Hollywood star Nicolas Cage has pointed out the ‘inhumanity’ of AI (Picture: Getty)
Nicolas Cage has given the most succinct and clear warning over AI (artificial intelligence) yet, dubbing it ‘inhumane’ and a ‘nightmare’.
He also said that he agreed with director Tim Burton’s ‘upset’ over the new form of technology that has been taking Hollywood by storm in recent years, becoming one of the key concerns of the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes in the US.
Oscar-winner Cage famously almost worked with Burton on the abandoned 1998 Superman Lives project, which would have seen him don the superhero’s famous red cape – but it had the plug pulled on it just three weeks’ away from shooting.
The acclaimed filmmaker told the British Film Institute that he was ‘in quiet revolt’ against AI in September, after Cage, 59, was shown in a surprise cameo in The Flash as his version of Kal-El.
The Renfield star has now clarified that he did actually spend ‘maybe three hours’ on set, so it was a CGI-enhanced appearance rather than AI or taken from costume test footage that has leaked online in recent years.
However, he shared that he ‘gets’ where Burton is coming from and ‘know[s] what he means’.
The actor spoke about the new technology form as a ‘nightmare’ (Picture: Getty)
He also revealed he understood director Tim Burton’s ‘upset’ (Picture: Getty)
‘I would be very unhappy if people were taking my art… and appropriating them. I get it. I mean, I’m with him in that regard. AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane.’
‘You can’t get more inhumane than artificial intelligence,’ he pointed out to Yahoo! Entertainment, while promoting his new film Dream Scenario.
However, the National Treasure actor also revealed that his cameo in The Flash alongside the likes of Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Jason Momoa, didn’t turn out anything like he was expecting.
‘What I was supposed to do was literally just be standing in an alternate dimension, if you will, and witnessing the destruction of the universe,’ he explained, saying that as he had no dialogue he had to ‘convey with my eyes the emotion’.
The pair famously almost worked together on Superman Lives, which was cancelled just weeks before shooting (Picture: The Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened?)
However, fans got to see Cage as Superman after all in The Flash earlier this year, which Cage has confirmed wasn’t AI (Picture: The Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened?)
Of course, as fans know, the movie ended up rather differently, with Cage’s Kal-El fighting a giant spider.
‘When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that. That was not what I did. I don’t think it was [created by] AI, it was CGI, OK, so that they could de-age me, and I’m fighting a spider. I didn’t do any of that, so I don’t know what happened there,’ he shared.
Cage conceded that it was ‘out of his control’ what The Flash director Andy Muschietti decided to do with his cameo, but also emphasised that there was no drama between the two of them.
The star spent time on set in the suit, but revealed what he shot and what was shown were very different (Picture: Warner Bros.)
He praised Muschietti as a ‘terrific guy’ and ‘great director’, referencing his two It horror movies as ones he had ‘loved’.
The star also shared that they ‘put a lot of time into building the suit’, so Cage – even if not in the way he might have imagined – did get to don the Superman get-up that celebrated costume designer Colleen Atwood designed for him all those years ago.
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In Dream Scenario, Cage plays hapless family man Paul Matthews who finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams.
When his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.
Dream Scenario hits cinemas on November 10.
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The Hollywood star had some choice words for the technology.