Cynthia Erivo calls out fans who made their own Wicked poster

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech⁩ to ⁨movies@lemm.ee⁩

https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/pictrs/image/c9e99525-fe71-4c79-b6b0-b5c494415bec.png

Fans customized the Wicked movie poster to more closely match the original Broadway poster.

Original Broadway Poster:

Movie poster:

Some fans, disappointed by the poster, altered it to be closer to the original, moving Grande’s hand and lowering the brim of Erivo’s hat to cover her eyes. The edits prompted Erivo to respond. “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen

“None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us,” Erivo continued. “The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer… because, without words we communicate with our eyes.”

So, this seems like a completely reasonable reaction to fans making fan content.

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scbasteve7@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If it was her decision that her full face should be on display, the backlash should be evidence enough that someone else gets paid to make those decisions, not her.

The original looks boring. She has absolutely no emotions on her face. There’s no mystique, no ‘wickedness’. Even the composition looks like something a high schooler in Photoshop class would make.

The edit isn’t perfect either. But at least it pays homage to the original in more than just image. It adds that mystique back, and makes her look more menacing.

What it truly boils down to is ego. Although the edit is better, and so many people agree on it, it doesn’t show her full face. And she can’t let that go.

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- scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Guaranteed this whole thing came up before that it didn’t match the style. She showed her cards and now makes it sound like she was the one who pushed against matching the original. Now that the fans see it and dislike it (probably like they warned that fans would), she’s mad about it. It really sounds like she pushed for this design so it wouldn’t hide her face and now she’s furious that fans reacted in the exact way that was predicted.
  
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- Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The edit looks ridiculous, how is it better?
  
  I’m not mixing this up right?
  
  The first picture with the red lipstick is the fan made photo?
  
  where you can’t see half her face?
  
  that is fucking weird.
  
  The original looks so much better.
  
  what are you talking about there’s no emotions on her face?
  
  in the fan edit they took away half her face!
  
  this is crazy that people like the fan edit, It’s like if you cut an origami crane in half, drew a smiley face on it with a Sharpie and you were like “yeah that’s better.”
  
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  - vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    The original’s smile communicates much more stuff than the eyes on the face that looks like it’s completely bored.
    
    Trying to “communicate with her eyes” is exactly what makes the poster bad.
    
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  - scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That was never the point. I’m not commenting on if it’s better or not. Her reaction to something a fan made is what we’re all talking about.
    
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stewie3128@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The ego and vanity is astounding. And the movie poster sucks because she’s looking straight at the camera.

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- sheogorath@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  And I’m 90% sure that originally they wanted to make it matches the original styling but she fought to keep her face fully visible. So that’s why she’s so irked that there’s a fan who made that edit and proved the people who suggested that in the first place right.
  
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- explodicle@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That’s quite the oversimplification of a real life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer… because, without words we communicate with our eyes.
  
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  - brygphilomena@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    She makes no mention of the hand covering up the other actresses face either.
    
    I keep staring at the original, trying to figure out what she’s trying to communicate. I’ve seen the Broadway musical. I know the story. The vacant expression just doesn’t fit. It doesn’t convey any emotion I associate with the character.
    
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nobody158@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Imo the fan one is better. They should have done the red lipstick with a smirk rather than green and looking bored.

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kshade@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen

Congratulations I guess?

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- todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah, my first thought was “what a privileged life you’ve lived if this is the worst you’ve ever seen”.
  
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TheBat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Stolen from reddit

Image

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5in1k@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If that’s the most offensive thing they have seen they live a charmed life.

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- TastyWheat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I could easily make it worse by simply copying and posting a cup onto the poster.
  
  Yes, the Internet has broken me…
  
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Kusimulkku@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Bit of an overreaction if you ask me

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- TheBat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Theatre kids gonna theatre
  
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- MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Putting it mildly.
  
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aeronmelon@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Nerve status: Struck

As we all know snapping at the fans, especially over matters of source material accuracy, always works out well for everyone involved in the making of the adaptation.

