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Cage Match
Nicolas Cage has some practical advice to young actors about artificial intelligence.
Speaking at the 25th Newport Beach Film Festival on Sunday, the "Longlegs" star warned up-and-comers not to let their performances be manipulated with AI to create "employment based digital replicas" (EBDRs) — and no, not even in the limited terms described by new protections against the tech.
"There is a new technology in town. It's a technology that I didn't have to contend with for 42 years until recently," Cage said referring to EBDRs, as quoted by Deadline.
"This technology wants to take your instrument," he continued. "We are the instruments as film actors. We are not hiding behind guitars and drums."
Line in the Sand
EBDRs are one of two types of digital replicas described in the groundbreaking deal struck between actors and movie studios following the conclusion of the SAG-AFTRA strike last year.
Whereas "independently created digital replicas" allow for the creation of entire (potentially AI) clones of an actor without their participation, EBDRs only work with the performer's physical involvement for a specific project — like, for example, the AI de-aging of an actor's face.
According to Cage, however, even that limited use is ceding too much control to studios.
"The studios want this so that they can change your face after you've already shot it — they can change your face, they can change your voice, they can change your line deliveries, they can change your body language, they can change your performance," Cage said.
In face of this threat, he offered a new creed for actors to abide by.
"I'm asking you, if you're approached by a studio to sign a contract, permitting them to use EBDR on your performance, I want you to consider what I am calling MVMFMBMI: my voice, my face, my body, my imagination — my performance, in response," Cage said. "Protect your instrument."
Ghost Rider
The self-styled practitioner of Nouveau Shamanic and Western Kabuki, of course, speaks from experience.
In a 2023 interview with Yahoo Entertainment in which he described AI as a "nightmare" and "inhumane," Cage bemoaned his brief appearance as Superman in last year's "The Flash," because it turned out to be way different from what he actually filmed thanks to digital manipulation.
In general, Cage has had the transformative tech on the brain as much as any of us. Speaking to The New Yorker in July, he described how he was "terrified" of AI, fearing the implications it could have for artists — and for his legacy.
"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!" he told the magazine.
You tell 'em, Nic. With major studios capitulating to the tech, these kinds of anxieties are becoming more exigent than ever.
Thank you!
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