rewrite this title David Cronenberg says the controversy over AI in ‘The Brutalist’ was a ‘campaign against’ it

The 2024 Oscar season has been over for more than a month, but director David Cronenberg is still just a little upset about how The Brutalist was treated. The movie, which earned 10 Oscar nominations and won three, was embroiled in a minor controversy in the weeks leading up to its release because it had used artificial intelligence to improve the accent of its lead actor, Adrien Brody, who is playing a Hungarian architect.

In a recent talk with composer Howard Shore at the London Soundtrack Festival, Cronenberg talked about that controversy, suggesting that it was an intentional smear campaign against the movie.

“I must confess, there was a scandal [with] The Brutalist,” the Crash director said. “There was a discussion about Adrien Brody… but apparently they used artificial intelligence to improve his accent. I think it was a campaign against The Brutalist by some other Oscar nominees. It’s very much a Harvey Weinstein kind of thing, though he wasn’t around.”

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“We mess with actors’ voices all the time,” Cronenberg continued, referencing his film M. Butterfly, which was released in 1993. “In the case of John (Lone), when he was being this character, this singer, I raised the pitch of his voice [to sound more feminine] and when he’s revealed as a man, I lowered to his natural voice. This is just a part of moviemaking.”

Harvey Weinstein was famous for orchestrating rather harsh campaigns against films that were competing against those he produced. We may not know how the AI stories about The Brutalist began circulating for years to come, but given the movie’s success at the Oscars, it seems to have had a limited impact.