The Brutalistis expected to dobig things at the Academy Awardsthis year and could even take home the trophy for Best Picture, but ahead of the nominees being announced later this week, it’s now being revealed thatthe film used AI to enhance the performances of both Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. The news comes at a time when scrutiny over AI in the movie industry is at an all-time high, with many now calling into question the integrity of director Brady Corbet’s epic period drama.
Speaking withRedShark News,The Brutalist’s editor Dávid Jancsó admittedthat AI was used to improve Brody and Jones' Hungarian accentsto make them sound more authentic. “I am a native Hungarian speaker and I know that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce,” he said, adding:
If you’re coming from the Anglo-Saxon world, certain sounds can be particularly hard to grasp.
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Brody recently took home a Best Actor trophy at the Golden Globes for his performance in the film, while Jones was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, ultimately losing to Zoe Saldaña for her role inEmilia Pérez, which – coincidentally – also used AI to enhance the vocal performance of Karla Sofia Gascón. Jancsó said that they initially tried to fix Brody and Jones' accents in post-production, but when they didn’t work, the filmmakers turned to Ukrainian company Respeecher to get the job done in time forThe Brutalist’s release.
“We first tried to ADR these harder elements with the actors. Then we tried to ADR them completely with other actors but that just didn’t work. So we looked for other options of how to enhance it […] We were very careful about keeping their performances. It’s mainly just replacing letters here and there. You can do this in ProTools yourself, but we had so much dialogue in Hungarian that we really needed to speed up the process otherwise we’d still be in post.”
Social Media Reacts to the News of AI Used in ‘The Brutalist’
Reactions to the news ofThe Brutalistusing AI have been swift on social media, with fans pointing out that the film also employed AI to enhance its visual effects. “They used AI inThe Brutalistnot only to avoid paying visual artists for their work but also to manipulate the actors' accents, a fundamental aspect of… acting,” came the words of @onlyafortnight. “The Brutalistused AI to fix actors' accents and for the architecture design… when it’s a movie about an architect,” added @bvckystjames.
User @stockpiledclay was a little more forgiving in his response to the news thatThe Brutalistused AI, saying, “As far as I can tell,The Brutalistgen AI stuff was actually a team of artists who used AI images as a source of inspiration. Seems fine to me, I think you guys just see red every time you read ‘AI.'” Other positive comments have been few and far between, with the majority of folks agreeing that Brody and Jones should be disqualified from Oscar contention considering AI was used to enhance their vocals.
It’s doubtful thatThe Brutalistwill face any repercussions when it comes tothis year’s Academy Awards, especially when you consider that voting concluded this past Friday. We’ll know for sure how it all shakes out when the nominees are announced on Thursday, Jan. 23.
The Brutalist
Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost…
