In just a few days after the internet lit up over the actress Ellen Page’s reaction to the similarity between herself and the character of Ellie in The Last of Us, both sides seem to be saying, “It’s cool.”
But, we know the internet loves a good fight so it made headlines across the web on numerous game sites. Was she going to sue? Did it cross some lines in regards to “Fair Use”?
TWEET FOR TAT
On June 23rd Ellen Page was posting and answering questions on Reddit. A number of her fans were asking about her post movie roles and upcoming projects. At some point though, the inevitable question was asked.
To whit, Page replied – “I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness, but I am actually acting in a videogame called Beyond: Two Souls, so it was not appreciated.”
But, Naughty Dog recently posted this tweet.
Throughout this little drama, the actress seems to have been in good spirits about this whole thing and recently posted this comment —
“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“
Click the link, you’ll get a laugh when you see what she’s talking about.
ONCE BITTEN, TWICE GUN SHY?
The only lingering question is, will this little dust up give game developers concern for potential future Fair Use law suits?
Despite being unintentional, game designers are creating myriads of characters and chances are one occasionally could resemble a well-known individual whose likeness could be exploited. The similarity in this case was strong enough to have players wondering and even people asking Ellen if she was indeed the voice and likeness of young Ellie. Even the name coincidence is pretty much too strong to ignore.
With the amounts of money at risk and celebrities from various media having their likeness used to promote products, companies like Naughty Dog may have take extra precaution such accidents don’t occur in the future. Or the next time, someone may really have their nose rubbed in it.
