With the 2024 presidential election around the corner, celebrities have voiced their support for Republican nominee former President Donald Trump or presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
An image recently went viral on social media appearing to show “Deadpool & Wolverine” star Ryan Reynolds wearing a t-shirt that says “Kamala removes nasty orange stains,” in the shape of a Tide logo, referencing Harris and Trump.
Some people who commented on the photo claimed the image is fake.
THE QUESTION
Is the image of Ryan Reynolds wearing a Kamala Harris shirt real?
THE SOURCES
- VERIFY analysis of the image
- Review of Ryan Reynolds’ social media accounts
- RevEye, a reverse image search engine
THE ANSWER
No, the image of Ryan Reynolds wearing a Kamala Harris shirt isn’t real.
WHAT WE FOUND
The image of Ryan Reynolds wearing a Kamala Harris shirt isn’t real. There are signs this image was likely created using artificial intelligence.
Generative AI is a technology that can produce new content, including images, videos, audio and text based on a prompt.
VERIFY analyzed the image and determined there are a number of visual cues that it is fake.
The hands on what appears to be Reynolds’ body are misshapen and pixelated, with the knuckles on the thumb protruding more than normal. His skin looks too smooth in several places and his ears in the viral photo are much smaller than Reynolds’ real ears. There is also a shadow under his jaw line onto his neck that does not look realistic. Reynolds appears to be wearing a watch, but a closer look shows the watch face is covered with pink dots.
Reynolds' nose in the viral image does not match real pictures of him. There is also a tattoo on the left forearm in the viral image, which appears misshapen and cut off. Reynolds doesn’t have a tattoo there. On Instagram, he has posted several images while wearing short sleeve shirts and a similar tattoo can’t be seen in any of them.
A close look at the shirt in the viral image also contains clues that it’s likely AI-generated. Even though the shirt is wrinkled, the image looks flat. The image’s colors are much more vibrant than anything else in the photo, and the shirt’s black color appears to bleed down one side of Reynolds’ arm – another sign of an AI-generated photo.
VERIFY also conducted a reverse image search using RevEye and found no reputable sources have published the photo of Reynolds wearing a Harris shirt. That is another indicator this image is made with artificial intelligence. Reynolds is a high-profile celebrity and if he was seen wearing this shirt, it would have been covered by the media.
Reynolds has also not publicly endorsed a candidate in the current presidential election. Reynolds was born and raised in Canada and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. He voted for the first time in the 2020 election, but did not share who he voted for.
VERIFY reached out to Reynolds’ camp for comment and did not hear back at the time of publication.
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