‘The Brutalist’ Director Speaks Out After AI Controversy Erupts
‘The Brutalist’ Director Speaks Out After AI Controversy Erupts
Author: Tim Lammers, Contributor
Published on: 2025-01-20 21:25:32
Source: Forbes – Innovation
Disclaimer:All rights are owned by the respective creators. No copyright infringement is intended.
Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones in “The Brutalist.”
The Brutalist director Brady Corbet is addressing the backlash caused by the revelation that AI was used in parts of the film’s creation.
Corbet issued a statement following revelations by the film’s editor, Dávid Jancsó, in a Jan. 11 interview with tech publication Red Shark News.
In the interview, Jancsó said AI was used to tweak certain parts of the Hungarian dialect in the movie used by stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones—as well as in the creation of architectural drawings that appeared near the conclusion of the film.
The use of AI was one of the big sticking points in the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America’s strikes against Hollywood studios in 2023.
As such, backlash erupted on social media following Jancsó’s revelations, including the post on X below.
In Corbet’s statement, the Golden Globe-winning director defended the use of AI to tweak Brody and Jones’ dialogue and explained how it was implemented in The Brutalist.
“Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents,” Corbet said in the statement (via Variety).
“Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production,” Corbet’s statement added. “The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.”
Respeecher is the same Ukranian startup that developed AI technology to accurately recreate James Earl Jones’ voice as Darth Vader for future use in any Star Wars projects. Per Vanity Fair, the actor signed over the rights to use his voice for Darth Vader to Lucasfilm in 2022. Jones died in September of 2024 at age 93.
Jancsó told Red Shark News that the production resorted to the use of AI when ADR—which stands for automated dialogue replacement—wasn’t satisfactory enough. Jancsó told the publication that he’s “a native Hungarian speaker” and “it is one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce.”
“If you’re coming from the Anglo-Saxon world certain sounds can be particularly hard to grasp. We first tried to ADR these harder elements with the actors,” Jancsó told the publication. “Then we tried to ADR them completely with other actors but that just didn’t work. So we looked for other options of how to enhance it.”
MADRID, SPAIN – JANUARY 17: Actor Adrien Brody (L) and director Brady Corbet (R) attend to “The … [+]
Brady Corbet Also Addressed The Use Of AI Imagery In ‘The Brutalist’
Also in David Jancsó’s interview with Red Shark News about The Brutalist, the publication noted that Generative AI was used near the conclusion of the film in a tribute to the work of Adrien Brody’s fictional character László Tóth.
In his statement Monday, Brady Corbet clarified how the AI was used in the scene.
“[Production designer] Judy Becker and her team did not use AI to create or render any of the buildings. All images were hand-drawn by artists,” Corbet said (via Variety). “To clarify, in the memorial video featured in the background of a shot, our editorial team created pictures intentionally designed to look like poor digital renderings circa 1980.”
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmakers resorted to the use of AI because of tight budget constraints with The Brutalist, which the trade publication said cost less than $10 million.
The controversy over the use of AI in The Brutalist comes at a crucial time for the awards season hopeful since the nominations for the 2025 Oscars are set to be announced on Thursday.
The revelation certainly isn’t sitting well with X users like @midsommarz, who posted, “My take on The Brutalist AI thing is it’s a slippery slope to award Adrian Brody knowing his accent was edited with AI. IMO altering a performance with AI like that should automatically disqualify someone from these awards shows.”
The nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday after the ceremony was postponed twice amid the Los Angeles-area wildfires.
The Brutalist recently earned a Best Picture nomination from the Producers Guild of America and Corbet was nominated for Best Director by the Directors Guild of America. The film has also been nominated for Best Picture and Best Director by the British Film and Television Academy Awards and Critics Choice Awards.
In addition, Brody has been nominated for Outstanding Male Actor in a Motion Picture by the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the BAFTAs and the CCAs.
The Brutalist recently earned Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor (Drama) for Brody and Best Director for Corbet.
Disclaimer: All rights are owned by the respective creators. No copyright infringement is intended.
