Like so many Hollywood blockbusters these days that utilize CGI, the Marvel movies utilize green screens a lot, as it’s necessary in order to create specific environments, bring certain characters to life, etc. Even 2021’s Eternals, which was primarily a practical shoot (according to Kumail Nanjiani) relied on them at least a little bit. Still, every now and then, an actor will criticize the experience of acting in front of green screens. Game of Thrones alum Emilia Clarke, who’s fresh off the Marvel series Secret Invasion, has now shared her thoughts about such smack talking, and she’s not wrong.
Disney+ subscribers can currently see Emilia Clarke starring in Secret Invasion as Gi’ah, daughter of Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos and one of the many shapeshifting Skrulls this story focuses on. While talking to The Los Angeles Times about the latest MCU show, Clarke said the following about actors who’ve said that performing in front of green screens doesn’t count as “real” acting:
The stigma is that people don’t do any acting in these shows. [But] then you’re like, ‘Well, then why are they asking all these great actors to do it, and why are they saying yes?
Among the actors who have this negative mindset towards Marvel’s use of green screens is Anthony Hopkins, who played Odin in the first three Thor movies. During a New Yorker interview in 2021, Hopkins described being put in front of a green screen as “pointless acting.” Christian Bale, who played Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder, voiced similar thoughts last October, describing that experience of green screen acting as the “definition” of “monotony.”
But as Emilia Clarke explained, Marvel is still able to pull in big-name actors for its various movies and TV shows despite it being common knowledge that they use green screens, so evidently this isn’t the deterrent in which it’s sometimes been framed. On the subject of talent, Clarke’s other costars on Secret Invasion include Samuel L. Jackson, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Olivia Colman and Don Cheadle, so it’s no wonder she also said this about why appearing in the show was so appealing to her.
The cast is ridiculous. I was like, ‘Where do I sign?
Going back to green screen acting, let’s also keep in mind that these actors are still showing off their performing chops, it’s just a matter of them having to imagine the environment their character is in and/or a specific character they’re interacting with in a scene. So yes, that can make the acting process more challenging, but it certainly wasn’t enough to steer Clarke away from doing Secret Invasion. Besides, even though this is a show revolving around aliens that can disguise themselves as humans, it has a more grounded feel to it compared to a lot of other Marvel projects, specifically being tonally similar to Captain America: The Winter Soldier with its political intrigue. So that’ll certainly help it stand out among this franchise’s other offerings.
New episodes of Secret Invasion premiere Wednesdays on Disney+. Be sure to look through the guides of upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows to see what the MCU has coming down the creative pipeline over the next several years.
