THE BEST EDUCATED STARS IN HOLLYWOOD

You don’t need a university education to become famous in Hollywood. But that hasn’t stopped some of the biggest names in movies from devoting themselves to studying as well as stardom.

The most prestigious colleges in the world have welcomed top Tinseltown talents. For example, Matt Damon, who reportedly has an exceptional IQ of 160, wrote an early draft of Oscar winning film Good Will Hunting while studying at Harvard.

Listed on these pages are several elite educational institutions and the stars who studied there.

OSCAR NOMINATED THIS YEAR FOR BEST MAKEUP, THE LATEST FILM VERSION OF CHILDREN’S CLASSIC PINOCCHIO USED A PAINSTAKING PROCESS TO TRANSFORM A CHILD ACTOR INTO A WOODEN BOY.

Prosthetics expert Mark Coulier – twice an Oscar winner in the past for The Iron Lady and The Grand Budapest Hotel – called on all his experience for this assignment.

First he and his team took a computer scan of the actor playing the puppet, i, and used that to create a sculpture of him.

Then they built silicon pieces painted to look like wood and applied them in various pieces – including six to his face and one for each finger.

Just applying the prosthetics took three hours each day – requiring extraordinary patience from the young actor.

But the results are there for all to see and the Italian film became a surprise Hollywood awards contender having earlier scooped five trophies at Italy’s top film awards.

Pinocchio also stars Roberto Benigni, the best actor Oscar winner in 1999 for Life is Beautiful, as woodcarver Geppetto who creates the special puppet.

Tom Hanks will soon take on the same role in a live action version of the Disney animated hit and it will be quite an achievement if that one matches the make up magic of this film.

Sandro Monetti

It was the ultimate clash of the titans –Godzilla Vs Kong – and the bombastic blockbuster became the first monster hit of 2021.

But behind all the incredibly impressive special effects was some very basic technology that allowed the human actors to react to the movement of the CGI creatures.

Laser pointers – like the kind pet owners use with their cats – directed cast members like Millie Bobby Brown and Alexander Skarsgard where to look when imagining the monsters around them in footage which would be added later.

For close ups it was something even more basic - tennis balls held up on sticks that the actors had to gaze up at in wonder and fear.

The rest was up to the technical wizards led by John “DJ” DesJardin, the visual effects supervisor whose previous credits include Batman v Superman, Watchmen, Justice League and The Matrix Revolutions.

The major battles in the film, like the climactic clash of the creatures amid the neon signs and bright lights of Hong Kong, were entirely CG created by his team.

With the well-received “wow” factor of those effects and the big global box office takings, it’s clear this state of the art meets old school basics approach was a winning one.

As star Millie Bobby Brown said of the ultimate look of the film: “It’s so beautiful and so magical, and takes you out of the real world and puts you into that world.”

Sandro Monetti