Credit: Marvel StudiosGuardians of the Galaxy star Elizabeth Debicki says the Marvel Cinematic Universe is far more real than audiences think and not as reliant on computer-generated imagery as critics accuse it of. The MCU star calls director James Gunn’s direction “muscular,” in an interesting
Elizabeth Debicki has starred in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies since the second film in 2016 when she began portraying Ayesha, the massively tall, dignified high priestess of the Sovereign.
Although her character had a small role in the second film starring the most ragtag super-group of the MCU, she came much more to the forefront in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 (2023) as the mother figure of Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), a genetically engineered “perfect” being.
In Guardians 3, it was revealed that the Sovereign was actually the creation of the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), the insane space scientist also behind the development/torture of Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Counter-Earth. The film involved many weird space battles, a bioengineering research facility made out of living organic flesh, and Will Poulter flying through space to attack the Guardians before eventually becoming one of them.
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In short, the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are exactly the kind of MCU films that audiences might expect to be 100% CGI, except for stars like Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana (and even then, maybe not all the time). However, Elizabeth Debicki is here to counter that presumption, particularly when it comes to James Gunn.
Speaking to Collider, Elizabeth Debicki revealed that the most surprising thing to her about the MCU was how much practical effects were used. She said, “A lot of the things that I thought couldn’t possibly be real were real. I think that that’s because I made Guardians of the Galaxy with James Gunn. I haven’t made any other Marvel films, but, for instance, I couldn’t believe how much of the set is built.”
In particular, her character’s distinctive gold skin surprised Elizabeth Debicki by being a practical effect. She continued:
“Once I found out my skin was gold, I thought, ‘Okay, but maybe we’ll just CGI it.’ It’s so muscular the way that James makes those films. People are really zipping around on harnesses, and the set is built, and everyone really looks like that.”
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“I know that somebody like Dave Bautista was in makeup for, like, I don’t even know, five hours a day. I don’t know how they did that. I learned very quickly that it doesn’t matter how long your makeup call is, someone has it much worse, so don’t complain.”
The MCU has been increasingly criticized in recent years for its apparent overreliance on CGI effects and worlds, particularly in the poorly performing Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). Maybe those movies just needed the James Gunn treatment.
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