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- 5in1k@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah. Metallica sued their fans 20 years ago and I still won’t listen to them on purpose and shit talk them when I hear them.
  
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  - explodicle@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Never forget what Napster was. Someday we’ll have that convenience again.
    
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  - madcaesar@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    What’s that drummer douche name? Nevermind I don’t care, fuck Metallica.
    
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- dditty@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Especially in the lead up to its release when you’re trying to hype up the fans
  
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zalgotext@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

because, without words we communicate with our eyes

IDK, the original and the edit both communicate way more mystique and mischievousness than the one with her eyes visible

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- scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You know, like how the wicked witch would
  
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TheBat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Huh. This is why you need a PR team.

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- scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yeah maybe not calling out your fans on making things that build excitement for your upcoming project is the best course of action as an actor. It’s like Daisy Ridley calling out Star Wars fans for having the wrong body shape in cosplay or something else equally stupid. They’re fans. They’re having fun. You don’t get to tell your fans how they’re supposed to enjoy your work.
  
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AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What an utterly ridiculous and inconsequential thing to get upset about. Someone should tell her to re-read what she just wrote and think about how stupid it sounds.

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GraniteM@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
In matters of taste, the customer is always right.

Nobody but the audience gets to decide what the audience wants. Not writers, not directors, not graphic designers. If you can give the audience something they didn’t know that they wanted until they got it, so much the better for you. But if the audience just plain wants something else, then there’s no amount of cajoling or negotiation that will make them feel otherwise.

That said, I have no idea what the collective response is to either of these posters, and this does feel a bit like a tempest in a teapot.

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- squid_slime@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You haven’t worked a service gig comrade. When someone asks for they’re bacon sandwich to be raw you’ll understand.
  
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Banichan@dormi.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Fans did a service on that one

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NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Totally proportionate reaction.

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- madcaesar@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yup, not psycho at all.
  
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rothaine@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
In the original Broadway poster and the fan edit, it looks like they’re up to something–there’s some mischievousness at play, some wickedness.

I don’t really know what the full-face one is supposed to convey.

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glimse@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I read the text before the post title and thought it was some witchymemes joke rant about people stereotyping witches which would have been kinda funny. A shame that she’s serious.

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- WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  As an occultist, I was offended. /s
  
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bigbrowncommie69@hexbear.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yeah unless there’s any black women who want to educate us on the reality that black women have been historically had their eyes erased or something, this is just fucking weird.

They didn’t even like try to edit her to make her “more white” or something, like in terms of her facial features.

Sometimes people are seriously just oversensitive and looking for enemies where there are none.

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- scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  As a white person I’m definitely not the one to say if that’s bad or not - but yeah that would be 100% a teaching moment - because I am not aware of anything like that. Instead of slamming down the hammer of “most offensive thing I’ve ever seen” for what I can only see as a fan poster that’s mimicing one that already exists she could have said something like “I understand why they did this, but here is why I disagree with it”. Personally as a fan of wicked, I was disappointed by the poster. Not enough to make my own, but the original poster was iconic to me.
  
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  - bigbrowncommie69@hexbear.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Agreed. And the biggest issue for me with the official poster is the lack of vibrancy. It’s the drab “serious adult reboot” colours for some reason.
    
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- the_crotch@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  She didn’t mention race in her complaint. What makes you believe it’s a factor?
  
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  - todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    She says “this degrades me, this degrades us”, and while I may be misreading what the means here, I interpreted “us” to mean “Black people”. Though it is vague wording so I can’t say for certain…
    
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- Dragonstaff@leminal.space ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  How specifically similar to this instance does the erasure of Black women need to be? Yes, Black women are dehumanized all the time. It’s common for movies to turn Black people into animals and objectify Black women in any number of ways.
  
  That is what is offensive about the fan edit. In the original movie poster she is a person. Her eyes are meant to connect with the viewer. The fan edit specifically takes that away from her.
  
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realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
One thing I’ve noticed over time is that people in Hollywood are pretty normal.

/s

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lightnsfw@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yea lady, that’s totally just as bad as people asking if your ***** is green.

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AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The original composition with her eyes covered is just better and way more interesting.

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- TastyWheat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Right? Plus it’s an homage to the musical and instantly recognisable.
  
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todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Look, I’m all about listening to a woman of color explain how something that might seem innocuous to a white man like me might actually be harmful. I’m willing to accept that there are things I don’t fully understand and I’m willing to take a different perspective if pressed.

But I can’t wrap my head around this one. Elphaba is a fictional character. The movie poster is almost the same as the Broadway playbill. Theatre nerds with photoshop adjusted it as a homage, and understandably so. Hiding beneath the the rim of your hat with a smirk on your face has a much different feel than staring deadpan at the camera. Wicked fans are just expressing their excitement about this movie…

This argument that “covering my eyes erases me and silences my nonverbal communication” just doesn’t check out. It’s clear why people made that specific adjustment, and to suggest that it was a deliberate attack against the actress is just grasping at straws. This isn’t a story about the woman Cynthia Erivo, this is a story about the character Elphaba Thropp, The Wicked Witch of the West. She isn’t the first to play Elphaba, and she won’t be the last. If she’s mad that people see the character she plays and not her, she needs to reconsider her philosophy towards acting, because that kinda the whole point…

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- stringere@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  She should take notes from Coolio regarding his beef with Weird Al:
  
  “F*** no, man, I let that go so long ago,” Coolio responded. "Let me say this: I apologized to Weird Al a long time ago and I was wrong. Y’all remember that, everybody out there who reads this s***.
  
  "Real men and real people should be able to admit when they’re wrong and I was wrong, bro. Come on, who the f*** am I, bro? He did parodies of Michael Jackson, he did parodies of all kinds of people and I took offense to it because I was being cocky and s*** and being stupid and I was wrong and I should’ve embraced that s*** and went with it.
  
  “I listened to it a couple years after that and it’s actually funny as s***. It’s one of those things where I made a wrong call and nobody stopped me. That’s one thing I’m still upset about—my management at the time. Somebody should’ve stopped me from making that statement because it was dumb. And I think it hurt me a little bit. It made me seem stupid.”
  
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finitebanjo@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I was on the fence about giving any time to viewing Wicked but I think it’s gonna be a hard pass now.

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- TastyWheat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yup, fuck that movie with a rake. I ain’t seeing it either!
  
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- TBi@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Same. Was going to see it in the cinema opening week. Now I’ll wait for the reviews and streaming release. I’ve already seen the broadway show (excellent show btw).
  
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Kayday@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I prefer the original poster. The new poster still looks like Wicked to me, and I would be disappointed if it recreated the original exactly. The fan edit is fun, I like it, but I understand artists from current year who made the modern poster would want to make a statement different than artists from when the original came out.

Everyone is making art, why do we have to be mad about that?

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FatherGascown@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What is she trying to communicate anyway? She has the plainest, most boring face of all time, just staring at the camera with the eyes of a dead fish. There is no communication going on.

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- SkyezOpen@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I think she’s trying to communicate her skincare routine.
  
  Image
  
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  - DJDarren@thelemmy.club ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    She’s just remembered she has some video tapes to return.
    
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  - AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I. Want. To. Fit. In.
    
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- YeetPics@mander.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Maybe it’s a PR thing.
  
  Can’t tell who it is on the edited version.
  
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  - Krauerking@lemy.lol ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Everything is about brand and name recognition these days
    
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Anderenortsfalsch@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
www.sbs.com.au/voices/article/…/2bhgrghmc

Compare movie posters of women whose eyes or even whole heads you can’t see vs. movie posters of male actors to whom this is rarely done and it is clear what is happening. Top this with the problems people of color face and I understand her anger.

She could have explained the issue instead of lashing out in anger, because so many of her fans (and people in ths thread) don’t understand the problem and education is necessary and more helpful for everyone.

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- FurtiveFugitive@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That article, which does highlight a valid criticism of society and Hollywood, doesn’t really apply to this scenario. The fan edit isn’t about sexing up the characters. The edit is doing a more effective job of recreating the original poster than the movie studio did.
  
