Softpedia >News >Life and Style >Movies
Softpedia Homepage   

Fake Plastic Baby in “American Sniper” Explained: Real Babies Were MIA

Creepy doll becomes viral star despite limited screentime

Jan 21, 2015 15:01 GMT  ·  By
Bradley Cooper holds his fake plastic newborn daughter in "American Sniper"
   Bradley Cooper holds his fake plastic newborn daughter in "American Sniper"

Let’s not kid ourselves: regardless of whether you liked / agreed with “American Sniper,” the latest film from director Clint Eastwood, with Bradley Cooper playing the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the biggest star online right now, despite very limited screentime, is the fake plastic baby that stood in for Kyle’s newborn daughter.

You can see it clearly in the video below, but just in case your eye gets caught by other details (like, for instance, how Sienna Miller can fake-breastfeed through her top), the GIF below will best show just how fake and how painfully obvious the doll was: that’s Cooper moving its hand with his thumb.

Fake plastic baby is a star

Everyone who saw the movie in theaters over the weekend picked up on the fakery, so the doll is now the latest viral star. Some even say it should have gotten its own Oscar nomination: if Cooper is up for Best Actor and the film is up for Best Picture, it should have been nominated for Best Fake Baby because never before has so much creepiness and hilarity been packed in a few minutes of screentime

Others take issue with the cheapness of the prop, since the movie had a budget of $60 million (€51.7 million) and claimed to be very serious in everything. That should have included the extras and the props.

Either way, as you can see from the selection of tweets below, the fake baby is a star.

How did this happen?  

In a tweet that’s no longer available, screenwriter and executive producer Jason Hall explained why Eastwood used a doll for the baby, THR reports.

The tweet came as a response to journalist Mark Harris, who wrote, “That plastic baby in American Sniper is going to be rationalized by Eastwood auteur cultists until the end of days,” and said: “hate to ruin the fun but real baby #1 showed up with a fever. Real baby #2 was no show. (Clint voice) Gimme the doll, kid.”

Eastwood is famous for the rapid pace he keeps during production, so this actually makes sense. However, THR points out, this wasn’t the only fake baby used in film, so it could be that the decision was actually made long before the alleged real baby allegedly showed up with a fever.

As THR says, under California law, having a baby on the set of the film can prove quite a hassle because there are a ton of conditions that have to be met. In the end, it was probably cheaper and much easier to just use a doll instead of the real thing, and hope and pray no one would be able to tell the difference.

Eastwood was fresh out of luck with this one, though. That fake plastic baby is now part of film history.

Play Video