Guy Pearce appears in "Prometheus" under layers of old-age makeup, which raises the question: Why?
Well, as the actor told Vulture during press rounds for "Lawless," he was originally cast in Ridley Scott's confounding summer blockbuster because of a more age-appropriate scene involving his character, Peter Weyland.
"[W]e didn’t end up shooting it," Pearce said. "We got close to shooting it, and as we got closer, Ridley just started to see it as something that would just be a little distracting, almost. And funnily enough, there was this sort of marketing idea from the outset that we would do Peter Weyland giving this TED lecture, and it was kind of funny that that ended up taking precedence over what was in the movie. So, yeah, I guess in the end, they could have cast an older actor."
The scene in question was a dream sequence involving Pearce's Weyland and David, the "Lawrence of Arabia"-loving android played by Michael Fassbender.
"[T]here’s a scene in the movie where we see David and he’s got his headset on and he’s talking to someone, and we don’t know who it is, and he gets confronted by Vickers [Charlize Theron]," screenwriter Damon Lindelof said to Slash Gear about the lost Pearce moment. "There’s a scene in the script that we decided not to shoot, where we see the inside of that dream, and basically David takes a jetski out with a beautiful woman in a bikini, to a yacht, and on the yacht is Weyland. Played by Guy, without old-age make-up: This is his dream."
As Lindelof told the Wall Street Journal, the TED viral video that starred Pearce was borne out of the concern that happened once the actor's "young" scene was cut.
"[P]eople are going to wonder why we cast Guy Pearce as an old man," Lindelof said. "Why not just cast an old man? So the audience needs to see him as a young man."
Thus, the TED video, directed by Scott's son Luke, was created. You can watch it above.
For more on Pearce, including how he got his look for "Lawless," head over to Vulture.
[via Vulture]
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