fake cemetery-themed setting with tombstones

While he never called out the CGI of any specific films he's worked on, he did say, "It’s the most exciting thing when you get to do that again after years of standing in front of a giant screen, pretending somebody’s across the way from you.”

Homecoming" holds a futuristic device next to another character at a workstation with multiple screens

What do you think of the CGI in these movies? Let me know in the comments below!

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