Since we spend our days here at Fresh Lens elbow deep in Canadian contact lenses, we tend to pay attention to people’s eyes, particularly when we’re watching a flick. Hey, it comes with the job. As technology has evolved, special effects contact lenses have become incredibly realistic and dramatic, making for compelling costumes in Hollywood. We’ll walk you through some of our favorite movie contact lenses.
The Twilight Saga
The Twilight contact lenses are among the best known in the movie biz because the series of films is a mega hit and also the contacts are magnificent. The characters rocked intense, opaque amber lenses as well as red ones. While they looked cool, according to Kristen Stewart and Michael Sheen, wearing them was torturous. They weren’t what you’d receive with a normal special effects contacts prescription. Instead, in order to also alter the whites of the eyes, they were huge, highly uncomfortable and obscured the actors’ vision. Sometimes you just have to suffer for your art we guess.
The Host
The Host, another film adapted from the work of Stephenie Meyer, is billed as a romantic science fiction thriller. When the Souls, an alien race, colonized the Earth and started taking over human bodies, we were more fixated on their striking eyes than all of the action. The Host contact lenses are a hot commodity in the world of special effects contacts. We don’t blame movie fans for coveting them. They’re pretty mesmerizing with a bright white center and ring of color on the outside.
Wolf
This werewolf movie from the mid-90s wasn’t exactly a blockbuster hit in spite of big names like Jack Nicholson, James Spader and Michelle Pfeiffer starring it. Well, we don’t have much to say about the quality of the film but we did love the theatrical contact lenses. The actors wore scleral lenses, which fit over the whole iris of the eye, in a variety of shades including yellow and black.
Westworld
HBO’s hit series Westworld is based on a movie of the same name from 1973. In the original, actor Yul Brynner, who portrayed an android gunslinger, wore insane, silver light-reflecting contact lenses to create a creepy, unsettling glow in his eyes. They were absolutely perfect for the villain.
Alice in Wonderland
In Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Johnny Depp sported fluorescent green contact lenses as the Mad Hatter. While his eyes were enlarged using computer special effects, the crazy color was thanks to his contacts. They fit right in with the fantastical scenery and makeup.
X-Men
The stars in the X-Men movie had similar complaints about their special effect contact lenses as the Twilight cast did. The custom-made lenses were painful and, in some cases, dangerous. Halle Berry, who had completely white eyes as Storm, and Rebecca Romijn, who played Mystique, didn’t make it long with the lenses in and quickly asked that CGI be used to create the effect instead. However, Tyler Mane, the actor who portrayed Sabretooth, wore his enormous black contact lenses all day and suffered temporary vision loss. That’s dedication!
No matter how much you love the sensational contacts worn by your favorite stars, most of us can’t go all out with special effects lenses in our everyday lives. That doesn’t mean you can’t still alter the appearance of your eyes in a more subtle way. Check out our selection of color contact lenses or new innovations like Acuvue Define to make a fun, yet totally school or work appropriate, change and break out your vampire eyes on the weekends.
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