Emily Blunt Almost Had a Massive Scene Ruined by Hysterical Jessica Chastain
Back in 2016, CGI played a crooked joke on Emily Blunt whose hilarious appearance almost made Jessica Chastain ruin her “50 horses, 100 extras” scene with sudden bursts of laughter.
CGI is a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, it allows to create phenomenal non-existing sceneries and beasts in live-action movies, blending fantasy and sci-fi settings with reality. On the other hand, it eats gigantic holes in movies’ budgets, might look ridiculously out of place, and can lead to bizarre-looking on-set situations that make everyone too funny to keep filming.
As you know, CGI largely makes use of green screens: those register as blank space, and the VFX artists can later add computer graphics to replace them.
While helpful, the abuse of green screens sees actors looking rather daft, surrounded by all-green sceneries, riding green animatronics, and running with green men around.
For Emily Blunt, the green screen practice almost cost her a massive scene with a giant budget; this happened during the filming of 2016’s The Huntsman: Winter's War.
In the movie, Blunt looks phenomenal riding her fantastic beast, but in reality, her bizarre appearance almost made Jessica Chastain lose her composure and ruin the scene.
In the scene, Emily Blunt was supposed to ride on a large wolf-bear creature which obviously doesn’t exist — so instead, she had to sit side-saddle on a “large green screen mound on a cart that someone was driving,” and it looked hysterical.
“So I’m just like this on it [moves up and down while sitting with an arrogant face], driving at a glacial pace towards the other actors… And I just remember coming towards Jessica Chastain, and she was like this [mimics desperately withholding laughter], like trying not to laugh ‘cause she knew if she made me laugh, the whole shot would be ruined. And you’re talking about 50 horses, 100 extras,” Blunt explained.
Say what you will, but it’s these kinds of stories that make us realize how few people could actually be actors in the modern world. Like, let’s be real: not everyone’s Tom Cruise, but everyone has to deal with this sort of green-screen shenanigans on the set these days… And keeping a straight, proper face is virtually impossible.
Where’s Jessica Chastain’s Oscar for saving the shot despite being torn inside?
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live! via YouTube