One of Superman’s Craziest Action Sequences Needed Deodorant to Pull Off (Yes, Deodorant)

With technology and visual effects as advanced as they are, it’s hard to believe that filmmakers still run into practical conundrums when bringing big-budget action movies to life. However, Guy Williams, Superman‘s Visual Effects Supervisor, detailed one such situation when bringing the blockbuster to life on the latest episode of ComicBook Nation podcast. Writer/director James Gunn’s film is unabashedly vibrant and larger than life, yet a very ordinary household item became essential for the Superman‘s VFX team to believably realize Superman’s escape from Lex Luthor‘s Pocket Universe onscreen. In the film, Superman pushes past Kryptonite poisoning while also battling Lex’s relentless team of Raptor guards – all with Metamorpho’s infant son Joey in his hands – to make it out of the villain’s dystopian dimension.

The sequence comes to a heart-stopping climax when Superman gets swept away by an anti-proton river toward a black hole in the Pocket Universe. With help from Mr. Terrific, Metamorpho, Krypto, and his own super breath, Superman narrowly dodges getting sucked into the black hole and manages to make it back to the portal just before it collapses, delivering Joey to his father in one piece. Williams pulled back the curtain on how exactly he and the Superman team pulled off that particular movie magic trick.

Superman Crew Created a Massive Ball Pit to Stand in for Lex’s Anti-Proton River

The thrilling sequence presented a unique puzzle for Williams and his visual effects team at Wētā FX, who handled VFX on Superman. They needed a way to match the flow of the river in order to capture the live-action footage they needed of star David Corenswet and the other actors playing the Raptors before they could fill in the rest of the scene with visual effects.

“It was tricky. We tried, they had a water pool that they filled, and then put a sheet over the top of it, so that you could be in it, but not get wet. It just provided too much resistance,” Williams detailed. “They tried a standard ball pit, but the balls just made so much noise, and they got crushed so much, and it just became troublesome. But then they found it wasn’t a problem with the ball pit, it was a problem with the ball.”

That’s where the deodorant comes in. In order to create the right motion and light to mimic the anti-proton river, the Superman production crew determined they needed balls about an inch in circumference for the effect.

“And it turns out they’re the balls that are used in a deodorant roll-on [stick],” Williams shared. “So they worked with the manufacturer of the roll-on products and bought, I wish I knew the exact numbers, like 700,000 of these balls, and then filled this incredibly large ball pit with them. And it worked to a treat.”

You can watch the interview segment with Guy Williams below!

The Deodorant Ball Pit Saved Superman‘s Cast & Crew (and the Audience)

Williams, who’s previously worked with Gunn on The Guardians of the Galaxy films and The Suicide Squad, confirmed that once they found the right stand-in for the blocks of the anti-proton river, the scene became “fun to shoot”.

“Between every take, everybody would just lean over and just chuck a couple of balls back into the pit, because of course, they get knocked out of the pit all the time.” Talk about an unconventional occupational hazard.

Williams went on to explain that creating “the right environment for the actors to perform” always remained the chief concern when sourcing the right stand-in for the anti-proton river in Superman.

“It gave the actors a chance to perform and sort of understand what they were interacting with, knowing that there’s no real good analog for giant metal blocks that glow,” Williams said. “So it’s trying to figure out something that’s going to get us close enough that we can then go into visual effects and start ‘plusing’ it up.”

He revealed that while Weta’s team matched David Corenswet’s movements in post-production, his entire body was replaced with CGI to make Superman’s struggle in the river feel real to the viewer.

“It’s about doing all of this effort to make sure that it feels tied together, it feels integrated,” Williams stressed. “The audience doesn’t get challenged by what they’re seeing; they can just enjoy what they’re seeing.”

Listen to Comicbook‘s full interview with Guy Williams about Superman‘s visual effects below. The film is still in theaters and IMAX.

Superman is now playing in theaters everywhere.

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