10 Times The Actors Were De-Aged For a Role And Looked Way Too Creepy
No one gets younger over time, and technology can't fix that yet.
Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins (2009)
The fourth part of the Terminator franchise is set in the future during John Connor's war against Skynet. In the finale, we get to see the young T-800 once again: Arnold Schwarzenegger was de-aged for that scene — but the rejuvenation didn't work out too well.
Funny enough, the actor did not participate in the shooting (he was busy governing California): in fact, young Terminator was played by a stand-in, and then Schwarzenegger's face was superimposed in post-production.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Two Knights of the British Empire, Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen, fell victims to CGI rejuvenation playing the younger versions of their heroes, Professor Charles Xavier and Erik "Magneto" Lensherr.
Tron: Legacy (2010)
Like The Terminator, Tron was another iconic film from the 1980s. The sequel's main character is Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the son of the original film's protagonist Kevin Flynn. Sam goes to search for his father in the vast cyber universe and eventually finds his fresher-looking version: actor Jeff Bridges was de-aged for that scene, and he looks unnaturally young.
Grudge Match (2013)
Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone once played two prominent boxers: Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull and Rocky Balboa in Rocky. In Grudge Match, the actors are back in the ring, but they now play different characters and are considerably older.
However, there is one flashback scene with Stallone subjected to digital de-aging, which didn't look good on him at all.
The Irishman (2019)
Martin Scorsese's movie features a rejuvenated version of Robert De Niro: as his character, Jimmy Hoffa, reminisces about the old days, we get to see the actor's de-aged face for almost the entire film.
By the way, back in the 1980s, De Niro had to do the exact opposite thing for his role in the legendary crime drama Once Upon a Time in America, where his character had to look older.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
One of the series' installments shows Jack Sparrow as a young man. The CGI mask made the future captain's face appear cold and inexpressive, compared to its older version.
Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One (2016)
The new Star Wars feature two actors who played in the original trilogy: Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin). The former was de-aged, and the latter "resurrected" using advanced CGI.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Creators of the Marvel Cinematic Universe often play around with the movies' timeline and have done digital de-aging on their characters more than once: young Tony Stark in Civil War is perhaps the most prominent example.
Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2015)
The is a sequel to Tim Burton's feature-length debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, which tells the story of a cheerful inhabitant of the American suburbs named Pee-wee Herman.
In the new movie, Paul Reubens didn't escape the embarrassing fate and had to undergo some digital rejuvenation too.
Ant-Man (2015)
Another Marvel movie showcases a young version of Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas. Of all the examples of CGI-assisted de-aging, this is probably the most successful one: the actor does look like himself when he was a young man. That, however, is not surprising since the CGI experts had plenty of archival footage to work with: Douglas began filming in the early 1970s.