10 Movie Scenes You Didn’t Know Used CGI Trickery

7. The Tear - Blood Diamond

Have you ever had to cry on command? It's much harder than actors make it look.

There are many famous stories of the crazy lengths actors will go to to shed a tear - like Gary Oldman looking through family photos while on the set of Dracula, after recently splitting up with Uma Thurman - but in some cases, it's just easier to fake it.

And that's exactly what happened on the set of Blood Diamond.

One of the movie's final scenes depicts a phone call between Leonardo DiCaprio and co-star Jennifer Connelly. It's an emotional moment that required both actors to emote deep sadness, but apparently, the movie's special effects department didn't think Connelly looked sad enough.

Near the end of the scene, you can just about make out a single, lonely tear streaming down the actress' right cheek.

Jennifer Connelly Blood Diamond CGI tear
Warner Bros

This wasn't something Connelly cried out on the day, but rather, the director and his VFX team opted to slot it in - and the actress didn't even know about it.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!