Ellen Page says Last of Us 'ripped off' her likeness

Actress Ellen Page says that her likeness was "ripped off" for The Last of Us character Ellie, and that it was "not appreciated."

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The Last of Us is one of our favorite games of this year, in part because of the relationship between its lead characters, Joel and Ellie. But Ellie's similarities with actress Ellen Page didn't go unnoticed, and she says it was "not appreciated."

In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" thread (via IGN) over the weekend, a fan asked how she felt about The Last of Us and if she would have taken the role of Ellie herself. "I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness," she replied, "but I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond: Two Souls, so it was not appreciated."

Ellie's similarities to Page didn't go unnoticed, and some fans even assumed that the Juno and Inception star would be playing the role. Naughty Dog subsequently announced that Ellie would be played by Ashley Johnson (What Women Want), and remodeled the character to look more like Johnson. Naughty Dog chalked up the resemblance to coincidence. After Page's comment over the weekend, The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann tweeted support for Johnson, saying "no one could have done a better job."

In April, Eurogamer asked Quantic Dream's Guillaume de Fondaumiere about the resemblance, since Ellen Page is actually involved in their game. "They probably inadvertently were inspired by Ellen Page, but indeed, they had to slightly change the model such that she wouldn't look like Ellen Page because, indeed, we have Ellen Page," he said.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 24, 2013 5:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Ellen Page says Last of Us 'ripped off' her likeness.

    Actress Ellen Page says that her likeness was "ripped off" for The Last of Us character Ellie, and that it was "not appreciated."

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      June 24, 2013 5:06 PM

      Oh thank god. I was worried there wouldn't be something about video games to get upset about today.

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      June 24, 2013 5:08 PM

      Ah great. Here we go.

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      June 24, 2013 5:08 PM

      If I were here, I'd be more concerned that a prattling brat that looks just like her stars in Juno.

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      June 24, 2013 5:20 PM

      [deleted]

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      June 24, 2013 5:21 PM

      I don't see it. And even if it is, much like animated films the artists tend to take a bit from the actor.

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        June 24, 2013 5:27 PM

        She wasn't the actor though. In any case, I don't think it looks much like her. Different nose and lips.

        • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          June 24, 2013 5:40 PM

          Chin is different too.

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        June 24, 2013 5:29 PM

        She isn't the actor for that character.

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      June 24, 2013 5:32 PM

      Steve, this is a great piece of journliasm. We are all more informed and worldy for having learned about this 'controversy.'

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        June 24, 2013 5:42 PM

        [deleted]

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        June 24, 2013 9:24 PM

        This is a ridiculous story.

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        June 25, 2013 4:11 AM

        [deleted]

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        June 25, 2013 1:51 PM

        You realize this story is being run on all the other gaming sites, too, right? Don't single out Shacknews.

        Honestly, at this point the stories about minor controversies are less annoying than all the "hurr durr why u write this" posts that come with them.

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          June 25, 2013 3:02 PM

          The only gaming sites I read are Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PC Gamer. I didn't see it there. If I did, I would have commented on it too.

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          June 25, 2013 4:50 PM

          It doesn't make it relevant. It's easy clicks with little no to actual reporting and no real news. I thought to myself as I read the AMA, how fast is Kotaku and other gaming sites going to jump on this off the cuff answer to get clicks. And an hour later, that is what happened. Put a false and misleading title up and the clicks will follow. Well fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you Kotaku and all the other sites that soon followed. And just so you know, GiantBomb didn't bite on this story. Even Joystiq knew it wasn't news and skipped it. It was a quick answer about something Page seems to know nothing about and all the media slanted as an official statement and that there is now a feud with Naughty Dog which is most likely the far, far from the truth. So yeah, people do have the right to call out this shit for clicks sake so called news story.

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      June 24, 2013 5:42 PM

      ...and remodeled the character to look more like Johnson.

      In what way? That both of them have two eyes and a hole to put food into?

