# Where do they get the pictures of characters in movies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-characters-in-movies/710078>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 17, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-characters-in-movies/710078 "2015-01-17T17:28:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-characters-in-movies/710078/41 "2015-01-26T16:46:12Z")

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I bet it wasn’t that hard to get pictures of a young Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard.  
I believe that in the final episode of Quantum Leap we see a picture of a young Dean Stockwell, which wouldn’t be hard to find either.

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**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-characters-in-movies/710078/42 "2015-01-26T20:16:45Z")

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> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Do you know how much s movie costs? The standard Hollywood film doesn’t get made for less than tens of millions. Licensing for music and other things I’d s routine part of that process. The people funding big studio movies are already paying lawyers full time and they have standard contracts for all these things.

Heck, I know of a fairly low-budget Canadian movie that somehow managed to afford to license scenes from a previous film. _Suck_ (2009) is a rock-and-roll vampire comedy, with a vampire hunter played by Malcolm McDowell. A flashback, featuring footage of a young McDowell in _O Lucky Man!_ (1973), reveals why he has a personal vendetta against vampires.

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**Author:** ![MsKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@MsKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsKaren)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-characters-in-movies/710078/43 "2015-01-27T03:03:37Z")

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Oh, I loved ‘O Lucky Man’ when I was, um, how old was I? I can’t remember. Anyway, now apparently I have to seek out and see ‘Suck.’ This is embarrassing.

Oh, well. ‘The Limey’ was fabulous, and, God help me, in whatever era it was, I liked ‘Poor Cow.’ I think maybe in the 60’s we admired whatever was unlike what we had previously seen. Besides, Donovan.

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**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-they-get-the-pictures-of-characters-in-movies/710078/44 "2015-01-27T03:20:23Z")

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> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> There’s this little thing called Photoshop. Maybe you’ve heard of it. You bring in pictures of you from when you were a kid, and if you need to add the other members of the family – ta da!
> 
> Just like magic!

If magic doesn’t work right and looks very fake, sure. Or at least sometimes these pictures are clearly faked, badly. I supposed the faked good ones wouldn’t be noticeable.

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