Actress Made 20 Years Younger With Special Effects

I can't stop watching this video of an actress made younger through the magic of special effects. It's absolutely mesmerizing. Created by Rousselos Aravantinos in the VFX program NUKE, the technology is not something I can even begin to understand. I'm seriously blown away by the level of technology I observe in my toaster oven... to be fair, it's a really nice toaster oven. Michele Valley, the actress in the video, is aged down probably 20 or so years. You'd think that might wind up looking stark and artificial, but it's actually very natural looking and subtle. She looks every bit herself, just... younger. The whole thing is damn impressive.

As impressive as this is, I cynically question if there is any real application for this. It's not like Hollywood has a dearth of hot young actors aching to get on the screen or directors and producers who want to put them there. Movies are full of fresh young faces and the older ones, unfortunately, are usually shuffled off to obscurity or infomercials. (Amy Schumer filled us all in on actresses' "last f*ckable day"). It strikes me that the people who make and, more relevantly, finance movies would be more inclined to hire a younger actor than to go through the time, effort, and money to age an actor down with this technology. And sure, there are some movies where an actor plays a younger version of themselves where this might be useful, but the job of making a famous face appear younger can be done more cheaply with make-up and costuming. Just ask Drew Barrymore's Josie Grossie in Never Been Kissed.

Then of course there's the idea that this could be used in movies the way airbrushing and Photoshop are used in magazines and on billboards — to perpetuate a completely impossible standard. This would be, to use a technical term here: super yucky. It's like The Portrait of Dorian Gray in reverse, where the person ages but the image stays exactly the same.

Regardless of its use, however, you've got to admire the product itself. Check out the video below...

Images: YouTube; Giphy