Francesca Rudkin: Love it or hate it, AI is going to be part of our lives

There is a lot going on in the world this week.  

This Friday The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences provides some lighthearted relief from the world's challenges by announcing the Oscar nominees for the 2025 Academy Awards.  

The nominees were due to be announced on January 18th, then January 20th, before being delayed again, giving those impacted by the fires still raging in Southern California more time to vote.  

But as filmmakers, actors and the masterful craftspeople responsible for making some of the best films of the year wait patiently to see whether they get the nomination nod from their peers, a prickly conversation is brewing about AI.  

The latest controversy in film is around the use of AI in two potential nominees, The Brutalist and Emila Perez, which both won at the Golden Globes. These two Oscar front runners are dealing with a backlash after it was revealed they used voice-cloning to enhance actors’ performances. 

In The Brutalist, Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones play Jewish Hungarians who survive the Nazi camps and escape to the US. The actors spent 2 months working with a dialect coach to perfect their accents, but the filmmakers wanted their Hungarian to sound perfect so added individual sounds and letters to both Brody and Jones’s Hungarian-language dialogue to perfect it.  

This has caused quite an uproar and The Brutalist director Brady Corbet was forced to issue a statement to Hollywood trade publications saying “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own.” He went on to say, “The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.” 

Their performances are extraordinary, the film stunning, ambitious and audacious – and if a tool was used to tweak their Hungarian along the way, well, Hungarians are probably grateful.  

With Emila Perez, it has emerged AI cloning was used to enhance the singing voice of Emilia Pérez’s Karla Sofía Gascón, to increase the range of Gascón’s vocal register. Their singing was then blended with that of Camille, the French pop star who co-wrote the film’s score. 

People are upset. Really? In the film Elvis, Austin Butler’s voice is mixed with Elvis’s. Marilyn Monroe didn’t hit her own high notes. Zac Efron had a ghost singer in High School Musical. Films have been tricking us for years. But suddenly, because it’s AI, everyone is up in arms about it.  

And it’s not just correcting accents and singing voices where AI is used. Its already embedded in everything from production to writing to visual effects – just don’t expect anyone to shout it from the rooftops.  

Some say it’s more of a PR problem than a tech problem, and that it’s just another tool like CGI to be used to make a better film.  

Obviously, there are concerns about the prolific use of AI – no one wants to see whole sectors of the industry replaced, such as writers, graphic artists or background actors. It's often the lowest paid on the call sheet who suffer. So, it’s up to the industry to draw the line and work towards safeguards and regulation so the industry can find a way to use AI for good.  

And love it or hate it, AI is going to be part of our lives - in ways we can already see and ways we can’t imagine. Just don’t let the controversy ruin a good film for you.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, There's a lot going on in the world this week,
which is a bit of an understatement, isn't it. This Friday,
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences provide some
lighthearted relief from the world's challenges by announcing the Oscar
nominees for the twenty twenty five Academy Awards. Now, the
nominees were due to be announced on January eighteen, then
January twenty, before being delayed again, giving those impacted by

(00:21):
the fires still raging in southern California more time to vote.
But as filmmakers, actors, and the masterful crafts people responsible
for making some of the best films of the year
wait patiently to see whether they will get the nomination
nod from their peers, a prickly conversation is brewing about AI.
The latest controversy in film was around the use of

(00:42):
AI and two potential nominees, The Brutalist and Amelia Peris,
which both won big at the Golden Globes. These two
Oscar front runners are dealing with the backlash after it
was revealed they use voice cloning to enhance actors' performances.
So in The Brutalist, Adrian Brody Felicity Jones play Jewish

(01:02):
Hungarians who survived the Nazi camps and escaped to the US.
The actor is spent two months working with a dialect
coach to perfect their accents, but the filmmakers wanted their
Hungarian to sound perfect, so added individual sounds and letters
to both Brody and Jones's Hungarian language dialogue to perfect it.
This has caused quite an uproar, and the brutalist director

(01:25):
Brady Corbett was forced to issue a statement to Hollywood
Trade Publication saying Adrian and Felicity's performance is completely their own,
who went on to say the aim was to preserve
the authenticity of Adrian and Felicity's performance in another language,
not to replace or alter them, and done with the
utmost respect for the craft. Their performances in this film,

(01:45):
which I have seen, are extraordinary. The film is stunning, ambitious, audacious,
and if a tool was used to tweak their Hungarian
along the way, well, Hungarians are probably grateful with Amelia Pairs.
It has emerged a cloning was used to an hants
the singing voice of Amelia Perez's Carla Sophia Garson to
increase the range of Garson's vocal register. Their singing was

(02:07):
then blended with that of Camille, the French pop star
who co wrote the film's score. People are upset really
in the film Elvis Austin Butler's voices mixed with Elvis's.
Marilyn Monroe did not hit her own high notes. Zac
Efron has a ghost singer in high school Musical films
have been tricking us for years, but suddenly because it's AI,

(02:28):
everyone is up in arms about it. And it's not
just correcting accents and singing voices. Where AI is used,
it's already embedded in everything from production to writing to
visual effects. Just don't expect anyone to shout it from
the rooftops. Some say it's more of a pr problem
than a tech problem, and that it's just another tool
like CGI to be used to make better films. Obviously,

(02:50):
there are concerns about the prolific use of AI. No
one wants to see whole sectors of the industry replaced,
such as writers or graphic artists or background it's often
the lowest paid on the call sheet who suffer. So
it is up to the industry to draw the line
and work towards safeguards and regulation so the industry can

(03:12):
find a way to use AI for good and love
or hate it. AI is going to be part of
our lives in ways we can already see, in ways
we can't imagine. Just don't let the controversy ruin a
good film for you. For more from Early Edition with
Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks at B from

(03:32):
five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.