Hollywood to ‘replace’ movie extras with AI as studios use ‘full body scans’ | Films | Entertainment

Movie extras may be out of work soon with a looming danger of being replaced by AI in blockbusters.

Those who feature in the background of the world’s biggest films could be out of a job with Hollywood already starting to use “full body scans” to turn them into digital versions of themselves.

One actress spoke to NPR about her experience of working as a background actor in the Marvel and Disney+ series WandaVision.

She remembers being asked to stand in front of numerous cameras while they take a scan of her from head to toe.

Alexandria Rubalcaba was reportedly told “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.”

NPR reported that her fellow extras were also scanned with the entire process taking around 15 minutes per person.

Their digital replicas were then created but they were not informed of what they would be used for going forward.

Alexandria added: “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.”

A negotiator on behalf of the already striking SAG-AFTRA union has allegedly claimed studios are offering actors a single day’s pay once scanned.

So extras like Alexandria, who said she used to make $187 per day, would only get paid once while their digital replica could be used “for the rest of eternity”.

But the Daily Star reported that some studios have claimed these images can only be used for projects the extras were originally hired for and not anything in the future going forward.

While the use of full body scans has concerned many, actress Jamie Lee Curtis shared her thoughts on the matter.

She told Collider: “The visual effects level is all technology. Once you know how to do that, it’s science.

“The performing part is not science, which is why AI will never work because emotions are real and they come from human beings. They don’t come from machines.

“So to watch beautiful actors do that kind of work, under those circumstances, is something very impressive to me.”