Brady Corbet Faces Backlash Over AI, Issues Statement

The film industry is abuzz with controversy as The Brutalist, a highly praised title from 2024, faces scrutiny over its integration of artificial intelligence.

During a recent interview with Red Shark News, editor Dávid Jancsó disclosed that AI technology from the Ukrainian company Respeecher was utilized to make subtle adjustments to the Hungarian dialogue delivered by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. He also noted that AI played a role in generating architectural elements featured toward the end of the film.

This revelation has ignited outrage within the film industry, with a portion of the community advocating for the disqualification of The Brutalist from accolades. In response, director Brady Corbet issued a statement addressing the film’s use of AI, asserting that the actors’ performances are “entirely their own” and that AI was employed to maintain the authenticity of those performances.

Corbet explained, “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own. They trained for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to master their accents. The innovative Respeecher technology was limited to editing Hungarian language dialogues, specifically to fine-tune certain vowels and letters for accuracy—no modifications were made to English dialogue. This careful manual process was conducted by our sound team and Respeecher during post-production, aiming to enhance the authenticity of the performances in a different language rather than replacing them, executed with the highest regard for the craft.”

Further discussing the film’s architectural sequences, Corbet asserted that “Judy Becker and her team did not use AI to create or render any of the buildings. All visuals were hand-drawn by artists. To clarify, the memorial video in the background was crafted by our editorial team to mimic low-quality digital renderings typical of the 1980s.”

Concluding his remarks, Corbet stated, “‘The Brutalist’ is a narrative about human complexity, and every component of its creation stemmed from human effort, creativity, and collaboration. We are extremely proud of our team and what they have achieved.”

The Brutalist is currently playing in theaters.