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      June 24, 2013 5:50 PM

      [deleted]

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      June 24, 2013 5:53 PM

      [deleted]

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        June 24, 2013 6:00 PM

        What she's saying is Beyond: Two Souls needs more press.

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          June 24, 2013 6:29 PM

          It was brought up in her AMA on reddit a few days ago. I doubt she was even aware of the game before then.

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            June 24, 2013 9:28 PM

            which is what all the articles are quoting. it's inane that shacknews is quoting ign which is quoting reddit. it doesn't look like anyone writing this "story" is bothering to follow up with the actress on it.

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        June 24, 2013 6:00 PM

        That's what the shack likes isn't it?

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      June 24, 2013 5:57 PM

      I thought it was supposed to be the game that she's in. I guess that one hasn't come out yet.

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      June 24, 2013 6:04 PM

      It's really pretty damn creepy.

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      June 24, 2013 7:06 PM

      I think if those two had a kid, it would look like the character. I don't think the character on its own looks like either one of them over the other.

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      June 24, 2013 7:25 PM

      I posted this on Polygon but I feel it needs to be said again.
      The first thing I thought as I was reading Page’s AMA was, how fast is Kotaku and other gaming sites going to try to make this a story to get cheap clicks for their site? Sad! Because all it does it take away from Ashley Johnson’s great performance. They actually changed Ellie’s likeness last year to look more like Johnson’s. Here is an interview with Johnson- Interview with Ashley Johnson http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=U2fousJN4ZE

      Ellen Page answered a question about a game she probably knows nothing about and the gaming media tries to make it much more than it is for easy clicks on their site. This will be a good gauge to see what gaming sites are actually still worth going to for gaming news.

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      June 24, 2013 7:31 PM

      The real question here should not be is Ellie supposed to Ellen Page or was she based on Pages Likeness. The question we should be asking is why is gaming sites and now the main stream media trying to pretend this is news or worth the top on the page with a ridiculous title? Pages answer was a one-off sentence from an AMA! Page doesn’t seem to know anything about “The Last of Us” and rarely games and had only this pic to give a quick answer
      too http://i.imgur.com/ORQKoEQ.jpg SHe then answers a question about the movie “Hard Candy” and being a derby girl. Are you kidding me!…..At least have a different angle on the story because if you are just going to spew out Kotoku like bullshit then why come here except for the great podcast.

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      June 24, 2013 7:49 PM

      Looks more like Ellen Degeneres

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      June 24, 2013 7:52 PM

      Fuck me, Listen to this new trailer for "The Last of Us." I was totally wrong with my last few comments, this is definitely supposed to be Ellen Page. Start the video and close your eyes and you will hear Page. Here is the link if you don't believe me

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lkCfcigXQoA

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      June 24, 2013 8:38 PM

      She's an idiot. That girls looks nothing like her at all

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      June 24, 2013 9:33 PM

      What I find interesting about this whole thing is how there's kind of a similar thing that happens in movies, but they're never brought up in this light at all.

      Take for example the Dark Knight movie. Heath Ledger basically copied the stylings of Tom Waits when he was coming up with how the Joker acts. Yet that performance is treated as this wonderful thing, but this thing with Ellie is treated as something that shouldn't be done. Maybe because its only a 3d model, so people think that not as much work goes into creating that? I dunno.

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        June 24, 2013 10:01 PM

        What I hope comes out of this is how great of a job Ashley Johnson did in the game.

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        June 24, 2013 10:19 PM

        In Back to the Future part 2, they made up the actor playing George McFly to look exactly like Crispin Glover and he sued them for it. The case caused the Screen Actor's Guild to add clauses to their collective bargaining agreements explicitly permitting such a thing in the future.

        I don't think Ellie is a ripoff but the concept of stealing an actor's likeness isn't new to film.

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      June 24, 2013 10:32 PM

      I don't really care either way, but that character looks helliva more like Ellen Page than the voice actress. Even after "changes" to look more like the voice actress, she looks nothing like her.

      Anyone that says otherwise is lying.

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      June 24, 2013 10:58 PM

      I can see the likeness but I think she is just being a drama whore and should just leave it be. I hope she gets a yeast infection.

