The Brutalist director defends use of AI to 'refine' stars' performances

The director of The Brutalist has defended his lead actors’ performances after it emerged that artificial intelligence had been used to “refine” their Hungarian accents.

Brady Corbet insisted that the performances of Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones were “completely their own”.

Brody leads the three-hour film, playing Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth, a man trying to rebuild his life in the US following World War Two. Felicity Jones plays his wife, Erzsebet.

The film won three Golden Globes earlier this month, and is expected to receive nods at the forthcoming Oscar nominations.

In a statement, shared with Deadline, Corbet said: “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own.”

He said they had “worked for months” with a dialect coach “to perfect their accents”, but that technology provided by the company Respeecher had been used “in Hungarian language dialogue editing only”.

Based in Ukraine, Respeecher says it offers filmmakers the chance to “experience the future of voice cloning” with their “cutting-edge AI solutions”.

Corbet said it had been used “specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy”, going on to say “no English language was changed”.

It was described as “a manual process”, carried out by “our sound team and Respeecher in post-production”.

Corbet said it had been done “with the utmost respect for the craft”, adding that “the aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them”.

He also said production designer Judy Becker and her team “did not use AI to create or render any of the buildings” shown in the movie’s closing sequence.

Corbet’s remarks followed an interview with the film’s editor David Jansco, who told tech magazine Red Shark News that changes had been made to “perfect” Brody and Jones’s Hungarian accents.

A native Hungarian himself, Jansco said it was one of the “most difficult languages to learn to pronounce”.

He said they had tried to use ADR (automated dialogue replacement) on some of the sounds and letters but it hadn’t worked, and attempts to “ADR them completely with other actors” also failed.

He said they then “looked for other options of how to enhance it”, eventually recording the actors’ voices with the AI software, along with his own voice.

He went on: “Most of their Hungarian dialogue has a part of me talking in there.

“We were very careful about keeping their performances. It’s mainly just replacing letters here and there.”

Jansco also said AI had been used to create a series of architectural drawings and finished buildings at the end of the film.

Meanwhile, the same AI company, Respeecher, appears to have worked on another film getting plenty of Oscars buzz, the operatic musical Emilia Perez.

The company congratulated the film’s cast and creatives on their Facebook page after they won four Golden Globes earlier this month.

They wrote: “At Respeecher, we’re proud to have been credited in this incredible production, which continues to spark important conversations and push creative boundaries.”

They did not specify what part they had played in the production.

But in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the film’s re-recording mixer Cyril Holtz spoke about using AI software to increase the vocal range of one of the film’s stars, trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon.

Holtz said the singing voice of Camille, a French pop star who co-wrote the film’s score, was blended into Gascon’s to increase their upper range.

Sky News has contacted the studios behind The Brutalist and Emilia Perez, and Respeecher for comment.

Safeguards against the use of AI were one of the key points on the agenda during negotiations between actors, writers and Hollywood studios across months of strikes in the US in 2023.

Oscar nominations will be revealed on Thursday.

Emilia Perez is streaming on Netflix now. The Brutalist is in UK cinemas from Friday.