In such little time, artificial intelligence has revolutionized the film industry. Performances are tweaked, and visuals are modified. Along with creators, moviegoers have something to say about artificial input as well, but will the moguls of Hollywood put soul and originality over profit?

A recent AI controversy surrounding The Brutalist sparked when director Brady Corbet revealed to the media that their lead, Adrien Brody, had been digitally altered using artificial intelligence. Playing László Tóth, Brody was challenged to adopt a Hungarian accent amidst the post-WWII era, posing as an immense front to uphold throughout the film’s three-and-a-half-hour runtime. In a sequence where Tóth reads a letter, his voiceover was tweaked using artificial intelligence to enhance the accent’s flaws.

“Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own,” Corbet said. “They worked with dialect coach Tanera Marshall for months to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used only in Hungarian language dialogue editing, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. 

“This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them, and done with the utmost respect for the craft.”

As the award season draws to a close, audiences and critics have deemed a hint of AI too much. Pentucket senior, James Nightingale says “If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile,” regarding the tolerance of AI in film.

Another student, Sawyer Call, a freshman from Pentucket, mentions, “I feel like if it’s just a little bit of AI, it doesn’t really matter.” It seems there is a divide in what audiences seem to allow regarding AI. Some regard it as a tool, others less than it.

Folks are waiting to see if the academy deems The Brutalist’s use of AI as excessive and unnecessary, or dismal and unimportant. After all the discourse, Adrien Brody took home his second Oscar, for playing László Tóth.

As AI reshapes filmmaking, it’s worth remembering the great performances that did not need technology to shine. DeNiro’s transformation in Raging Bull, Pacino’s intensity in The Godfather, and Streep’s delicate precision in Sophie’s Choice were all crafted through raw talent, not algorithms. These legends proved that true artistry comes from within, and no digital tool can replicate the soul of a performance.