‘Alien: Romulus’ director defends AI version of dead actor’s likeness after fan backlash
This story contains spoilers for "Alien: Romulus" and "Alien."
Fans of the "Alien" franchise had a few concerns about the appearance of a beloved actor brought back to life by artificial intelligence.
A humanoid android (dubbed a "synthetic" in the movie) named Rook bears the likeness of the late Ian Holm, who appeared in the original 1979 "Alien."
Holm also starred as Bilbo Baggins in "The Lord of the Rings" films as well as movies like "Brazil," "Chariots of Fire" and "The Fifth Element." He died in 2020 at 88.
Many fans reacted to his surprise appearance and were none too thrilled.
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"The fake Ian Holm in ‘Romulus’ may be a cynical attempt at using a dead man’s face and voice for the sake of nostalgia but at least it also looks terrible and can never be changed and everyone who watches it will be subjected to it for the rest of time," one person declared on X.
"Once they showed the dead CGI face I was completely taken out of it. Let the man rest," said another.
"The extent to which they use Ian Holm's reanimated corpse in ‘Alien: Romulus’ is truly appalling" said a third.
Director Fede Alvarez confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that AI was used to recreate Holm's look.
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"We were not trying to do what can’t be done, which is to reproduce that person’s talent as an actor, because this is another character," he told the outlet. "The only thing they have in common is the likeness."
Alvarez says he reached out to Holm’s widow, Sophie de Stempel, to ask for her input and approval.
"We did it all with a lot of respect and always with the authorization of his family, his children and his widow, who said, ‘We would love to see his likeness again,’" Alvarez said.
He added, "In the last 10 years after ‘The Hobbit,’ Ian Holm felt like Hollywood had turned its back on him, and his widow felt he would have loved to be a part of this," the director said. "He loved this character in particular."
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To recreate Holm, an animatronic that looked like the late actor was used on set and puppeteered, with British actor Daniel Betts on set reading lines for the cast and doing facial capture. Betts’ voice was later altered to sound more like Holm’s using generative AI and computer modeling, according to the L.A. Times.
"We’re not bringing someone back to life and saying, ‘Ian would have done it that way,’" Alvarez said. "He would have obviously done it differently. We had an actor who was on the set, who worked on the dialogue, who worked with the actors. It’s not like we skipped hiring an actor."
The "Evil Dead" director also noted he doesn’t believe AI will be able to replace actors in the future and that using it to create the character of Rook in Holm’s image was specific to the film.
"It’s so much more expensive to do it the way we did it; it’s much cheaper to just hire an actor," Alvarez said. "Doing it this way requires a team of so many people and so many parts to get it done that it’s never going to be really convenient."
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The controversy over using the late Holm’s likeness comes as new legislation in California addressing actors’ likenesses, living and dead, is set to hit Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk soon.
The state Senate passed two bills in August: AB 1836, which restricts the usage of AI to create digital replicas of dead performers without the consent of their estates, and AB 2602, which increases consent requirements for living performers for AI replicas.
"Both of these bills have been a legislative priority for the union on behalf of our membership and beyond, making explicit consent in California mandatory. We look forward to these bills being signed by Governor Gavin Newsom," the actor’s guild, SAG-AFTRA, said in a statement on their website.
The union has also supported new federal legislation recently re-introduced into Congress, the No Fakes Act.
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The Motion Picture Association, which represents multiple major studios including Netflix, Sony, Paramount, Universal, Disney and Warner Bros., also praised the bill.
SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland spoke with Fox News Digital about the bill in July, saying, "[F]rom our point of view, this is absolutely crucial. The timing is now, and it's desperately needed."