Hollywood, thy name is vanity. In strict secrecy, the on-screen faces of some aging movie stars are now being digitally enhanced to remove wrinkles, eye bags and other features considered unsightly.
That is one of the startling revelations on the new DVD for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, out tomorrow.
"Not everyone looks perfect every day -- not even Hollywood royalty," says Edson Williams, Benjamin Button's visual effects supervisor from the pioneering Santa Monica company Lola Visual Effects. "Using these techniques," Williams says on the DVD, "we can make everyone look a little better. With Benjamin Button, it's been great working on this project because we can actually tell people what we're doing. Most of the work we do is so secretive that we can't tell anyone!"
On the Oscar-nominated Benjamin Button, Lola de-aged the now 45-year-old Brad Pitt for his later scenes as the title character, who is born looking ancient and gets younger in appearance as he grows older. In the case of co-star Cate Blanchett, who turns 40 May 14th, the process removed her natural wrinkles to let her play Daisy as a 17-year-old ballerina.
The Lola process, known as digital cosmetic enhancement (or DCE), has also been used openly in other recent productions. Jack Nicholson was de-aged for scenes in The Departed. Both Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were made to look 20 years younger for flashback scenes in X-Men: The Last Stand.
But the use of the technique on other movie stars -- in strict secrecy -- is one of the untold stories of modern Hollywood. And it may have disturbing implications if people look to the movies for role models. More than ever, you can't believe your eyes.
