Emilia Clarke has said that she disagrees with people who think that acting in front of a green screen isn’t “real” acting.
The Game Of Thrones star, whose career has since her play roles in Star Wars franchise films and now the MCU Disney+ series Secret Invasion, has been subjected to using green screen in her work.
“The stigma is that people don’t do any acting in these shows,” Clarke told the Los Angeles Times, referring to performing while standing in front of a green screen. “[But] then you’re like, ‘Well, then why are they asking all these great actors to do it, and why are they saying yes?’”
The actress reasoned that if green screen acting wasn’t real acting then the acting greats – from Samuel L. Jackson to Olivia Colman – wouldn’t sign on to productions that need it.
Both those actors star alongside Clarke in Secret Invasion, as do Ben Mendelsohn, Don Cheadle and Kingsley Ben-Adir. The cast alone was enough for Clarke to join the Marvel series.
“The cast is ridiculous,” Clarke said. “I was like, ‘Where do I sign?’”
Her comments come a couple of years after Anthony Hopkins criticised green screen acting in an interview with The New Yorker. Hopkins was discussing his experience playing Odin in the Thor movies.
“On ‘Thor,’ you have Chris Hemsworth – who looks like Thor – and a director like Kenneth Branagh, who is so certain of what he wants,” Hopkins said. “They put me in armour; they shoved a beard on me. Sit on the throne; shout a bit. If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s pointless acting it.”
Angela Bassett, another member of the MCU as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, last year responded to Hopkins’ remarks – but said her green screen experience was “so much better”.
“The throne room was there, the floor of red clay, the elevation with the Dora Milaje flanking around, the grand doors that they walk through,” Bassett told The New Yorker.
“So maybe you don’t see the world of Wakanda, but we had that. When Shuri and I went out into the wild, we had trees and bushes and water for yards and yards and yards, and Namor came up out of the water and flew to us. We had the entire ship, and the attention to detail inside of it was just magnificent. So I had it much better than Anthony Hopkins. I’m sorry for him.”
Meanwhile, last month, Clarke said that she “almost ran over” her Secret Invasion co-star Jackson while filming the show.
Earlier this year she also said that she has “avoided” watching Game Of Thrones spinoff House Of The Dragon as it’s “too weird”.
Secret Invasion is currently in the middle of its run on Disney+. New episodes stream each Wednesday on the platform.