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        June 25, 2013 4:41 AM

        [deleted]

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        June 25, 2013 8:07 AM

        you strike me as the kind of person who has an opinion on whether she should be sexually assaulted

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        June 25, 2013 8:14 AM

        I'm surprised you showed restraint and didn't go straight for the "death to her and her family and her family's family."

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          June 25, 2013 2:05 PM

          Crush enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women.

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      June 24, 2013 11:23 PM

      I'm just surprised this is news now... Everyone thought it was her when the first game art was released.

      I'm kind of surprised that they never commented on the fact that they even named her "Ellie", which is oddly quite close. :P

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      June 24, 2013 11:24 PM

      This is a useless story. :(

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        June 24, 2013 11:36 PM

        probably saw all the comments the same story got elsewhere. it's link bait with a misleading headline

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      June 24, 2013 11:46 PM

      [deleted]

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      June 25, 2013 12:24 AM

      I have seen half a dozen articles talking abou this today. They all say things like "Ellen Page Slams...".
      But when you read the quoted text of her comments, she isn't anywhere near as attack-y sounding as the articles make her out to be.

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      June 25, 2013 12:56 AM

      Who the fuck is Ellen Page? Never heard of her...

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      June 25, 2013 3:53 AM

      Funny, when I first saw that character I thought, "huh I guess Ellen Page is doing the voice and mocap for her character..." I haven't played or seen videos of the game, aside from the one teaser that came out a year or two ago, but I thought it was her.

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      June 25, 2013 3:59 AM

      It's sad that I remember "Beyond: Two Souls" as "Ellen Page: THE GAME"

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      June 25, 2013 4:17 AM

      While this story is being blown way out of proportion (especially given the actual text of her remarks), I do think it's funny how many people thought that was her.

      Hell, every time I've played TLU, my wife has asked if it's modeled after her or voiced by her, and am I sure about that? I keep telling her the Ellen Page game is a different one.

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      June 25, 2013 4:21 AM

      [deleted]

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      June 25, 2013 4:45 AM

      Wasn't this basically a humorous remark she made about it _when being asked about it_? The way the media is presenting this is misleading at best.

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        June 25, 2013 4:48 AM

        The media quote out of context for hits? They'd never do that! They have journalistic integrity!

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        June 25, 2013 5:40 AM

        No shit, it was a random snarky reddit comment. Not sure how this is news

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          June 25, 2013 5:51 AM

          It's post-E3 summer, anything goes when the actual video game news dries up.

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        June 25, 2013 6:14 AM

        Awesome. And then you've got faggots on the shackwishing her yeast infections over nothing. I don't want to imagine the vitriol on other boards.

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          June 25, 2013 7:41 AM

          shackwishing her yeast infections

          You got me on that one.

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        June 25, 2013 8:06 AM

        This is how gaming journalism works.

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      June 25, 2013 7:46 AM

      Is this, like, from the AMA? I read that and thought it was just some random humorous comment. Her other replies were equally snarky. Sorry Steve this isn't really news.

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      June 25, 2013 10:52 PM

      Where's the update on how ridiculous this story was?

      Naughty Dog @Naughty_Dog

      Wow! The reaction to @EllenPage’s AMA was overblown-After the announce trailer there WAS initial confusion leading us to revise Ellie’s look

      Ellen Page ‏@EllenPage 6h
      .@Naughty_Dog I agree! Looking forward to playing #TheLastofUs

      Ellen Page ‏@EllenPage 2h
      Now that this TLOU biz has been cleared up, let's talk about how this Fatal Labyrinth character is fo sho me pic.twitter.com/HgnDSx6r4c

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      June 30, 2013 10:02 PM

      There's enough differences for it to not a likeness.

      All should be aware right now, in our known quadrant of the galaxy, there is at the very least 1 other person on Planet Earth that look EXACTLY LIKE YOU, and no you may not sue them for using your celebrity likeness.

      We have the same ancestors, there will be similarities across other branches of the family tree.

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