‘You People’: Jonah Hill and Lauren London’s kiss was computer-generated

“You People” is Netflix’s new Valentine’s Day movie, in which Jonah Hill plays Ezra, an upper-class Jew who falls in love with Amira (Lauren London), a Muslim, despite little support from her parents. Their love story will be able to break all barriers and unite two extremely different families. However, What struck the romantic comedy most was not its message about love and tolerance, but a kiss that is not what it seems.

Andrew Schulz, who plays Hill’s cousin in the film, revealed on his podcast The Brilliant Idiots that in the final wedding scene, that climax moment in any romantic movie, the actors aren’t actually kissing. “I don’t even know if I can count it but in the final scene they don’t kiss. It’s CGI. I swear”. Schulz says he was present at the time of filming the scene, and as the pair were about to kiss, their faces stopped several inches apart. “And I was like, ‘I wonder how they’re going to do it in the movie. Oh, they’re probably going to cut right there.’ But in the movie, you could see their faces getting closer, and then you could see their faces turn into a little kiss. fake.”. Sure enough, in the final film the pair are seen slowly giving each other a perfunctory kiss. Looking closely, it can be seen that it is not a real kiss. The camera, instead of recreating itself, cuts to the wedding attendees, where they frolic on that hill “used too much language”something very different from what the public sees, which is basically nothing.

Neither Netflix nor any of the cast members, including the leads, have talked about it, but video of the scene has been circulating on Twitter, where people have confirmed it doesn’t look like a real kiss. Some users were outraged that kissing is fake in rom-coms: “In a romantic comedy!! There is nothing sacred!”it is read Chirping. Others, on the contrary, they think that people’s reaction is excessive: “The obsession with whether or not they kissed seems extremely strange to me”which also points out that there are many reasons why a production might not perform a real kiss, especially in the context of a global pandemic. He’s not the only person who has dared to speculate about the reasons behind the creation of the kiss through technology. Several people point out that the actress may not feel comfortable kissing someone after the 2019 death of her partner, rapper Nipsey Hussle. However, it seems that ‘You People’ would have tried to pay homage to the musician in the film, because when the pair first meet, their song ‘Last Time That I Checc’d’ plays.

It’s far from being the first computer-generated kiss, although rarely has anyone revealed it openly. This technology is used to “enhance” real kisses or add more drama to them., as was the case in films such as “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” or “Eclipse”. Among other possible reasons there is also the age difference between the performers, especially if one is a minor, or if the position in which the couple is is complicated to give birth to a kiss naturally.

a connection

Before accepting the role, Lauren London had some doubts about the characters. “Why would these two people really like each other?”, has been raised, according to the Harper’s Bazaar account. That was the main question they discussed over lunch where she met Jonah Hill and creator Kenya Barris in person. “They’re from two totally different worlds, and if you see them, you’d never think they’d meet or date, whatever the plan is”. But the writer was clear that it was about reaching the connection, a “soul connection”, which ended up convincing her. Interestingly, the actress was also surprised to find that both she and Hill have “a lot in common”something that was not expected at all because “I’m a black woman. He’s a white man”. However, he supports it “we actually have a lot in common in our lives: some of our experiences and some of the ways we see life and some of the ways we’ve taken on it”.