Los Angeles, February 20 – Hollywood actors Matthew McConaughey and Timothee Chalamet have a message for young people.
The actors are telling young people to prepare themselves and lead the entertainment industry through the rise of AI, according to ‘Variety’.
During a town hall event at the University of Texas at Austin, which reunited the ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ Oscar winner with his ‘Interstellar’ co-star Timothee Chalamet, Matthew McConaughey explained the thought process behind his recent decision to trademark his catchphrase from ‘Dazed and Confused’.
“It’s coming. It’s already here,” he said, responding to a student’s question about AI. “Don’t deny it. It’s not going to be enough to sit on the sidelines and make the moral plea that, ‘No, this is wrong’. It’s not going to last. There’s too much money to be made, and it’s too productive. So I say, Own yourself. Voice, likeness, etc. Trademark it. Whatever you have to do, so when it comes, no one can steal you.”
According to ‘Variety’, speaking to Timothee Chalamet during the town hall, Matthew McConaughey gave an example of the AI scenarios he imagines are coming in the future.
He said, “They have to come to you and say, ‘Timothee, I’d like you to be at my 50th birthday party in five months, and I’m going to be in the Bahamas. I know you can’t be there in person, but I’m going to have you appear as your character in ‘Marty Supreme’. They can do that, but they’re going to have to come to you to say, ‘Can I?’ Or they’re going to be in breach. And you’ll have the chance to be your own agency and say, ‘Yeah, for that amount’. Or, ‘No’.”
Matthew McConaughey also mused on the idea of AI “replacing” actors, and how the technology might factor into awards conversations.
“It’s definitely going to infiltrate our category. Will it become another category? Will we be, in five years, having ‘the best AI film’? The best AI actor? Maybe. I think that might be the thing; it becomes another category. It’s going to be in front of us in ways that we don’t even see. It’s going to get so good we’re not going to know the difference. That’s one of the big questions right now: the question of reality. It’s more hazy than ever, in a very exciting way, I think, but also a scary way. Prepare for it,” he added.
