The Anya Taylor-Joy starrer Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was released earlier this week to positive responses. Though the film seemed to have had a less-than-stellar opening at the box office, most fans seemed to have been impressed with George Miller’s return to the Wasteland. The film is a prequel/spinoff to Mad Max: Fury Road.
Taylor-Joy replaced Charlize Theron in the prequel as a younger Imperator Furiosa. The film follows Furiosa’s childhood in the Green Place and her eventual admission into Immortan Joe’s Citadel. However, a much younger Furiosa was played by Alyla Browne, whose features were reportedly fused with Taylor-Joy’s with AI.
Furiosa Used AI To Make Alyla Browne Look More Like Anya Taylor-Joy
George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga follows the titular character’s journey from her native town to the Citadel where she is first introduced in Mad Max: Fury Road. The film sees a teen Furiosa being kidnapped by a biker gang led by Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus and their decade-long feud as he trades her for royalty at the Citadel.
While Charlize Theron played the role in the original, Anya Taylor-Joy was cast by Miller in the titular role as the film took place fifteen years before the events of Fury Road. With AI technology, there were avenues to de-age Theron for the look he desired but Miller opted to go with a younger actress instead. However, AI was still reportedly used in the movie.
Taylor-Joy revealed in an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show that her features were added on to actress Alyla Browne, who played a teen version of the character. She said,
George Miller had the idea very early on. The audience was already getting used to a new Furiosa [Charlize Theron in ‘Fury Road’]. He wanted the transition from both actors [Browne and Taylor-Joy] playing her to be seamless. And so I did two days of the craziest things you could ever possibly imagine. And they mixed our faces together.
Taylor-Joy also mentioned that initially 35% of her likeness was added to Browne and by the end of the transition between teen Furiosa and a grown-up version, there was almost 80% of her likeness on Browne.
Fans Are Wrong To Boycott Furiosa For Use Of AI
While the use of Artificial Intelligence has been prevalent in filmmaking for a long time, the industry had to reevaluate the use of generative AI in their process once tech such as writing and art AI was available. The SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes of last year sought protection from being replaced by such generative AI tools in screenwriting and acting departments (AP News).
Films that have used AI tools have come under fire with the recent David Dastmalchian film Late Night With The Devil sparking controversy for using generative AI. Though the makers revealed that only three generative art pieces were used in the film, fans seemed to have an issue with it(via Variety). Now, fans have taken issue with Furiosa for using AI.
However, there is a difference in the way George Miller used AI and the generative AI tools that the guilds were against. Miller’s use of Artificial Intelligence to fuse Anya Taylor-Joy’s facial features with Alyla Browne seems to be more of a VFX tool. Hence, the same backlash and boycotts are not warranted for a film that is already struggling at the box office (via Deadline).
