The Grammys weren’t the only game in town last Sunday. The Saturn Awards had a party, too, as they feted the year’s best in science fiction, fantasy, and horror at their 52nd annual ceremony. Nicolas Cage had the distinction of being a double nominee this year: Best Supporting Actor for Longlegs, and Best Actor for Dream Scenario. Cage won in the leading category, and used his acceptance speech to engage in one of his favorite topics: railing against the inhumanity of AI in film. Of course Cage also thanked his Dream Scenario director, and touchingly paid tribute to the late David Lynch, a director who played a formidable role in Cage’s career. But the bulk of his speech was definitely a rallying cry against the ever-encroaching technology that, in Cage’s opinion, has no business in the art of acting, in the name of “all integrity, purity and truth.” Here is the speech:

“Thank you for recognizing ‘Dream Scenario,’” Cage said in his acceptance speech. “This is in fact one of my favorite movies I’ve ever made. I have to thank Kristoffer Borgli for his direction, his writing, his editing and for creating this incredibly disturbing but hilarious world that he dreamt up.”

“But there is another world that is also disturbing me,” Cage continued. “It’s happening right now around all of us: the new AI world. I am a big believer in not letting robots dream for us. Robots cannot reflect the human condition for us. That is a dead end if an actor lets one AI robot manipulate his or her performance even a little bit, an inch will eventually become a mile and all integrity, purity and truth of art will be replaced by financial interests only. We can’t let that happen.

“The job of all art in my view, film performance included, is to hold a mirror to the external and internal stories of the human condition through the very human thoughtful and emotional process of recreation. A robot can’t do that. If we let robots do that, it will lack all heart and eventually lose edge and turn to mush. There will be no human response to life as we know it. It will be life as robots tell us to know it.

“I say, protect yourselves from AI interfering with your authentic and honest expressions.”

Cage also paid tribute to the late David Lynch, who was remembered during the Saturn Awards in memoriam tribute. “The enthusiasm in this room is not like any other award show and you remind me of one of my greatest collaborators, David Lynch,” Cage said. “When I was doing ‘Wild at Heart,’ I was a very serious, young actor and I said, ‘David, is it okay if I have fun on this movie?’ He said, ‘Buddy not only is it okay, it’s necessary.’”

[From Variety]

I gotta hand it to Cage, the impassioned words and delivery illustrate the gap between man and machine quite successfully! I also gotta give props to Cage for making an anti-robot plea… in an awards room dedicated to celebrating science fiction. That takes some balls, another thing that Cage has and AI doesn’t. But back to ‘bots… This really has been Cage’s cause du jour, and I think he might be just the right combination of mad, sentimental, unpredictable, and eloquent to hit the point home. I mean, I don’t think there’s any real way to stop the onward progression of AI. But hopefully at least some of Cage’s peers are listening, and will maybe make different choices for their films as a result.

This conversation makes me think about the recent news that The Brutalist team used AI to fine tune Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent. I know it only came down to a two minute segment in The Brutalist, a movie that’s 3.5 hours long with an intermission. But like Cage says, an inch eventually becomes a mile. I guess I’d encourage filmmakers to remember that we know we’re watching a movie, with actors, as opposed to a documentary. What’s more important: getting it 100% right, or striving for truth? Philosophy class dismissed now!

Photos credit: IMAGO/Dave Starbuck/Avalon, Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon