Entertainment · Film · 1 day ago
Alan Ritchson says his work on the Ninja Turtles films was a bad experience
Before starring in Reacher, Alan Ritchson performed Raphael in the first two Ninja Turtles films using performance capture.
This technique records an actor’s movements to help create a digital character.
Ritchson says he agreed to the role after being told he would be part of the films and included in premieres and promotion.
He says he and the other three actors who played the turtles were instead kept out of promotion, and the films’ representatives falsely said they did not want interviews.
He also says their contracts were for screen animation work, not typical acting, and offered no overtime pay or meal allowances.
Ritchson had worried that audiences would not know he was in the films, and says he was reassured by comparisons to Andy Serkis’s work as Gollum.
The planned third film was abandoned, and the end of his contract let Ritchson leave the franchise.
Alan Ritchson says his work on the Ninja Turtles films was a bad experience.
He performed Raphael’s movements using performance capture in two films, beginning with the first in 2014.
He says the actors were kept out of promotion and were told they did not have a typical acting contract.
Ritchson says he had been promised that performance capture would bring visibility, including invitations to premieres.
The cancellation of a third film and the end of his contract allowed him to leave the franchise.
- Who
- Alan Ritchson, who performed Raphael’s movements in the films.
- What
- He described his work on the Ninja Turtles films as a bad experience, citing promotion and contract issues.
- When
- The first film was released in 2014. Ritchson discussed the experience in a 2019 interview.
- Where
- Not stated
- Why
- He said the actors were excluded from promotion and did not receive the contract protections they expected, despite promises of visibility.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The first Ninja Turtles film featuring Ritchson’s performance capture work was released.
Ritchson discussed his experience in an interview with Collider.
- Films
- Two Ninja Turtles films
- Character
- Raphael, the turtle with the red mask
- Performance method
- Performance capture
- First film
- Released in 2014
- Interview
- Collider, 2019
What people are saying
We were forbidden from promoting it and talking to people, and we discovered they were telling the press we didn’t want to give interviews, which was false, and they didn’t invite us to the premieres.
We discovered that we didn’t have a typical acting contract, we had a contract for animation on screen, it was a completely new field. And we saw that they owed us no benefits: no overtime, no meal allowances, nothing. All four of us were taken advantage of.
I didn’t even want to do it; I thought I was going to waste years of my life doing something and nobody would know I was part of it.
Sources
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