10 Actors Who Refused To Use CGI
4. Jet Li Didn't Want A Studio To Own His Likeness In The Matrix
You've likely already heard of a number of Hollywood's finest stars all turning down the chance to star in the eventual CGI game-changer that was The Matrix.
Yet, perhaps the most unexpected reason for not opting to join up with the likes of Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie Ann-Moss in the sequels to that 1999 mega hit belongs to that of Jet Li. The martial arts movie legend was once approached for the role of guardian of The Oracle, Seraph, in said sequels, but turned down the part because the studio wanted to record and copy all of his moves to use in their digital library.
Going further on the subject, Li explained:
“I was thinking: I’ve been training my entire life. And we martial artists could only grow older. Yet they could own (my moves) as an intellectual property forever. So I said I couldn’t do that,”
Li's decision to not allow Warner Bros. to capture and store his art for use later down the road ultimately led to the actor making Hero instead, a film that became the first Chinese-language movie to sit at #1 at the U.S. box office. Not a bad call then, all things considered.