Nicolas Cage Calls AI a ‘Nightmare’
Nicolas Cage is very much against the use of Artificial Intelligence. After seeing the final cut of his cameo as Superman in DC’s 2023 The Flash movie, the actor is wondering why the studio went in that direction. The National Treasure star told Yahoo! Entertainment in an interview published Wednesday (November 1) that he was supposed to “literally just be standing in an alternate dimension, if you will, and witnessing the destruction of the universe.”
Cage, 59, played a younger, multiverse version of Superman in the cameo. But the version on the big screen showed his character randomly “fighting a giant spider” — which is not what Cage said he filmed. “I did not do that. That was not what I did,” he said. “I don’t think it was [created by] AI. I know Tim [Burton] is upset about AI, as I am. It was CGI, okay, so that they could de-age me, and I’m fighting a spider. I didn’t do any of that, so I don’t know what happened there.”
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Admitting that the decision is out of his control, Cage said he “literally went to shoot a scene for maybe an hour in the suit, looking at the destruction of a universe and trying to convey the feelings of loss and sadness and terror in my eyes. That’s all I did.” Cage’s comments about Burton come after the filmmaker recently discussed Hollywood’s trend of bringing back beloved characters with the assistance of AI. The Batman Returns director told the British Film Institute, “It goes into another AI thing, and this is why I think I’m over it with the studio.” He also worked for nearly two years on the late 90s’ Superman Lives, starring Cage as the titular hero, before the project was scrapped.
“They can take what you did, Batman or whatever, and culturally misappropriate it, or whatever you want to call it. Even though you’re a slave of Disney or Warner Brothers, they can do whatever they want,” Burton added. “So in my latter years of life, I’m in quiet revolt against all this.”
Cage said in his recent interview that he understands where the famed director is coming from. “I know what he means. I would be very unhappy if people were taking my art … and appropriating them.” He concludes, “I’m with him in that regard. AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane. You can’t get more inhumane than artificial intelligence.”
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