French actress Marion Cotillard said on Thursday she feared the day she might be emotionally moved by an actor created by artificial intelligence, as debate grows over AI’s impact on film and the wider creative industries.
“I think I would be very afraid the day I was moved by an AI actor. For now, I find that they act like potatoes and that reassures me”, the 50-year-old Oscar winner told reporters at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.
Cotillard, who won the best actress Oscar in 2008 for her portrayal of French singer Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose”, said she wondered whether AI actors could eventually become convincing enough to fool audiences and evoke genuine emotional responses.
“I wonder if one day that will happen, if one day I would be fooled by an actor”, she said. “I have to admit that it’s something that makes me think and that can frighten me”.
Her comments come as filmmakers, actors and other creative professionals continue to debate how rapidly developing AI technologies could affect the production and performance of films. Questions around whether artificial performers can replicate the emotional complexity and spontaneity of human actors have become increasingly prominent as the technology develops.
Cotillard is in San Sebastian for the world premiere of Nicole Garcia’s “7h40 ce jour-là”, which is competing for the festival’s top prize. The film is among 17 titles in the official competition seeking the Golden Shell, the festival’s main award.
Cotillard plays Alice, a former revolutionary activist who is released after spending 20 years in prison and attempts to reconnect with her son. The role centres on a woman returning to a world that has changed while she has been absent and confronting the consequences of years spent away from her family.
“After spending 20 years in prison, the only thing she really has left is not her desire for revolution, but the fact that she is a mother”, Cotillard said.
The actress said the character’s journey was rooted in the personal and emotional consequences of her long absence, placing her relationship with her son at the centre of the story.
For Cotillard, the film also represents another chapter in a career that has seen her move between French and international cinema. Her performance as Piaf in “La Vie en Rose” brought her global recognition and earned her the Academy Award, while she has since appeared in films including “Inception”, “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Two Days, One Night”.
The San Sebastian Film Festival, one of Spain’s major international film events, concludes on Saturday, when the winners of the official competition and other sections will be announced. — AFP
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