Topics: Will Ferrell, Hollywood, Saturday Night Live, Technology
Elf actor Will Ferrell made an eerie prediction about his fellow actors, and it might just be coming true.
In his multi decade-long reign on the big screen, Ferrell has become a legend and expert in the industry in his own right - and he’s now added another reason why.
It was his good friend Molly Shannon who spilled the tea on Ferrell's prediction as she recalled meeting him in the mid 90s during a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. The pair met in the mid-1990s while Shannon was working in a 'cappuccino, scone place' in Los Angeles and the pair 'clicked right away'.
The dynamic duo were introduced through Groundlings comedy troupe, and just years later they worked together on hit comedy series Saturday Night Live.
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Shannon was thrilled with the role, but her counterpart Ferrell wasn’t so sure.
“I don’t know. Who knows how long this is going to last?” Shannon recalls a pessimistic Will saying.
“I just think it’s not going to last long, and I think actors are eventually going to be replaced by robots, and they’re not going to need human actors anymore.”
At the time, Shannon said he was being 'so dark' but it looks like now, he may not have been talking nonsense after all.
In recent years, AI has become a huge feature of everyday life. From people not being able to make decisions without ChatGPT, to ‘Fruit Love Island’ videos on TikTok.
That’s not all though, as ‘AI actors’ have caused outrage throughout Hollywood. Notably, ‘AI actor’ Tilly Norwood who was condemned by A-List actors including Emily Blunt and Whoopi Goldberg.
SAG-AFTRA also issued a statement on the matter, stating Norwood 'is not an actor, it's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers'.
"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," the statement added.
Speaking on the ‘AI actor’ on a podcast with Variety, The Devil Wears Prada star Blunt said: "That is really, really scary, Come on, agencies, don't do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection."
Despite the backlash, there are in fact a number of high profile actors who are in support of the new wave. Batman star Ben Affleck founded AI-powered filmmaking technology company InterPositive in 2022. It may run in the family, as his brother, Casey, will be starring in an AI dependent movie. Despite not using AI actors, it will be using AI-generated lighting and sets.
