David Cronenberg Thinks ‘The Brutalist’ AI Backlash Was a Smear Campaign by Other Oscar Nominees: “A Harvey Weinstein Kind of Thing”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/david-cronenberg-brutalist-oscars-adrien-brody-howard-shore-1236170503/

13 comments

  1. >“I must confess, there was a scandal [with] The Brutalist,” the director began at London’s Royal Festival Hall. “There was a discussion about Adrien Brody… but apparently they used artificial intelligence to improve his accent. I think it was a campaign against The Brutalist by some other Oscar nominees. It’s very much a Harvey Weinstein kind of thing, though he wasn’t around.”

    >“We mess with actors’ voices all the time,” Cronenberg continued. “In the case of John (Lone), when he was being this character, this singer, I raised the pitch of his voice [to sound more feminine] and when he’s revealed as a man, I lowered to his natural voice. This is just a part of moviemaking.”

  3. I mean, it sounds like he’s talking more about Weinstein using his influence to get *Shakespeare In Love* a best picture over *Saving Private Ryan* rather than what Weinstein’s infamous for now

  4. I hope everyone is clear that “a Harvey Weinstein thing” isn’t ambiguous.

  7. I think it was certainly blown out of proportion. It was very close between Anora and The Brutalist.

    Voters likely identified more with the ultra-contemporary nature of Anora in a moment in time when the world seems to be going backwards.

    Also the academy loves an auteur. Didn’t hurt Baker’s odds that he wrote directed and edited his film among other things.

    I wanna say it was less of a smear campaign and more of a general misunderstanding of the term followed by spreading of misinformation. But I see what David us getting at, perhaps this snowball of misunderstanding was perpetuated maliciously.

  9. Today I learned that the poor man’s David Lynch likes AI.

  10. Or hear me out, the movie was not the best picture of the year. Looked great, poor substance to hold the audience for the length of the film.

  13. Look I am so anti-AI but I looked into the controversy and even into the company and like, this is not the same as using genAI to make an animated film or steal people’s voices. The company who provides the service is pretty strict about the agreements in place for even using it, and the fact that it was used (with consent of the actors) in order to make a more beleivable accent when speaking Hungarian is like, such a niche case that an audio engineer would never be able to do. Like someone’s job was not taken here, no one’s toes were stepped on. The actors voices are not going into an AI bank to be reused without their consent.

    I, believe it or not, actually agree with Cronenberg here.

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