Cara Delevingne's body was digitally slimmed for Suicide Squad

Last year’s ‘Suicide Squad’ was a talking point for many reasons – and now it’s notched up another.

With reviews rather mixed when it came out, the film still performed well at the box office and took a respectable $746 million. That said, some critics weren’t kind, with a general feeling that the film was a filmmaking mess – an admission later acknowledged by its director David Ayer.

Yet this latest controversy – after the dust had settled on Jared Leto’s weird on-set behaviour and subsequent annoyance about being largely cut from the film – shows how Cara Delevingne’s body for her role of Enchantress was altered for the film’s final cut.

In a gif that’s been cut together from a behind-the-scenes featurette, you can clearly see that the actress’s waist has been narrowed to appear what they deem more aesthetically pleasing to viewers.

The move certainly won’t do the film any favours, regardless of its release having come and gone. Positive body image is considered an important ethical trait in 2017, with TV shows and movies often slammed if they fail to promote all body types and attempt to exclude bodies that aren’t stick-thin. Melissa McCarthey infamously saw her poster for ‘The Heat’ dramatically altered and it did not go down well with the public, that’s for sure

Check out the CGI’d difference for Enchantress below.

Besides this looking bad for the movie (as if they needed any more negative publicity since its Extended Cut home release), Delevingne is perhaps the last person you’d expect to see an altered body image of. Not only is she a model and in no need of having her body manipulated, she’s known for her quirky confidence and not caring what anyone else thinks of her with her live and let live inclusivity ethos.

So it appears the decision was certainly out of her hands and the fault lies at the door of Warner Bros. Films are known for altering elements of what we see on screen via the use of CGI, but when it moves from backgrounds, landscapes, and monsters to the aesthetics to someone’s figure, it raises questions. Notably, it sends the wrong signals to those who look up to Cara as an idol as someone who takes no nonsense and tells it how it is. So the move is not only surprising, but tells young people that even her body isn’t slim enough.

Oddly though, and after all the criticism ‘Suicide Squad’ has faced, it went on the win an Oscar at the 2017 Academy Awards – much to people’s amazement (and in some factions dismay). It took home the award for Makeup and Hairstyling, but was not nominated in any of the so-called big six categories.

Read more:
Was The Rock and Vin Diesel’s fallout staged?
Captain Marvel finds its directors
New species to appear in Han Solo movie