She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany, series creator Jessica Gao, and producer Kat Coiro have spoken out about CGI criticisms levied at the show, as well as their own concerns over the treatment of visual effects workers. The trio’s comments on the issues came during She-Hulk’s panel at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Wednesday.
Over the last several weeks, several stories have come out from VFX house and their employees accusing Disney of being particularly difficult to work with. According to the stories, Disney often creates bidding wars on its projects, driving prices lower thanks to its size and power in the industry. This leads to smaller teams on each project, increasing the demand for working hours. On top of that, Disney also frequently demands changes extremely late in the process, which causes artists to work even worse hours, the anonymous employees say.
“I feel incredibly deferential to how talented these artists are and how quickly they have to work. Obviously, much quicker than should be given to them,” Maslany said during the TCA panel. “I know there’s lots of eyes on the CG and critique or whatever. I do think we have to be super conscious of how work conditions aren’t always optimal and that they’ve made these amazing strides in the industry and the tech. I watch it and I see thoughts, you know, it doesn’t look like a cut scene from a video game.”
“And we stand in solidarity with what they say,” said Coiro. “The truth is we work with them but we’re not behind the scenes on these long nights and days. So if they’re feeling pressure we stand with them and listen to them,”
In the face of these conditions, many VFX houses and studios have begun the attempt to unionize, giving artists and employees both more collective power to help guide their studios and to demand higher, more fair prices from Marvel.
“It’s just a massive undertaking to have a show of this scale where the main character is cg, it’s a very overwhelming and ginormous thing to take on and it’s terrible that a lot of artists feel rushed and feel the workload is too massive,” Gao said. “I think everybody on this panel stands in solidarity with all workers and is very pro good working conditions.”
“Pro union,” Maslany added.
She-Hulk has gotten backlash for its CGI after the release of each of its trailers so far, including one last month at Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel. She-Hulk’s release date was also delayed by a day, with a quiet announcement on Wednesday via the official Disney Plus schedule for August.
