Robert Downey Jr. made headlines this summer when it was revealed at Comic-Con that he’d been cast to play Marvel supervillain Doctor Doom in the next two Avengers movies, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. There are theories that he will be playing Tony Stark from Earth-11029, which features a storyline where he’s tricked by Doctor Doom to switch minds. It would basically be RDJ playing Tony Stark playing Doctor Doom. The casting is controversial because, well, why do we need RDJ as Doctor Doom? There’s thousands of multiverses to choose from, including the main timeline (Earth-616) that we’ve seen thus far. Give another actor a chance.
RDJ recently sat down with journalist Kara Swisher for an interview on her podcast On With Kara Swisher. During their talk, the subject of AI in Hollywood came up, which was a hot button issue during last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike. Downey is not a fan of using AI technology to recreate actors’ likenesses, but he’s also pretty sure that Marvel wouldn’t use his digital image to recreate Tony Stark. And, he’s also not afraid to sue a b-tch if they try.
He’ll sue ‘em all: “I intend to sue all future executives” who sign off on the creation of a Downey digital replica. The Oscar winner does not want his likeness being used on screen through AI technology and/or deepfakes. The topic came up in relation to Downey’s Marvel tenure as Iron Man, but he’s confident Marvel would not recreate his Tony Stark through AI.
He has a life, thankyouverymuch: “There’s two tracks. How do I feel about everything that’s going on? I feel about it minimally because I have an actual emotional life that’s occurring that doesn’t have a lot of room for that,” Downey said when asked about being digitally recreated in the future.
They’d never eat his digital face: “To go back to the MCU, I am not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me,” he added.
His law firm will outlive us all: When host Kara Swisher said that “future executives certainly will” want to digitally recreate Downey on the big screen, the actor responded: “Well, you’re right. I would like to here state that I intend to sue all future executives just on spec.”
“You’ll be dead,” Swisher noted, to which Downey replied: “But my law firm will still be very active.”
On Sam Altman and AI companies: Downey is currently confronting the future of AI on Broadway in the play “McNeal,” which takes aim at corporate giants in the AI space such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“I don’t envy anyone who has been over-identified with the advent of this new phase of the information age. The idea that somehow it belongs to them because they have these super huge start-ups is a fallacy,” Downey told Swisher about figures like Altman. “The problem is when these individuals believe that they are the arbiters of managing this but meanwhile are wanting and/or needing to be seen in a favorable light. That is a massive fucking error. It turns me off and makes me not want to engage with them because they are not being truthful.”
Oh, to have RDJ’s confidence. In my mind, I’m picturing RDJ doing some kind of handshake deal with the head of Marvel Studios that he’s safe from big bad AI. It’s kinda amusing, him thinking that his threat of a lawsuit, even posthumously, is going to stop Marvel or anyone else from eventually trying to use his digital likeness. Marvel has Disney money, and they will exploit and find a loophole if they need to.
This article has some really good info on the different types and usages of AI in Hollywood. Even though SAG-AFTRA signed a new contract regarding AI as a part of the strike settlement last year, some actors are still running into issues. I really think that AI will still be a problem going forward because studios are going to do whatever makes them more money. Good luck to RDJ and his future lawyers.
photos credit: Jennifer Bloc/Future Image/Cover Images, Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon, Getty
He better put legal protections in his Will because if someone can make money off of it, they most certainly will. Crazy to have any faith in a corporation.
Keanu Reeves publicly said about a year ago, that his contracts forbid any AI to be used in any of his performances.
He spoke about “someone” had added/edited a tear rolling down his characters face without his knowing = Lawsuit! And new clause in contracts.
RDJ had best lawyer up and lock down everything he can, while he can.
Look at how the rights to dead celebs are used these days.
MM and Elvis especially.
I read somewhere that Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra estates are still making good money, decades after their deaths.
Tupac and ABBA holograms? $$$$
Naive of him to trust the Corps.
Those Marvel movies/character have earned $Billions.
They are going to keep milking that to the end of time.
Btw, RDJ looks pretty rough in this photos.
Side note—RDJ, Chris Evans, ScarJo, Don Cheadle, mark ruffalo and Danai Gurira just “assembled” in a video for the Harris campaign. The avengers tried to come up with a campaign catchphrase. Chris suggested “I can do this all day” (Cap’s well known phrase), Don suggested Rhodey’s “boom, you looking for this?” and Danai favored “Kamala Forever” complete with arm cross. Then “down with democracy” was suggested but ruffalo kept reminding them maybe it didn’t exactly sound like how they meant it and to stop playing heroic music under themselves.