Disney Is Allegedly Stealing Actors’ Likenesses
From writing articles on the web to creating stunning works of art and designing printed circuit boards used in electronics, the use of AI technologies is becoming more and more prevalent across various industries. Now, movie extras worry that they might be replaced by the AI, with Disney allegedly already stealing Disney actors’ likenesses.
Background actors from WandaVision allege their likenesses were already scanned without their permission by Disney.
According to NPR, Disney has been scanning background actors to create their digital replicas for WandaVision. As it turns out, during the show’s filming, background actors—those who don’t have speaking parts in a cinematographic or television work—were all called to the same site, where they were photographed from all angles by a series of cameras.
This also included basic body position scanning, as well as facial expressions scanning, for the purpose of creating the actors’ digital replicas.
Without proper laws and regulations that would protect the actors from having their likenesses used in a certain movie, Disney could potentially use the actors’ likenesses indefinitely without paying a penny.
However, according to some Disney actors, they were never acquainted with how their likeness might be used on-screen, and some of them even stated that, if their likeness was ever used, they might not even know about it—thus, they might never even receive payment for having their likeness used in a motion picture.
This raises some interesting, ethical questions about the use of AI not just in motion pictures but across various other industries.
Without proper laws and regulations that would protect the actors from having their likenesses used in a certain movie, Disney could potentially use the actors’ likenesses indefinitely without paying a penny.
By the time we develop rules and regulations that would bar the companies from using actors’ likenesses without permission and payment, those companies could potentially have already made billions on the backs of scanned artists.
Why would Disney pay an actor whose likeness is portrayed by the company’s assets? If the company is forced to pay a full wage for using the actors’ digital likenesses, then why make digital copies of their likenesses in the first place?
What’s worrying about this particular case is that Disney basically scanned its actors without their permission and by catching them off guard. This effectively means that the company can now—potentially—use said digital copies for whatever purposes it sees fit.
By the time we develop rules and regulations that would bar the companies from using actors’ likenesses without permission and payment, those companies could potentially have already made billions on the backs of scanned artists. A fraction of those billions might later be used to pay out court settlements.
The use of digital copies isn’t a bad thing if Disney is making a scene involving explosions or something like that—as long as all the actors are paid for having their likeness used, only if they gave their permission beforehand. However, according to the actors who spoke to NPR, it would seem that’s currently not the case.
The potential for AI to replace background actors is one of the central tensions in the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike with various studios, and it’s currently the biggest labor dispute in Hollywood since the 1960s.
Unfortunately, there currently aren’t any industry rules and regulations for how studios, such as Disney, use actors’ digital likenesses and AI technologies in filmmaking, and this is a perfect moment to open that discussion and have those rules well-established to protect those who often aren’t heard on film, but their presence serves to create a realistic atmosphere by filling out a scene.
