Amid the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, there has been ongoing talk about the role of Artificial Intelligence in Hollywood. According to NPR, background actor and SAG-AFTRA member Alexandria Rubalcaba witnessed first-hand what A.I. in the film and television industry could look like. Rubalcaba was background actor in the Marvel Studios series WandaVision, which debuted in 2021.
According to NPR, on the set of WandaVision, Rubalcaba was once called into a trailer with other background actors. She recalled how they each had to stand in front of multiple cameras where their faces and bodies were scanned.
As Rubalcaba explained to NPR, some of the instructions she was given were: “Have your hands out. Have your hands in. Look this way. Look that way. Let us see your scared face. Let us see your surprised face.”
After these scans, digital copies of their faces and bodies were generated. Rubalcaba told NPR that she was not given information about what these replicas would be used for. Additionally, she may not know when the replicas will be used, thus she would not get any compensation.
She continued to state, “What if I don’t want to be on MarioVision or SarahVision? I fear that AI is eventually going to weed out background actors. They won’t have any use for us anymore.”
Disney has yet to comment on this. Nonetheless, Rupalcaba’s experience on the set of WandaVision adds to the conversation about Artificial Intelligence in the film and television industry. As NPR notes, after interviewing other background actors, it seems that the process of scanning and generating replicas of background actors seems to be becoming more common.
The SAG-AFTRA union officially went on strike on July 14th. Since then, many productions have been halted, the Emmy Awards have been postponed, and numerous actors have spoken out about Artificial Intelligence, their own compensation, and more.