Ellen Page: Naughty Dog Ripped Off My Likeness

[his1nightmare]

Well well Mrs. Page, if you were a bit less likable with your easy-to-like face, things like this wouldn't happen.

Usually japanese developers and designers rip off faces/pictures and entire ideas without even thinking this could be an issue; at least this time we got americans doing the job.

I like Page as an actor, enjoyed all movies she was in (and had a lead role), so I won't raise my hand and say something like "Don't you have better things to do than "dislike" Ellie?". But I do not care enough to say, let's punish these shitters/oh, fuck off miss.
Still, if I had to pick a side, yeah, Naughty Dogs screwed it. -Especially- because of the sheer existance of Beyond: Two Souls.


One shall not forget, she was certainly asked for her opinion about this. It's absolutely not the case that she felt like expressing her thoughts to the biggest amount of people possible all by herself.

 

[Baldr]

Can you copyright your likeness? I am not familiar with the laws about this. Do celebrities go around suing lookalikes?

Yes, your likeness is sorta protected in the United States. The most famous case of this is Back to the Future. Crispin Glover played George McFly in the movie, when they went to do the sequels. He did not sign on. Not only did they replace him with another actor, they used prosthetics that made the other actor look like Crispin Glover.

Right I understand that in the case of live actors but in the case of something like this. I feel like it just isn't even close enough to warrant anything.

I totally agree, it would be different if Naughty Dog used Ellen Page's likeness and said to some extent : This character is "Ellen Page" or some to the effect of trying to make people believe it was Ellen Page. To the effect of EA's NCAA Football games where they show the likeness of the Athlete involved. Here Naughty Dog has a character that looks like Ellen Page and may have a similar name, but they are not wanting player to believe that it is Ellen Page, it is a totally different character.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Man, where the hell are the people in this thread getting the idea that she's going to sue or making a big deal about it. She said this during an AMA(Ask Me Anything). It was a response to someone asking her about it. So much knee-jerk in this thread.

I heard you brother. Most people just read the headline and then instantly go to comment based on that...

 

[Something Amyss]

But I hope she doesn't sue Naughty Dog.

It looks like all she's doing is saying "not cool, guys."

And censoring artists can set a very dangerous precedent.

Cool. When I break the law, my argument will be "censorship!" too.

 

[Something Amyss]

To the effect of EA's NCAA Football games where they show the likeness of the Athlete involved.

A right granted to them by the league in question or the individual players, depending on the setup.

So...Given that, how does this relate to the subject at hand?

 

[Baldr]

To the effect of EA's NCAA Football games where they show the likeness of the Athlete involved.

A right granted to them by the league in question or the individual players, depending on the setup.

So...Given that, how does this relate to the subject at hand?

Ok, any NCAA athletes are not suppose to make money from them being a NCAA athlete. EA got the rights to Make NCAA games from the NCAA, but at time it was unclear if NCAA rules super-cede protections on likeness. So EA created the teams based on the real likeness of the players, but left the names off the Jerseys. A couple athletes sued EA for using their likeness and won.

 

[4Aces]

Looks and sounds were almost identical until they 'completely, and arbitrarily' decided to change her? I guess ND is taking their PR cues from M$ now? Similar to her, without a doubt. Was it modeled off of her before the change (appearance and sound), also without a doubt. They altered it the 15% their lawyers explained was enough to prevent the lawsuit. Still a bad move in an industry replete with bad moves (ya, Randy, still thinking of you).

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Ellie does bear more than a striking resemblance to Ellen Page. I fact when I first saw the game I thought it was intentional. The thing is she was actually redesigned since the initial reveal and her previous incarnation looks even closer to Ellen Page.

 

[negimafan587]

Honestly I was walking through the mall and saw a poster, for beyond two souls, and without reading the name thought it was Ellie. While their likeness is very close Ellen Paige is really kinda average/common looking, so if naughty dog was trying to make and average teenage girl she would be a good starting point.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I suppose they could just say it was an homage to the cute hipster girls that are currently kind of popular in the movies, you know, the kind she likes to play, and apologize that she was offended, and hope that sorts some things out. You could also make a case that it's a dead ringer for a younger Natalie Portman.

 

[Astoria]

Not to sound mean but Ellen Page has a pretty simple look, it would hard to make a child character with that sorta hair not look somewhat like her. The new Ellie looks different enough to me that I wouldn't look at her and go 'oh that's Ellen Page'. I get that celebrities have to stand up for themselves in this sorta situation so they don't get taken advantage of but there isn't much in this.

