Photo Credit: HBOThere is once again a lot of chatter surrounding what some consider to be excessive use of green screens by film companies like Marvel, who are mainly eschewing practical sets in favor of the render-able alternative.
These complaints are valid. Practical sets and environments are becoming a lost art in Hollywood, and when the correct time, care, and budget are put in, seeing actors play in a real space makes a huge difference in the film’s overall effect.
However, accusing the actors hired to perform these roles is deeply unfair, as some have taken to doing. Emilia Clarke, star of Marvel’s Secret Invasion, recently fired back at these naysayers, glibly asking:
“The stigma is that people don’t do any acting in these shows, and then you’re like, ‘Well, then why are they asking all these great actors to do it, and why are they saying yes?'”
Green Screen Acting Actually Requires More Skill
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Clarke’s point stands to reason, and as someone who studied acting myself, I’d take it a step further: The reason Marvel has to hire all these great actors is that green screen acting is incredibly difficult, and actors with less skill couldn’t do these roles nearly as much justice.
Clarke was likely replying, at least in part, to actor Anthony Hopkins, who played Odin in the Thor movies. Around two years ago, Hopkins complained that it was “futile to act when you’re sitting in front of a green screen.”
Any actor in the world will tell you that acting in front of a green screen can be a challenging experience to navigate – especially in situations where your environment is supposed to contain elements, even characters, that you are meant to focus on and interact with. This is because a lot of the craft of acting involves playing off of your environment, your surroundings, and the other people or creatures you’re acting with.
Naturally, this means that acting gets a little more complicated when your surroundings simply consist of a green screen, a few set pieces, and other characters in costume.
Minimal Sets Are Used In Great Theatre All The Time
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However, Hopkins’ assertion that any attempt at acting in these situations is “futile” is more likely an expression of his own feelings about the Marvel franchise, or perhaps the small size of his part, than anything else because any actor who has appeared in a production of a play like Our Town will tell you that a robust set is not at all a necessary piece of the acting experience.
As Sanford Meisner, founder of the Meisner technique of acting, famously said:
“Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”
Is it more challenging to live truthfully in a green-screen world? Absolutely. Without the benefit of a physical setting to mentally place you in the world your character lives in, it is up to you, the actor, to imagine you are in the environment for yourself. A great actor will make themselves believe they are there, even if it takes days of preparation beforehand.
As somebody who is much closer to the small-time play productions than most of those film stars are, I believe that a hatred of green screen acting displays a strange kind of privilege that applies to more seasoned actors.
Have Actors Who Complain About Green Screens Forgotten Their Roots?
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If it’s been years since you had to star in a rinky-dink play production with no budget for an actual set – or if you’ve never had to do that at all – of course, you’re going to balk when you see the minimalism that is a green screen set. However, plenty of excellent acting performances have happened in tiny black box theaters with no more than a chair and a table or a couple of blocks that the actors move around – it just takes some extra effort in the imagination department.
You can criticize Marvel’s use of green screens all you want – the big-budget studio does not have the same excuses for their minimal sets as small theatre companies. However, to say that the actors who do their work in front of green screens are not acting is not only ridiculous, it’s also the opposite of true.
Any actor who can give a convincing green screen performance is probably one of the best there is – and any great actor who says they can’t is probably really saying that they feel Marvel isn’t worth the effort.
Have you ever had to act with a minimal set or costumes? Ever worked with a green screen? What’s your opinion on this debate? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments.