Shazam! Fury Of The Gods director denies Wonder Woman appearance was a deep fake
Director David F. Sandberg said Gal Gadot's cameo was "shot in England," while he "directed remotely" due to a "visa issue"
Aux News Shazam!
The Flash may have iconically entered the speed force, but now Wonder Woman has entered her own type of CGI void: the deep fake discourse. In what may be Gal Gadot’s final performance as Wonder Woman in the DCEU, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods’ rocky VFX cameo of the Amazonian superhero has led to some filmgoer’s questioning if Gadot was even on set and whether her face was deep faked onto her body double in the scene. However, director David F. Sandberg is setting the record straight about Gadot’s appearance in the DC superhero film.
“A certain cameo in Shazam! Fury Of The Gods had to be shot in England, but I couldn’t go because of a visa issue so I directed remotely,” wrote Sandberg on Twitter while sharing a video of him directing Gadot in the scene via what appears to be a Zoom call. “It wasn’t a deepfake as some believe.”
All of the deep fake rumors seem to have stemmed from set photos of Shazam 2, which showed Gadot’s body double Taylor Cahill dressed in the Wonder Woman garb for the scene. Which, for body doubles, is kind of their job, but fans instead took this as Cahill acting out the whole scene and then having Gadot’s face plopped right on top of hers. That isn’t the case, as Sandberg points out the scene was first shot with Cahill in order to figure out “what coverage” they needed for Gadot.
“We shot the scene with Taylor to figure out what coverage we then needed to get with Gal since she couldn’t make it to Atlanta,” tweeted Sandberg in another reply. “It’s also Taylor’s body with the wizards head on it. There is absolutely no deepfaking going on. When you see Gal it’s 100% her.”
While the deep faking rumors may have been dispelled for Wonder Woman, let’s just hope this doesn’t give any studio heads ideas to make superhero movies even more green-screen complacent (or Star Wars properties, either).
26 Comments
I’m certain this will change the minds of the type of people who call anything a “deepfake”
Of course Grace Randolph is involved. Pretty much any time this kind of dumb take crosses my screen it’s either a Snyderbro or Grace Randolph. She just keeps making up accusations and boosting nonsense claims for the clicks.
if this is the press cycle for shazam 2 the internet is basically going to be unusable when flash comes out.
Honestly the biggest worry the Flash people have right now is that the movie is just average. It needs to either be absolutely great or a huge train wreck.
this isn’t really about the quality of the movie, i’m just saying if this kicked up so much dust flash is gonna be a bad few weeks.
Didn’t you hear? Tom Cruise loved it.
I love that Shazaam/DC films look so shitty it’s difficult to tell if a persons face is actually their face.
There is no way it was a deep fake. Nothing Gal Gadot has ever done can be called “deep”
The woman has less screen presence than Orlando Bloom, which I didn’t think was humanly possible. It’s amazing that someone that stunning can be so completely forgettable.
I’ve always noticed but I just couldn’t sit threw her acting in WW84. It was like watching the dialogue at the beginning of a porno.
Gal Gadot is so wooden it reminds me how impressive it is that movie stars can look so natural on camera.
I have similar issues with Evangeline Lilly whose one go-to expression is consternation. There’s models-turned-actors who do incredible work—Charlize Theron, Milla Jovovich, heck even Eddie Redmayne in the right role—and then there’s folks where you’re like ‘ah, so the face was really all they had going for them, huh?’
The 50s and the 80s cranked-out a tonne of movies whose cast were exclusively comprised of these handsome wooden mannequins (Alien from L.A., anyone?), but it’s largely a practice that’s faded away. Gal Gadot was perfectly functional in the Fast movies because it asked next to nothing of her but to smile alluringly, but even Michelle Rodriguez acts rings around her, and that’s an actor I’ve only ever seen play exactly one character.
(I’ve always wondered what Michelle Rodriguez could do if anyone let her do something other than a riff on Vasquez-in-Aliens. Maybe that’s all she wants to do, but who knows?)
Shazam and Superman were visiting a local elementary school to talk to the children about the dangers of lighting their farts on fire. They had heard that some kids at the school had been trying to do it and wanted to make sure they understood the risks.The kids were excited to see their heroes and asked all kinds of questions, but Shazam and Superman knew they had an important message to deliver. They explained that lighting your farts on fire could cause serious injury, including burns and even explosions.Shazam demonstrated the dangers by creating a small explosion with his lightning powers, showing the children the kind of damage that could happen if they were not careful. Superman also spoke about the importance of taking responsibility for one’s actions and the potential consequences of reckless behavior.The kids listened attentively and were impressed by the superheroes’ message. They promised to never try lighting their farts on fire and to spread the word to their friends.As the event came to an end, the children eagerly gathered around Shazam and Superman for a group photo. The two heroes smiled and posed with the kids, happy to have made a positive impact on their community. And just as the photographer said “Cheese!”, both caped titans let one rip in unison, enveloping the children in their vile stench.
And then what happened?
Because the farts were superpowered, all the children died. The photo was then used as evidence in case brought against the heroes for mass child murder.
Imagine giving enough of a shit about the cameo at the end of Shazam 2 to create a conspiracy about it. Imagine carrying half as much, in any way, about Shazam 2, a movie we already all forgot happened.
I mean, I saw it and I thought it looked weird too, but then I remembered that’s just her “acting”.
Probably for the best to throw the champagne away.
Liquids and android electronics don’t mix.
The save money tweet embedded doesn’t even make sense on it’s own. Doing a deepfake edit of her face onto the double would absolutely save money, as oppsoed to paying Gal Gadot’s fee and travel expenses. Pretty clearly that isn’t what happened anyway though. It’s always fun when people who don’t have a clue who any media production works see set photos and their tiny minds are blown.
The studio would likely still need to pay Gadot’s fee if they used her likeness.
A fee to use her likeness but not an entire day’s acting wage.
Spoiler?
I mean the movie’s only been out for little over a week and you’re spoiling a Wonder Woman surprise (I assume, I didn’t know she was in it) cameo in the title link.
They put it in the marketing as a Hail Mary play.
jokes on you she was in the trailer!
Back in the day, we didn’t have these deep-fakes. If the actor you wanted wasn’t available, you just hired your chiropractor and got him to cover his face with a cape.
What kind of a visa issue could he have had? They even let people like me into the UK!
I’m pretty sure Brexit fucked up UK immigration systems for decades to come. I mean, they barely just avoided a sequel to The Troubles. For this, it was probably less dramatic and some mostly bureaucratic “you didn’t put the right date on form C” bullshit, but the immigration staff’s workload has geometrically increased in both labor hours and in complexity since 2016, without a similar geometric increase in labor numbers and training. So even minor issues likely prevent more people’s travel entirely now.