Variety reports that Gyllenhaal, who sits on the Venice Film Festival’s jury as president this year, spoke about her new short and the methods she employed, and ultimately abandoned, during production at a recent symposium.“The people who commissioned this project from me asked me to use AI,” she said. “And I thought—I mean, they weren’t using OpenAI; they were using licensable AI, training it off of Marilyn Monroe films that we had licensed. And I went for it. I was like, all right, I’m curious, I don’t know, let’s see.”
While the idea of pulling data from Monroe’s face in films such as, say, Some Like It Hot or Niagara, just to apply an approximation of her nuances over another actor’s mug might put off some folks—not to mention, seem insulting to Johnson—Genesis Motor America, Flesh Impact‘s money people, clearly felt comfortable enough prodding Gyllenhaal to use it. “The idea was that we trained it on [Monroe], we then put her face on Dakota’s face. We worked hard at it, and in the end, I threw it away because what was coming through Dakota playing Marilyn Monroe was so much more moving, human, alive,” she said. “It fundamentally did not work. All the reasons we decided to make this project to begin with were, were, were, were [sic] killed off in the AI version,” she continued.
For her part, Gyllenhaal isn’t eager to jump back on the AI train any time soon, citing “environmental” concerns and “creative shortcomings” that, again, would make the prospect of guzzling untold gallons of water just to make Dakota Johnson’s eyebrows twitch a little less (or whatever) seem like an artistic non-starter to some creatives. And yet, the current push to integrate AI use in film has stirred a complex and fraught business climate where people behind the money have found the means to produce more and spend less. As far as that goes, Gyllenhaal said she was told that, before long,“$40 million will now be able to cost $4 million if you do it with AI… and maybe even eventually $40,000—which is what you were talking about in terms of democratizing or opening opportunities to people who wouldn’t otherwise have them. But the thing is, is if you can make a commercial good enough movie for $40,000 or even for $4 million, who’s gonna give you $10 million to do it the old way? Nobody. I mean, maybe there’s a tiny, tiny little market for that. But, you know, that concerns me.”
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