For The Irishman, Robert De Niro’s latest mobster drama with his longtime collaborator, Martin Scorsese, the actor had to play a character whose life plays out on screen through all the different stages of his storied and brutal career.
While the Hollywood of yesteryear would have required hiring a younger actor and applying prosthetic makeup for his older scenes — or, having someone else play De Niro during earlier stages in his life — newly developed digital cinema wizardry has made it possible to de-age the 76-year-old star with computer graphics.