In an interview with The New Yorker published on Monday, Cage revealed he plans to “get scanned” for his upcoming shows and movies, before expressing his concerns about his likeness being manipulated by AI.
“Well, they’re going to have to put me in a computer and match and change my eye color. I don’t know. They’re going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via a digital AI,” Cage told The New Yorker. “Oh, I hope it’s not an AI. I’m scared of that. I’ve been pretty vocal about it.”
He went on to express his displeasure with the direction the creative industries are heading.
“And it makes you wonder where the artist’s truth ends up? Is it displaced? Is it changed? Where is the heartbeat?” Cage said.
An added concern is that the studio could hold onto the rights to his image even after he dies, he added.
“So what are you going to do to my body and my face when I die? I don’t want anything done to me!” he said.
The “National Treasure” actor is no stranger to having his likeness altered for film.
In November 2023, the actor told Yahoo Entertainment that his Superman cameo in “The Flash” was different than how it was filmed.
“First and foremost, I was on set,” Cage said. “My job was to literally stand in another dimension and witness the destruction of the universe.”
But that wasn’t the scene he saw in the final film.
“When I went to film it, I was fighting giant spiders. I didn’t do that. That’s not what I did,” Cage said.
The actor said he didn’t know what happened but didn’t think it was caused by AI.
But then he shared his thoughts about AI: “AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane. There is nothing more inhumane than artificial intelligence.”
The use of AI in Hollywood has been controversial in recent years and was a key issue in the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, which lasted 118 days.
Cage is not the only actor to speak out against the use of AI in Hollywood.
In September 2023, Sean Penn argued that any studio executive who wants to create an AI version of him should be free to let his daughter do the same.
“So you want my scans and my voice and stuff. Now, and I think this is fair, I want your daughter’s data, because I want to create a virtual replica of her and invite my friends over right now and do whatever at a virtual party, look at the camera and say you think that’s cool,” Penn told Variety.
The theatre industry is not the only one resenting the prospect of AI taking over jobs.
Generative AI could bring “significant disruption” to the labor market, affecting roughly 300 million full-time jobs worldwide, according to a Goldman Sachs report in 2023. The study also found that white-collar workers, particularly legal and administrative staff in the U.S., are most likely to be affected by new AI tools.
A representative for Cage did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside normal business hours.
