The Big Break [Commentary]
While we may not entirely see the end of C-list actors, we will probably see a growing disparity between A-list and the rest of celebrities. We’re at the point where we can digitally replace actors in a film entirely in post, like Tig Notaro being added to Army of the Dead.
The realm of visual effects are continuing to improve and grow more sophisticated. We can do things like digital de-aging on an actor fairly successfully.
Deepfakes can already be used not for manipulating the actor, but for changing their face entirely. As long as they bare a passing resemblance in other ways, it’s easy for a Tom Cruise impersonator to go the extra step and look just like Tom Cruise.
This creates a very interesting effect in our entertainment. Will we start hiring look-alikes to act in place of a celebrity?
It makes a lot of sense to every party. A celebrity isn’t going to want to spend their time doing a lot of unnecessary work. A studio isn’t going to want to pay them that much either. Robert Downey Jr. is making tens of millions of dollars with every Marvel movie appearance, which cuts into their profits. If they could get away with not casting him, they would. Yet they also know he is a big reason of why people watched Marvel movies.
With 3D modeling software, you can create a digital twin of both the celebrity and the actor. Post-production would consist of mapping the celebrity’s face and voice onto the original actions and movements. Deepfake technology would then be able to dub the face to match the voice in whatever language they wanted.
Imagine having your favorite actor in double the movies they are doing now. They’ll have much more time. It would be a great time for fans, as they will have even more to enjoy and pay to watch.
Yet it does raise some interesting problems on the societal scale. If the best actors can appear in every film, why should studios ever consider hiring new actors and creating a fresh set of ideas? Couldn’t they just continue making the same content in perpetuity?
What will happen to your favorite actor after they die? Will their film rights be given to the studio to continue being used? Will we end up with a permanent class of actors and actresses forever, managed by a team of ghosts who can act and talk but never see the limelight?
It probably won’t be entirely binary as that, but there are interesting questions that will need policy answers soon, as the technology is already arriving.