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Adrien Brody has some words for those criticizing the use of artificial intelligence for dialect purposes in “The Brutalist.” The film, which was recently nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Actor for Brody and Best Picture, employed an AI-powered Ukrainian voice synthesizer software called Respeecher during the post-production process.
After editor Dávid Jancsó explained in an interview how he mixed in his own voice with the dialogue spoken by Brody and co-star Felicity Jones to correct the stars’ Hungarian pronunciations, filmmaker Brady Corbet issued a statement to Deadline clarifying the extent of the AI use.
“Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own,” Corbet said. “They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. … The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.” (Read Corbet’s full statement here.)
Now, Brody is weighing in on the subsequent controversy. Brody said during a recent appearance on the “Little Gold Men” podcast at Vanity Fair that, while he understands that any “mention of AI is a bit triggering,” the debate was taken out of context.
“I understand that we live in a time where even just the mention of AI is a bit triggering. We live in a time where, unfortunately, things can get misappropriated quite easily on the internet,” Brody said, “and I just wish people had more understanding of the context and facts of the circumstances.”
Brody, whose mother was born in Hungary, credited Corbet for explaining how AI was used.
“I’m happy that Brady managed to clarify a lot in his remarks,” Brody said. “First of all, I’m the son of Hungarians and grew up with that language spoken in my home. I actually even integrated, within the Hungarian dialogue, curse words that weren’t in the script. … Obviously, his post-production process only touched some lines spoken in Hungarian. Nothing of the dialect was altered; that’s all done through a lot of hard work with our wonderful dialect coach, Tanera Marshall. We all worked incredibly hard on it, and we all know that.”
He continued, “Brady is a very sensitive, thoughtful filmmaker. There was no technology implemented that takes work from people. It’s quite a typical post-production process. I think we all know the truth.”
“The Brutalist” was notably made for less than $10 million; the sprawling 215-minute drama spans 30 years in the life of Brody’s lead character, László Tóth.
English (US) ·