‘American Sniper’ had a budget of 60 million dollars and a gross rate of $428,107,179 as of February, 23, 2015, but it seemed like only 20 dollars went to the hiring of a baby or lack thereof.
In the movie ‘American Sniper’, it was significantly obvious that there was a fake baby being portrayed as Chris Kyle’s daughter. The movie still received excellent views but critics and fans are taking a beating at the production crew for not spending the slightest amount of money to hire a real baby.
“It’s hard not sniping at ‘American Sniper’ once you notice what’s wrong with the scene”, says Alix Bryan, writer for CNN Wire.
Articles appeared all over the internet and twitter dissing Sniper about their toy doll. Viewers are calling the movie cheap and saying it ruined the entire experience for them and subtracted from the moral purpose of the movie.
There was a method to this fake baby madness though. Eastwood commented on the outrage in an interview stating that “Baby #1 came to the set with a fever…baby #2 was a no- show”. Movies are on a tight schedule so they probably did not have a choice and had to throw in the toy doll. The baby was in a total of two scenes and the toys face was not shown at all.
“It [the baby] isn’t a substantial role, it was a good movie no matter what”, says junior Lucas Riesbeck.
The baby was in a total of 2 very, very short scenes. The movie has an extremely motivational/sad meaning (not going to give any spoilers). It was basically about a man who is deployed on 4 tours and how he was an excellent killer but when he comes back he is not all there due to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). His daughter is extremely insignificant and is one of the smallest factors to the movie.
“I didn’t even notice it, but if it’s such an expensive movie they can spend money on baby actors”, says senior Taylor Betts.
It probably would of cost another $1000 to hire a “baby actor” and added another week to audition and cast a new actor. Although it is understandable the people are making fun of the movie for not having a real baby or even spending the time to find a new one after the other two were flops.
“The fake baby didn’t distract from the movie at all. If you are all up in arms about a toy doll, then you don’t understand the point of the movie”, says junior Kyle Takenaka.