While “Emilia Pérez” actress Karla Sofía Gascón has been busy trying to explain away hateful past posts on social media (about posts laced with a mix of xenophobia and racism) getting spotlighted ahead of the Oscars ceremony, another awards contender has also had a controversy circling it. “The Brutalist,” seen as a strong favorite, employed some minor use of A.I. to help with Adrien Brody’s Hungarian, and folks connected to the film have been defending its implementation.
Director Brady Corbet has already commented on how they used the technology to enhance an existing performance from Brody and how his Hungarian lines were polished for the final release. Now, the film’s star and Best Actor nominee has chimed in on the controversy as Brody appeared on Vanity Fair’s awards podcast, “Little Gold Men.”
READ MORE: ‘The Brutalist’ Director Defends Use Of A.I. To Clean Up Dialogue In Film
“I understand that we live in a time where even just the mention of A.I. is a bit triggering. We live in a time where, unfortunately, things can get misappropriated quite easily on the internet,” Brody said on the podcast, “and I just wish people had more understanding of the context and facts of the circumstances.”
Brody, whose mother was born in Hungary, was grateful to see Corbet go out of his way to explain how A.I. was used in their movie before he chimed in himself.
“I’m happy that Brady [Corbet] managed to clarify a lot in his remarks,” Brody continued. “First of all, I’m the son of Hungarians and grew up with that language spoken in my home. I actually even integrated, within the Hungarian dialogue, curse words that weren’t in the script. … Obviously, his post-production process only touched some lines spoken in Hungarian. Nothing of the dialect was altered; that’s all done through a lot of hard work with our wonderful dialect coach, Tanera Marshall. We all worked incredibly hard on it, and we all know that.”
Another hiccup has surfaced as Brody’s co-star Guy Pearce (nominated for Best Supporting Actor in “The Brutalist”), sadly, has made some distributing comments to The Times (via Variety) about “wanting to punch” an unnamed actress for shaming him for his soap opera roots in Australia (he had a recurring role on “Neighbours” from 1986 to 1989).
“I did a play a year after I left, and this snobby actress said, ‘How could you even do that?’ I wanted to punch her! Now, obviously, I didn’t punch her. But it was such a horrible attitude. And then, five years later, I saw her on some shit ad on TV. I so wanted to go and find her and say, ‘OK…’,” Pearce recalled when speaking about his experience transitioning from Aussie television to tinsel town.
It should be noted that many Aussies such as Margot Robbie, Chris Hemsworth, and Russell Crowe got their start on “Neighbours” before finding steady work in Hollywood and becoming stars in their own right.
I don’t know if Corbet and Brody have entirely quelled warranted concerns about their use of artificial intelligence. Still, they’re making their case, and it wasn’t meant to hurt the industry substantially. Although, Pearce isn’t doing them any favors with his own comments.
The Oscars, of course, will be airing Sunday, March 2, and we’ll see who will be the big winner of the ceremony. You can listen to Brody’s entire conversation on “Little Golden Men” below:
