Emilia Clarke Rejects the Claim That Green Screen Acting Isn’t ‘Real’ Acting: Why Do ‘All These Great Actors’ Do It Then?

Emilia Clarke told the Los Angeles Times that she disagrees with people who claim that acting in front of a green screen isnt real acting. Clarkes onscreen career has spanned several big franchises, from Game of Thrones to Star Wars to The Terminator, and now the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Disney+ series Secret Invasion, many of which required her to interact with green screens.

The stigma is that people dont do any acting in these shows, Clarke said, referring to performing while standing in front of a green screen. [But] then youre like, Well, then why are they asking all these great actors to do it, and why are they saying yes?'

Clarke reasons that if green screen acting wasnt real acting, then such acting heavyweights as Samuel L. Jackson and Olivia Colman wouldnt want to do it. Both actors are Clarkes co-stars in Secret Invasion, as are Ben Mendelsohn, Don Cheadle and Kingsley Ben-Adir. The cast alone was the draw for Clarke to join the Marvel series.

The cast is ridiculous, Clarke said. I was like, Where do I sign?

Anthony Hopkins infamously dragged green screen acting in an interview with The New Yorkerin 2021. The Oscar winner was reflecting on his own experience in the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing Odin in the Thor movies.

On Thor, you have Chris Hemsworth who looks like Thor and a director like Kenneth Branagh, who is so certain of what he wants, Hopkins said at the time. They put me in armor; they shoved a beard on me. Sit on the throne; shout a bit. If youre sitting in front of a green screen, its pointless acting it.

Angela Bassett, another member of the MCU as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, responded to Hopkins experience last year by stressing just how different the set for her MCU movies were compared to Hopkins green screen experience.

The throne room was there, the floor of red clay, the elevation with the Dora Milaje flanking around, the grand doors that they walk through, Bassett said. So maybe you dont see the world of Wakanda, but we had that. When Shuri and I went out into the wild, we had trees and bushes and water for yards and yards and yards, and Namor came up out of the water and flew to us. We had the entire ship, and the attention to detail inside of it was just magnificent. So I had it much better than Anthony Hopkins. Im sorry for him.

The six-episode Secret Invasion series is currently in the middle of its run on Disney+. New episodes stream each Wednesday on the platform.