Emily Blunt declined to use artificial intelligence when filming a pivotal scene in her forthcoming sci-fi blockbuster Disclosure Day.
Blunt, 43, is due to star in Steven Spielberg’s new movie as a Kansas City TV meteorologist who is overcome by an extraterrestrial force when filming a weather segment on live TV. Josh O’Connor plays a whistleblower determined to expose government secrets about alien lifeforms.
During a recent appearance on Hot Ones, host Sean Evans asked Blunt about a particular scene in the not-yet-released movie that sees her character speaking in an alien language.
“It’s a four-minute oner that we shot that leads up to that moment where she’s gradually sort of disintegrating,” explained Blunt.
“There’s various ways you could do it. You could go the AI route, which I’m a bit terrified of. I thought I could make some really strange sounds.”
Blunt instead chose to record the sound organically with a sound team using strategically placed mics. “I said maybe I could come in and we’ll just do a range of weird sounds. And it’s what we did,” she recalled.
“I did sort of the clicking sounds, I did sort of humming sounds, consonant sounds, breathing strange sounds.”
The final touches were put on by the sound designer who “went away and created that weird sound”.
Disclosure Day, also starring Colin Firth, Eve Hewon, and Colman Domingo, is due to hit cinemas on 12 June.
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The film, which is the 37th that Spielberg has directed, marks a continuation in the filmmaker’s interest in sci-fi. His back catalogue is filled with sci-fi hits such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), ET the Extra Terrestrial (1982), Minority Report (2002), AI Artificial Intelligence (2001), and Ready Player One (2018).
Blunt’s reluctance to use AI in Disclosure Day comes amid a growing concern from actors over the use of AI in filmmaking.
Matthew McConaughey issued a stark warning about the future of the industry when speaking to a group of college students back in February, speaking about AI’s potential to “replace” actors one day and how that could affect awards season.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the first fully AI-generated film had been accepted into Tribeca Film Festival.
Dreams of Violets — the 75-minute docudrama movie generated by AI — has been programmed to make its world premiere June 10 at Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, making it the first AI-generated live-action feature-length film to make a festival’s official lineup, according to its production studio Fountain 0.
The movie, inspired by real events from 47 years of Iranian civilian resistance, was made on a $2,000 budget across three months by directors and producers Ash and Pooya Koosha.
