10) Peter Cushing – Rogue One
Back in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, when a cameo for Grand Moff Tarkin was required, the answer was to replace the late Peter Cushing with actor Wayne Pygram in heavy make-up. Come last year’s Rogue One, however, and it was a much more elaborate process.
For his prominent supporting role in the movie, Tarkin was played by British actor Guy Henry who gave his whole performance with facial capture equipment attached to his head. His own features were then replaced in post-production by a painstaking recreation of Cushing. Henry also shaved his head for the role to make the process of mapping Cushing’s face on to his much easier.
As for recreating Cushing, it proved a difficult task – but the visual effects team did find help from an unlikely source. They managed to get hold of a plaster cast of the actor from House of Long Shadows, a horror movie he made in the 1980s, which immeasurably aided in the study of Cushing’s facial features.