- Kevin O’Leary thinks his film debut, Marty Supreme, could have saved “millions of dollars” by using AI extras.
- The Shark Tank star believes that AI extras would save so much money that “more movies could be made.”
- O’Leary’s comments come in the wake of SAG-AFTRA condemning AI “actress” Tilly Norwood.
Kevin O’Leary finds extras extraneous.
The Shark Tank star, who plays a supporting role in Josh Safdie’s upcoming A24 film Marty Supreme opposite Timothée Chalamet, believes that the film could have saved “millions of dollars” by utilizing AI background players instead of paying human extras.
“Almost every scene had as many as 150 extras,” O’Leary recalled of the film’s production during an appearance on The Hill‘s World of Travel podcast. “Now, those people have to stay awake for 18 hours, have to 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.”
Roy Rochlin/Getty
O’Leary went on to explain that he shot a scene in which all of the extras spoke French. “Why couldn’t you simply put AI agents in their place?” he asked. “They’re not the main actors, they’re only in the story visually.”
The entrepreneur proposed that using AI extras could potentially “save millions of dollars so more movies could be made” by the same filmmaker. “That same director, instead of spending $90 million, or whatever he spent, could’ve spent $35 million and made two movies if he was allowed to use [AI extras].”
A24
O’Leary maintained that his proposal would actually help the cinematic arts in the long run. “I’d argue that, for the sake of the art, you should allow it in certain cases, and an extra is a really good-use case,” he opined. “Because you can’t tell the difference. You just put 100 Norwell Tillys in there and you’re good.”
A representative for A24 declined Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment. EW has reached out to a representative for Safdie for comment.
The Dragons’ Den star was referring to Tilly Norwood, the AI “actress” that made headlines after talent agencies reportedly considered signing Norwood as a client. SAG-AFTRA released a statement strongly opposing the potential signing of the so-called actress.
“To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” the actors’ union wrote. “It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”
Individual performers like Melissa Barrera, Toni Collette, Lukas Gage, and Mara Wilson were among those who condemned Norwood’s signing.
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Marty Supreme stars Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a ping pong player in the 1950s who ruthlessly pursues table tennis greatness. The film also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, Penn Jillette, and Tyler Okonma (a.k.a. Tyler, the Creator). The film is set to release in theaters on Christmas Day.
