Nicolas Cage took to the stage at the 25th Newport Beach Film Festival on Sunday to urge up-and-coming actors from giving into pressure from employers opting to use artificial intelligence to change or otherwise manipulate their performance.
The veteran A-Lister was making a speech ahead of his Icon Award reception during the fete’s Honors Brunch taking place at the Balboa Bay Resort, which also featured honorees like June Squibb, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Colman Domingo and more.
“Film performance, to me, is very much a handmade, organic, from-scratch process,” the Longlegs actor said while uplifting young actors. “It’s from the heart, it’s from the imagination, it’s from thoughts and detail and thinking and honing and preparing.”
He continued, “There is a new technology in town. It’s a technology that I didn’t have to contend with for 42 years until recently. But these 10 young actors, this generation, most certainly will be, and they are calling it EBDR. This technology wants to take your instrument. We are the instruments as film actors. We are not hiding behind guitars and drums.”
Employment-based digital replica, or EBDR, is one of two digital replicas permitted by the SAG-AFTRA deal struck with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, or studios, after the conclusion of the dual Hollywood strikes in fall 2023. This type of generative AI is created through the performer’s physical participation for a specific project under the terms of employment. While EBDR’s rules negate the draw of cost-saving measures for AI — as in, employees who work less days as a result of EBDR will still be paid for the EBDR days — there are differing rules for Schedule F performers who make over 80,000 for a film and are assumed to have the leverage necessary to negotiate their own terms.
“The studios want this so that they can change your face after you’ve already shot it — they can change your face, they can change your voice, they can change your line deliveries, they can change your body language, they can change your performance,” Cage cautioned.
As an example, the action star said his cameo appearance in 2023’s The Flash was an example of EBDR.
“I’m asking you, if you’re approached by a studio to sign a contract, permitting them to use EBDR on your performance, I want you to consider what I am calling MVMFMBMI: my voice, my face, my body, my imagination — my performance, in response,” he concluded. “Protect your instrument.”
This isn’t the first time Cage has vocalized his stance against AI and his fear of how it will be utilized to undercut performers working in Hollywood. During a July conversation with The New Yorker, he said, “God, I hope not A.I. I’m terrified of that. I’ve been very vocal about it. And it makes me wonder, you know, where will the truth of the artists end up? Is it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Where’s the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and my face when I’m dead? I don’t want you to do anything with it!”