Ellen Page: Naughty Dog Ripped Off My Likeness

[Steven Bogos]

Ellen Page: Naughty Dog Ripped Off My Likeness

The actress best known for Juno doesn't appreciate that Ellie from The Last Of Us looks and sounds like her.

Ellen Page, an actress best known for her roles in Juno and Inception, by some accounts, looks and sounds remarkably similar to Ellie from Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. It turns out she thinks so too, telling reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1gxgfx/i_am_actress_ellen_page_amaa/] in an AMA, "I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness, but I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond Two Souls, so it was not appreciated."

Originally, the character bore even more resemblance to Page, but shortly after the actress signed on to voice the character Jodie in David Cage's Beyond Two Souls [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/10406-Beyond-Two-Souls-is-Almost-Beyond-Belief], Ellie underwent some changes. The new look Ellie that was in in the retail version looks younger with a "slimmer" face.

While it seems obvious that the character changes were made to avoid stepping on any toes, Naughty Dog actually came out in the past and claimed that Ellie's character make-over had "nothing to do" [http://www.primagames.com/games/last-us/news/naughty-dog-last-us-ellie-changes-are-nothing-do] with Page's casting in Beyond Two Souls. It said it was a "complete coincidence" that changes were made to Ellie's appearance and character after people pointed out the similarity between the two.

Page also talks a bit about her work on Beyond in the AMA. "We did do our own motion capture," she said, when asked if she and co-star Willem Dafoe did motion capture for the game, "The suits are not that bad actually...it is sort of nice to not worry about wardrobe."

"Willem is an incredible actor and I loved working with him," she added.

What do you think? Does Ellie look and sound a little bit too much like Ellen Page? Or is it just a big coincidence?

Source: Forbes [http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1gxgfx/i_am_actress_ellen_page_amaa/]

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[CriticalMiss]

Hmm. Similar names. Similar faces. Both have hair. I guess Naughty Dog wanted her to appear in the game, but didn't get around to asking?

"Hey, wasn't their something we were supposed to do last week?"
"I don't think so. Oh look, Ellen Page just signed on for that Beyond Two Souls game."
"Oh fu..."

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Yeah, seems like a pretty straightforward case of them using (and profiting from) her likeness without her permission.

 

[kordo]

Absolutely they ripped off her likeness. First thought when I saw Ellie was 'Ellen Paige'. Hell even the name is similar...

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I'd actually always assumed that Naughty Dog had hired Ellen Page to do VA and motion capture for Ellie, and just weren't making as big a deal of it as David Cage was for Beyond: Two Souls. So based on that, I'd say she has a good case.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

So I'm not the only one who thinks that Ellie bares a striking resemblance to Ellen Page? Come on, even her name is similar. I don't have a problem with it though. Probably because I'm not Ellen Page.

But I hope she doesn't sue Naughty Dog. I quite like Ellen Page. And this American culture of suing everyone for everything is really a bad habit. If it's not hurting anybody, let it go. I still can't get over the fact that my favorite actress is suing a French novelist for making a character that looks like her in a book. That's just silly. And censoring artists can set a very dangerous precedent.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, can't we all just get along?

 

[kael013]

Oh, please. Ellie's forehead is smaller, cheekbones are higher, lips are fuller, nose tip is flatter, and her eyes are rounder. Beyond that Ellie's eyes are green instead of brown, her hair is a reddish-brown instead of Ellen's black-brown, and her skin is a peachy color while Ellen's is more tan (Yes I realize I'm nitpicking to the extreme).

All in all, Ellie reminds me of 3 girls from high school; does that mean Naughty Dog ripped off their appearance from Facebook photos? Of course not; the reason is because humans have a basic facial structure with only so many variances (narrow eyes, round eyes, squinty eyes, high cheekbones, low cheekbones, bushy eyebrows, thin eyebrows, to name a few). If you keep mixing the features up eventually you'll get near-identical results (ever mistaken someone for someone else?). As for voice, that depends a lot on accent.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I had also assumed that it was common knowledge that they look, aside from age, exactly the same. The name didn't tip you off? They probably thought calling her Paige would have been too on the nose.

 

[Rellik San]

I remember the Edge preview of both those games turning to my girlfriend (who also bares a striking similarity to Ellen Page) and saying: "You totally have to do a lets play of both games so I can put up videos of Ellen Page playing with herself on youtube."

