A.I. may be the future, but it’s certainly not the one Nicolas Cage would want.
It’s been a while since the sundry technological advancements materializing across the globe started seeping into the cracks and crevices of Hollywood. Sure, change is the law of life and all that but – in the golden words of Michael Scott – too much change is not a good thing, ask the climate.
That being said, there have been numerous industry juggernauts, including the likes of Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves, who’ve verbalized their distaste towards A.I. and deepfakes. Now we can add Cage’s name to that list as well.
A.I. Terrifies Spider-Man Noir Star Nicolas Cage
If there’s one thing that scares the wits out of the Longlegs star, it’s artificial intelligence, and he has no qualms about vocalizing his vexation about the same. In a conversation with The New Yorker, Nicolas Cage – who is set to reprise his role as Spider-Man Noir in the forthcoming live-action series – remarked how he had to get digitally scanned for two of his projects, including the superhero production.
But unlike DC – which brought back Christopher Reeve’s Superman via CGI for The Flash‘s multiversal crossover – Cage, 60, doesn’t wish to be reincarnated on-screen through AI technology after his death.
Well, they have to put me in a computer and match my eye color and change [for the scans]—I don’t know. They’re just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital A.I. . . . God, I hope not A.I. I’m terrified of that. I’ve been very vocal about it.
And it makes me wonder, you know, where will the truth of the artists end up? Is it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Where’s the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and my face when I’m dead? I don’t want you to do anything with it!
So, that’s a no-go from the Ghost Rider star. But he’s not the only one against these high-tech antics.
Nicolas Cage Joins Tom Cruise & Keanu Reeves in the AI Hate Club
With artificial intelligence holding the power to wreck careers and put even megawatt stars out of jobs, superhero fatigue afflicting cinemas is probably the least of the industry’s concerns. And Tom Cruise understands the gravity of the situation, as does Keanu Reeves.
The Mission: Impossible star took a definitive stand in the SAG-AFTRA negotiations that unfolded in July last year, urging the guild to foster new guidelines concerning the use of generative AI in films and TV shows. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Cruise, 62, wanted to ensure that actors/performers receive just compensation should their identity be used by such technology and that it can’t be utilized without their consent.
Meanwhile, Reeves, 59, opined that what infuriates him the most about the likes of AI and deepfakes is the prospect of losing one’s “agency” (via Wired).
What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency. When you give a performance in a film, you know you’re going to be edited, but you’re participating in that. If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view. That’s scary.
Now, we have Cage joining the AI hate club as well, and perhaps, rightly so.
A release date for Noir is yet to be divulged.
