The recent controversy surrounding the use of AI in The Brutalist has sparked quite a debate in the film industry. However, legendary director David Cronenberg is stepping up to defend the Oscar-nominated film, pushing back against what he believes is an unfair attack. While speaking with his longtime collaborator Howard Shore at the London Soundtrack Festival, Cronenberg suggested that there might be a "campaign against" Brady Corbet’s film.
Now, let’s be real—AI isn’t some new, unheard-of tool in filmmaking. Cronenberg himself pointed out that directors have been modifying actors’ voices and performances for years. "I must confess, there was a scandal with The Brutalist," he said, according to multiple reports. "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."
Filmmaking Has Always Used Technology
Cronenberg gave a personal example from his 1993 film M. Butterfly, where he digitally altered actor John Lone’s voice. "When he was being this character, this singer, I raised the pitch of his voice, and when he’s revealed as a man, I lowered it to his natural voice," he explained. "This is just a part of moviemaking."
If anything, the backlash surrounding The Brutalist highlights how selective outrage can be in Hollywood. AI might be the latest buzzword, but it’s really just another tool filmmakers have at their disposal.
The Role of AI in The Brutalist
Dávid Jancsó, the film’s editor, shed some light on exactly how AI was used in the production. He revealed that AI tools from Ukrainian company Respeecher were utilized to enhance the actors’ Hungarian dialogue. As a native Hungarian speaker himself, Jancsó emphasized that the language is notoriously difficult to pronounce correctly.
"It is controversial in the industry to talk about AI, but it shouldn’t be," Jancsó told Red Shark News. "We should be having a very open discussion about what tools AI can provide us with. There’s nothing in the film using AI that hasn’t been done before. It just makes the process a lot faster. We use AI to create these tiny little details that we didn’t have the money or the time to shoot."
That last part is crucial—this wasn’t about replacing actors or changing performances. It was about refining and fine-tuning elements that would have been incredibly difficult or costly to achieve otherwise.
Setting the Record Straight
Brady Corbet, the director of The Brutalist, later addressed the controversy in a statement shared with Deadline. He made it clear that the performances audiences see on screen belong entirely to the actors.
"Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents," Corbet stated. "Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them—done with the utmost respect for the craft."
The Bigger Picture
This whole situation raises a bigger question—where do we draw the line with technology in filmmaking? AI is already being used in de-aging actors, enhancing visual effects, and even generating music scores. So why does it suddenly become a scandal when it’s used to tweak accents?
Perhaps this controversy isn’t really about AI at all. Maybe it’s more about how the industry reacts when a film uses technology in ways that make people uncomfortable or challenge traditional methods. Or maybe, as Cronenberg suggested, there’s a deeper political game at play during awards season.
One thing is clear: AI is here to stay in Hollywood. The real conversation should be about how to use it responsibly, rather than pretending it’s some evil force out to replace human creativity. Because, let’s face it, movies have always evolved alongside technology—this is just the next chapter in that story.
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