  I don’t fault the actors or even the studio for wanting to feature their high paid actors on the movie poster but by trying to recreate the original but failing to capture the mood, of course fans are going to want to put their spin on it. There is probably even a middle ground that could have been struck to make her face mysterious but still mostly visible.
  
  Is it rude and offensive when fans edit the Lord of the Rings films to better reflect the original story as told in the books?
  
  In the end, I’m pretty sure this whole thing is a PR stunt to stir up word of mouth. Which of course is working because we all like to argue.
  
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  - Anderenortsfalsch@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    
    I don’t fault the actors or even the studio for wanting to feature their high paid actors on the movie poster
    
    But already the original failed to do that. Imagine a movie like that featuring high paid male actors in a way that their faces are minimalized to a point they are unrecognizable (just check their posters and how prominent their faces stare at you). No one would do that. Just because people are used to the old poster does not make it good. The original is a failure that did a disservice to the women on it, just one we know. I do not think this fan poster was done in malice but because it is still not recognized wildly as a problem and we need to get the message out: Show the women’s faces as much as you show the men’s faces.
    
    I don’t think this is a PR stunt, I think it is honest feelings that come up for a reason.
    
    Imagine finally as a person of color having made it to a point in your career that YOU are the center piece of a movie poster of a highly anticipated movie and just with a finger snip someone erases that because they love an old poster that erased other women’s faces.
    
    Again, I understand nostalgia. I am 58 y.o. and I had to let go a myriad of things that were just fine in my youth and learn why they definitely were bad back then and are now. Let that old poster die. It is not good, its mood is erasing women, which is wicked, I give it that.
    
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theblueredditrefugee@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Without words we communicate with our eyes

True, but this actress ain’t doing that. She’s completely dissociated in the pic, her expression so blank and emotionless, screaming that she’s dead inside. While a dissociated character could make a good villain, it’s not hard to see that the character in the poster for the musical isn’t a dissociated villian who is unaware of her cruelty but someone who is fully conscious of and revels in it. It’s only natural that people who are fans of the original work notice just how out of character this is and try to fix it.

Don’t like it? Stop making stupid remakes of ancient stuff and make something original for once! Maybe try putting some emotion into it!

But you know, that’d require Hollywood actually put in effort and they’ve probably forgotten how to do that by now. Seriously, is anyone watching the new shit that they fart out over there these days? Most everyone I know either rewatches old shit or watches anime. Hey, maybe we’ll see the rise of Bollywood over the next couple decades, who knows?

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match@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
it’s not like they didn’t know the original poster existed when they made the official poster. they made it a particular way on purpose and the edit doesn’t respect that

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- scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  But who cares. It’s a fan edit. It’s not like they’re ripping down the poster wherever they see it and replacing it
  
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  - madcaesar@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Even if they were who cares it’s a fucking poster. It’s giving buzz to your project. This lady has lost the plot.
    
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- Etterra@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Actor: I was doing my own thing.
  
  Fans: We literally never asked for that.
  
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- MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  So?
  
  What’s the harm of the fan edit? Why get upset that someone edited a movie poster to more closely match the original poster?
  
  Fans didn’t do it to demean or belittle the actors in the movie. They did it because they’re excited for the movie.
  
  What a silly thing to get mad over.
  
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Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I mean that fan poster looks terrible, so I get why she’s pissed.

fans prefer that poster?

weirdos.

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- Darkard@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Image
  
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  - Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    let people enjoy erasing someone’s face and hurting their feelings?
    
    that’s not okay and you’re an offensive embarrassment for defending them.
    
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AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
But is her pussy green?

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- explodicle@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Until this moment, I thought everyone was saying shits.
  
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jerkface@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
…when the actual wounded party (if any could really be found) would be the photographer and/or the graphic artist who produced the image. The model had no idea or say in how their image would ultimately be used. No doubt dozens of images were taken probably some with brim down. It’s not up to the model to decide how the images are used.

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