 

[crazy_madness]

i thought she acted and voiced the game... haha
because i saw some footage of the motion capturing work for Beyond Two Souls in jimquisition...
oh well...

 

[Therumancer]

Sounds like Ellen Page needs to grow up.

Not too long ago what a lot of people suspected about "Ariel" from "The Little Mermaid" being based on a young Alyssa Milano (Charmed, Who's The Boss, etc...) was confirmed. Alyssa herself suspected but was not sure apparently until they just flat out said so, at which point the response was pretty upbeat.

This seems like the same thing, but in this case Ellen is getting all upset based on the suspicion, and comes across like a twit.

In general artists have been basing their work off of real people for a long time. Sometimes just sitting out in the street and painting passers by and so on. This is hardly the first case of complaints like this, but to be honest I think it creates a fairly hostile creative environment and is counter-productive to everyone.

The implication here is that Ellen seems to think that if anyone can create pictures of her, it lowers her value when she actually sells herself as a product. While I can see the argument, I can't help but disagree with it as artists have worked from pictures and such for many years, and there is a huge difference between working second hand and doing it with the live model right there. Assuming "Ellie" is based on Ellen Page, at the end of the day their version isn't going to be as good as actually hiring her as a mo-cap actress if they are intending this to be a big part of their game.

 

[mysecondlife]

Can you copyright your likeness? I am not familiar with the laws about this. Do celebrities go around suing lookalikes?

How can you sue someone on the basis that "One of their characters looks and sounds a little like me". Is that even possible? That is fuckign dumb, there's absolutely no ground for anyone to sue anyone here, unless the court system in USA/Canada in beyond fucked and has entered some kind of warped reality where every is a dumbass.

I kind of dumb the likeness was purely coincidental, but still.

It happened on Back to the Future movies (snippets taken from wikipedia)

George Douglas McFly (portrayed by Crispin Glover in Back to the Future and by Jeffrey Weissman in Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III......

...George's character was greatly reduced in the sequels, and the role was recast to Jeffrey Weissman. Weissman wore prosthetics to resemble Glover and imitated Glover's rendering of McFly, and his scenes were spliced with shots of Glover from Back to the Future. The result was a very convincing rendering of George?one so convincing, in fact, that many people were fooled by it. Glover did not appreciate this, and sued. The lawsuit resulted in the adoption of stricter rules by the Screen Actors Guild to prevent this situation from occurring again.

Yeah, its SAG stuff. But I do think if Ellen Paige decides to pursue this, she has a solid case.

She only answered the question because a reddit user asked her on AMA so it doesn't seem like she'll sue.

 

[SlightlyEvil]

True story: Though I was not following either Beyond: Two Souls or The Last of Us very closely, I did remember that Ellen Page was appearing in a game. When I saw the launch trailers for The Last of Us, I assumed that was the game actually starring page. I didn't even realize the difference until seeing this article.

 

[Lieju]

I dunno, all of you humans look the same to me.
But seeing how many people thought she did mo-cap for this game and confused it with the game she actually worked for, I see where she is coming from.

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

What does that have to do with anything?

 

[Goofguy]

Good publicity for Beyond: Two Souls seeing as how it has been eclipsed by The Last of Us for the longest time.

 

[Dogstile]

Oh please all white people look the same.

Same way all black people look the same right? And those pesky Asians, all look exactly the same!

(Please tell me you're joking)

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

You could also make a case that it's a dead ringer for a younger Natalie Portman.

No you couldn't. Unless one is suffering from prosopagnosia, Ellie looks nothing like a young Natalie Portman.

It's pretty obvious that Naughty Dog were basing Ellie's likeness on Ellen Page.

 

[Lilani]

I definitely thought this was the game she was doing mocap for. It seems she isn't going to sue at this point[footnote]And I don't think she should, even though she would have legal grounds to there's no way she could come out of the situation looking good.[/footnote], but I think Naughty Dog should just admit that perhaps a few people did talk around the office that it did look like Ellen Page, or even perhaps that she was one of their inspirations when coming up with the character. They should just be honest, I think that's all Ellen is after. I don't see how such a huge group of people could have worked in this project and not ONE of them spoke up and mentioned at some point "Hey guys...doesn't this look like that chick from Juno?"