Jonah Hill Needs CGI For Kiss Scenes
Jonah Hill apparently needed CGI to have the final kiss scene with Laura London actually achieved.
Jonah Hill and Lauren London seem to be merging into one another using CGI in their recent film You People. The film, which functions as a sort of modern retelling of the classic Sydney Poitier film Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, by examining the racial construction of society through a romantic relationship, seems to lack the appropriate chemistry to tell its story. This is the case according to You People co-star Andrew Schultz, who speculates that CGI was used to fake the climactic kiss at the end of the film, as reported by People this week.
Andrew Schultz discussed the final moments of the film last week during his podcast The Brilliant Idiots with his co-host Charlamagne The God and guest Nyla Symone, stating that he initially thought the scene would cut to black before the kiss.
Schultz was present when the scene was filmed and claimed that the shooting entailed Jonah Hill and Lauren London leaning forward to kiss but never actually touching lips. The final edit of the film though, shows them kissing in a slightly uncanny valley visual. Reps for both leading actors have declined to comment on the scene at this time, but it’s tough to deny that the final product looks like it was crafted using the Dall-E Mini.
The film centers around Jonah Hill and Lauren London, who fall in love but must convince their families to get along. Hill’s parents, as portrayed by Julia Louis Dreyfus and David Duchovny, are culturally Jewish, whereas Lauren London’s parents, as played by Eddie Murphy and Nia Long, are Muslims of African American background. The film was written and directed by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, whose work often bares a focus on racial discourse within modern society.
The romance at the center of the film is charismatic and charming, though constantly under threat of falling apart due to outside influence, as the warring in-laws seem incapable of getting along. Of course, the film concludes with Jonah Hill and Lauren London’s love prevailing, proving the timeless lesson that race or ethnic identity should never prevent love. Unfortunately, the final moments of the film seem to be undercut by the bizarre editing choice to computer-generate the climactic kiss scene.
CGI is obviously an incredibly useful and practical method for achieving the desired shot when mistakes were made during the shoot. Or it can be used when the feat being produced on screen is downright impossible, like the explosive action of a Marvel film. It is highly unusual, however, to CGI a simple kiss scene, particularly when the couple kiss on screen earlier in the film anyway. This has led to fan speculation online as to why the kiss was faked in the first place, forcing fans to question the chemistry between Jonah Hill and Lauren London on set.
You People has received mixed reviews for a number of reasons, chiefly among them the supposed lack of genuine chemistry between the romantic leads. The film is available to catch on Netflix now if you’d still like to catch it, just make sure you aren’t too afraid of the uncanny valley, or the haunting image of Lauren London melting into Jonah Hill’s mouth may take your viewing experience from romantic to thrilling!
