“There’s a movie I’m in that’s coming out on Christmas called Marty Supreme,” O’Leary told The Hill, adding, “We worked on it for eight months. Almost every scene had as many as 150 extras.”
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“Now, those people had to stay awake for 18 hours, be completely dressed in the background — not necessarily in the movie, except they’re necessary to be there moving around. And yet, it costs millions of dollars to do that,” O’Leary explained.
The Shark Tank star gave an example, noting, “When we shot in a French bistro, all of the supporting actors behind, or at least the extras, were speaking French in a dim, like, you couldn’t tell, but you know it wasn’t English.”
“Why couldn’t you simply put AI agents in their place — because they’re not the main actors, they’re only in the story visually — and save millions of dollars so more movies could be made?” O’Leary asked.
“That same director, instead of spending $90 million or whatever he spent, could have spent $35 million and made two movies,” he added.
TV host Lindsey Granger chimed in, saying, “I know business is not supposed to be emotional, but all those extras, like, their dream could have slightly came true by being in the background of the Kevin O’Leary movie. I mean, like, we are cutting them out of the equation.”
“Okay?” O’Leary replied.
Director Kolyn Boyd (who did not work on Marty Supreme) then noted that certain scenes do not seem feasible to film today due to budget issues and inflation.
“I was thinking about this the other day,” he said. “We were walking in the train station in New York, and I was just like, ‘Y’all, I would love to recreate this scene,’ but you can’t do it under the budgets — especially with the inflation right now, especially with how much you have to pay actors.”
“To get that scene done with 200 people walking through the train station, it’s just impossible,” Boyd added.
O’Leary responded by reiterating his earlier point: “Yeah, that scene costs half a million dollars, unless you did it with AI, when all you needed was the actor. Then you’re talking about it costing $35,000.”
“So, I’d argue that for the sake of the art, you should allow it in certain cases. An extra is a really good-use case, because you can’t tell the difference. You just put a hundred Norwood Tillies in there, and you’re good,” the businessman added.
O’Leary was referring to the recently-developed AI-generated “actress” Tilly Norwood, who sparked outrage among members of the entertainment industry, including the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), actress Emily Blunt, The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg, and other Hollywood stars.
Celebrities have expressed fears that the use of artificial intelligence will end up replacing them in the entertainment industry, with Blunt calling Tilly Norwood “really scary” and warning Hollywood agencies not to cross that line.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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