Brad Pitt says AI could help more mid-budget films get made, calls its use "a very interesting experiment"

Washington DC [US], August 11 (ANI): Hollywood star Brad Pitt is keeping an open mind about the growing use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking, saying AI, if used as a tool, could help more mid-budget movies get made while acknowledging concerns about its impact on actors and their performances, according to Variety.

The Oscar-winning actor discussed the potential of AI to reduce the cost of visual effects and other filmmaking processes, particularly for movies with budgets ranging from USD 40 million to USD 90 million.

“There’s a lot of pushback against AI, but AI is going to be the very thing that, if used as a tool, is going to help these mid-budget films, USD 40 to USD 90 million-budgeted films, get made,” Pitt said.

However, Pitt expressed more complicated feelings about the possibility of AI being used to replicate actors and their performances. Asked whether AI could reproduce one of his performances, he said the outcome would depend on the person directing the technology and the creative choices involved, as per the outlet.

“Well, it depends on who’s creating it, you know? Who’s behind it, who’s telling the story. Who’s saying, ‘I want to see this emotion from him,’ and then being able to mine through whatever AI provides and going, ‘More in this direction,’ and tailoring it in that way,” Pitt said.

“So they could, but the final product might not be my choices and what I found and discovered in the thing,” he added, according to Variety.

Pitt described the growing use of AI in the film industry as “gonna be a very interesting experiment.”

The actor also addressed body scanning, a practice increasingly used in filmmaking for stunt work, battle sequences and de-aging, while raising concerns about ownership and how performers’ digital scans could be used in the future.

“They’re telling us all to … scan ourselves,” Pitt said. “I’ve been scanned for the last 20 years, and I’ve always put in my contract: I own them and I destroy them. I should have kept them! All this time I’ve always had them destroyed, because I’m paranoid Ozark boy.”

Pitt also shared his reaction to AI-generated music, saying he recently heard an AI song that impressed him but still felt different from listening to a human performer.

“I heard an AI song the other day that was pretty damn good,” he said, adding that “it had a repetitive nature to it. It’s not going to be the same as hearing her voice — a woman’s voice, a person’s voice.”

Meanwhile, Pitt is preparing for several major projects. His next film, ‘Heart of the Beast’, follows a special forces soldier who survives a plane crash alongside his dog, according to Variety.

He will also return as Cliff Booth in ‘The Adventures of Cliff Booth’, a follow-up to Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’, with David Fincher directing.

According to Esquire, the project is not exactly a conventional sequel, but instead resembles the episodic television format Tarantino has previously described as an influence — stories featuring recurring characters whose individual adventures can also stand on their own.

Tarantino wrote the script and initially considered the project as his 10th and final film before deciding against that plan. Pitt subsequently asked if he could show the script to Fincher, his director on ‘Fight Club’.

“Quentin gave me his blessing,” Pitt said. “Finch and I were on a plane and I gave him the script, and by the time we landed he said, ‘I’m doing it.'”

Elsewhere in the interview, Pitt opened up about his relationship with alcohol, revealing that he is no longer sober after previously maintaining sobriety for seven years.

“I was sober for seven years. And then I got back off the wagon,” he said. “In a more restrained manner. I got overconfident a couple times, went, Yep, nope, not good for me. Not in big quantities.”

Pitt said he can have a “few” glasses of wine but needs to maintain limits, according to Variety.

“But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it,” he said.

The actor also reflected on one of the darkest periods of his life, which he attributed to “family stuff,” amid his highly publicised divorce from Angelina Jolie and changes involving some of their children’s surnames.

“I’ve never been suicidal except for one little period,” Pitt said, according to Variety.

He recalled experiencing overwhelming emotional pain during that period, saying he could understand suicide as an attempt to seek relief from suffering, while also noting that his survival instinct eventually took over.

“And I thought, Oh, okay, now I understand — I understand suicide, in the sense that it’s just relief. It’s just looking for relief from the pain,” he said. “But I also think we have incredible survival instincts. And for me, that immediately kicked in,” according to Variety. (ANI)

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