Brad Pitt has shared that when it comes to making expensive visual effects more affordable, AI could help more modestly budgeted productions get off the ground.
Brad Pitt has entered into the heated debate regarding the use of artificial intelligence in the arts, arguing that AI could be a valuable "tool" for the movie industry – specifically for mid-budget films.
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The Oscar-winning actor shared his thoughts in a new interview with Esquire, in which he acknowledges that there is “a lot of pushback against AI,” but that AI “is going to be the very thing that, if used as a tool, is going to help these mid-budget films, $40 to $90 million-budgeted films, get made.”
Pitt was referring to the expensive process of creating visual effects for movies and did state that he was more hesitant when it comes to the controversial technology replacing actors.
“Well, it depends on who’s creating it, you know? Who’s behind it, who’s telling the story,” he said. “Who’s saying, ‘I want to see this emotion from him,’ and then being able to mine through whatever AI provides and going, ‘More in this direction,’ and tailoring it in that way. So they could, but the final product might not be my choices and what I found and discovered in the thing.”
Pitt also noted that actors are being told to scan themselves for post-production usage and commented that he’s always ensured that he owned - and subsequently destroyed - his own scans.
“I’ve been scanned for the last 20 years, and I’ve always put in my contract: ‘I own them and I destroy them.’ I should have kept them!” he said. “All this time I’ve always had them destroyed, because I’m paranoid Ozark boy.”
Pitt went on to call the growing use of AI in filmmaking “a very interesting experiment.”
His comments come at a time when Hollywood is wrestling with the existential crisis that AI can represent for creatives. It's a divisive topic, with the recent likes of Martin Scorsese and George Lucas receiving backlash for their endorsement of AI. Elsewhere, Guillermo del Toro has remained steadfast in his disapproval of the use of AI in film.
Pitt also spoke about the use of generative AI in music.
“I heard an AI song the other day that was pretty damn good,” he said. “But it had a repetitive nature to it. It’s not going to be the same as hearing her voice - a woman’s voice, a person’s voice.”
Elsewhere in the Esquire interview, Pitt opened up about his mental health following his divorce from Angelina Jolie and his family troubles – specifically his children changing their surnames from Pitt to Jolie.
He said that while he is usually an incredibly positive person, there have been difficult moments.
“I’ve never been suicidal except for one little period. And in that one little period, I just thought – I just couldn’t – just didn’t see a way out,” shared Pitt. “The pain was so oppressive that – I wasn’t going to act on this, but I could feel – I could feel the cold steel of the bullet in my head, and it felt like relief.”
“And I thought, ‘Oh, okay, now I understand.’ I understand suicide, in the sense that it’s just relief. It’s just looking for relief from the pain. But I also think we have incredible survival instincts. And for me, that immediately kicked in, but it was just...”
When asked what sparked his suicidal feelings, Pitt replied: “Family stuff.”
“We could leave it at that,” he added.
Jolie and Pitt share six children together, with Shiloh, 20, being the first of the siblings to be granted a name change in 2024 - now going by the name Shiloh Jolie. People previously reported that the couple’s daughter Zahara, 21, made the same filing following her brother Maddox, 24, also filing to remove “Pitt” from his surname.
The family divide is believed to have come following a 2016 airplane altercation in which Pitt allegedly got into a heated argument with his family. Jolie filed for divorce just days after the flight.
An FBI investigation into child abuse allegations after the incident cleared Pitt of all charges.