In fact as my girlfriend is older, maybe she should claim Ellen Page has ripped off her likeness.


Well ok, besides trolling the celebs, yes Ellie does or rather did look like EP, BUT that's bound to happen when a lot of your career is spent ensuring you become the "go to" face of teenage girls in movies.

 

[Arawn]

I'm not sure if it's true, honestly I don't see it. But frankly why hadn't she noticed this before now? I'd think someone would have mentioned this to her. There have been trailers on for weeks and the game trailer abit longer than that. Suddenly it's "hey, she looks like me". Really seems odd. Perhaps this is just to get the already noteworthy game even more attention. Frankly I'd say it's not needed. Should the claim hold true, I'm disappointed with the game makers for such a violation. They better get ready to pay for it; one way or another.

*Sees the lawyers coming and runs.*

 

[Rellik San]

I'm not sure if it's true, honestly I don't see it. But frankly why hadn't she noticed this before now? I'd think someone would have mentioned this to her. There have been trailers on for weeks and the game trailer abit longer than that. Suddenly it's "hey, she looks like me". Really seems odd. Perhaps this is just to get the already noteworthy game even more attention. Frankly I'd say it's not needed. Should the claim hold true, I'm disappointed with the game makers for such a violation. They better get ready to pay for it; one way or another.

*Sees the lawyers coming and runs.*

I think it's far more likely she see's it as looking more like a younger her than modern her and whilst she may not have approved, she also doesn't seem like the type to go charging in with lawyers for royalties.

 

[Sixcess]

I wonder if she'll sue. An actor's face is their fortune, as the saying goes, and there could well be a case to be made.

With video games now able to handle identifiable likenesses of real people this kind of 'casting' is going to come up again, and it's only a matter of time before it ends up in court. Naughty Dog should be glad the game has been well received and doesn't misuse the character, because if Page did take this further I imagine she would certainly win.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

There's similarities sure, but Ellie looks different, her mouth is different for a start, her eyes are rounder and her cheekbones are less defined.

Also, I like Ellie, so there's a difference straight away.

 

[octafish]

Famous for Juno and Inception? Yet praised for Hard Candy, where she looks almost exactly like Ellie...

 

[josemlopes]

I still dont get why the internet has such a huge boner for her, she is such an annoying actress.

 

[Smiley Face]

Oh, please. Ellie's forehead is smaller, cheekbones are higher, lips are fuller, nose tip is flatter, and her eyes are rounder. Beyond that Ellie's eyes are green instead of brown, her hair is a reddish-brown instead of Ellen's black-brown, and her skin is a peachy color while Ellen's is more tan (Yes I realize I'm nitpicking to the extreme).

All in all, Ellie reminds me of 3 girls from high school; does that mean Naughty Dog ripped off their appearance from Facebook photos? Of course not; the reason is because humans have a basic facial structure with only so many variances (narrow eyes, round eyes, squinty eyes, high cheekbones, low cheekbones, bushy eyebrows, thin eyebrows, to name a few). If you keep mixing the features up eventually you'll get near-identical results (ever mistaken someone for someone else?). As for voice, that depends a lot on accent.

TL;DR: Ellen is being arrogant about her fame and needs to get off her high horse.

Oh, I don't know about that. I never forget, and rarely confuse, either faces or voices, and for the life of me, when I first started looking at stuff for The Last of Us, it took me a second or two to file it under 'Not younger Ellen Page' - and the voice is similar too, although I've heard less of it since I haven't gotten around to getting the game yet.

Is it coincidence? Technically it could be, but I'd consider it far more likely that they loosely used a performance of Page's as a baseline to model the character around - which I find it hard to blame them for, as they did go out of their way to create dissimilarities.

It's not letting fame go to your head to make an observation like that. It might be if you DO something about it without good cause, but that's not happening, now is it?

And I don't know, maybe as we get further in to more realistic faces and whatnot, issues like this will innocently pop up.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Eh, there are enough similarities to see how she might come to that, but from what I remember the original was a lot closer, and there are enough differences to tell them apart, if Ellie was a real person.

Here's hoping she doesn't decide to lawyer up in any case, because I actually quite like Ellen Page.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

When did The Escapist become The Inquirer? Is this really the kind of shit we care about?

I hope not.