I just watched a trailer for The Brutalist, and there’s not an ounce of Hungarian language in it. Adrien Brody does speak English with a Hungarian accent, as his character is an immigrant who came to the US after World War 2, seeking a new life. I have no experience with Hungarian-English accents, and I bought every word, because I’m already a fan of Brody’s.
But the reason I’ve even sought out the trailer isn’t curiosity about a movie that might have a chance to win its fair share of Oscars this year. It’s the controversy surrounding the use of generative AI to enhance the Hungarian-language dialogue in the film between the husband and wife characters that Brody and Felicity Jones play.
The creative team behind The Brutalist used AI voice-cloning tech, and that’s deeply misleading. The movie creators decided it was perfectly okay to use genAI programs like ChatGPT to make the actors’ voices sound like they’re speaking Hungarian as it was meant to be spoken.
For that reason alone, I think The Brutalist and any other movie making use of genAI to alter the performance of an actor should be excluded from awards contentions, whether it’s the Oscars or something else. Mind you, I’m not referring to special effects where AI might be employed to create backgrounds or even tweak the appearance of actors.
I say that as a fan of products like ChatGPT. I believe AI will change our lives for the better if we’re careful enough not to let it destroy us. But I’ve already drawn a line in my mind about what I will and won’t accept when it comes to AI.
I explained time and again why I don’t like Google’s Magic Editor AI tools that let you create fake memories. Samsung’s Galaxy AI is equally impressive in that regard. I also explained that AI can be misleading and, as an AI user, you have to be aware of hallucinations. The Brutalist cloning Brody’s voice ever so slightly to obtain that perfect Hungarian accent that nobody will care about is another example of AI abuse.
Despite what you’ll see in the trailer below, much of The Brutalist is in Hungarian. That’s absolutely no problem with actors trying to speak a foreign language in a movie. It certainly is Oscar-worthy and more commendable than watching HBO’s Chernobyl with actors speaking perfect English. Then again, that never bothered me from enjoying the TV show.
The Brutalist editor Dávid Jancsó explained to RedSharkNews the use of AI for cloning the voices of the protagonists:
I am a native Hungarian speaker and I know that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce. Even with Adrien’s Hungarian background – (Brody’s mother is a Hungarian refugee who emigrated to the US in 1956) – it’s not that simple. It’s an extremely unique language. We coached [Brody and Felicity Jones] and they did a fabulous job but we also wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference.
If you’re coming from the Anglo-Saxon world certain sounds can be particularly hard to grasp. We first tried to ADR these harder elements with the actors. Then we tried to ADR them completely with other actors but that just didn’t work. So we looked for other options of how to enhance it.
Jancsó further said that Brody and Jones were fully on board with the use of Respeecher AI to create a perfect AI delivery. The AI used Jancsó’s voice to clone the actor’s accents:
Most of their Hungarian dialogue has a part of me talking in there. We were very careful about keeping their performances. It’s mainly just replacing letters here and there. You can do this in ProTools yourself, but we had so much dialogue in Hungarian that we really needed to speed up the process otherwise we’d still be in post.
I’m sure we’d all have enjoyed Brody’s natural Hungarian accent if we were to get the original performance. By we, I mean the vast population of the globe who aren’t native Hungarian speakers. We would not complain about how the character pronounced words because we wouldn’t understand them.
By the way, up to 14 million people speak Hungarian worldwide. This is the only demographic that could judge Brody’s performance. Also, most movies are released with dubbing in Hungary, so I’d expect the English parts in The Brutalist to be dubbed in Hungarian by local voice actors (or maybe AI?).
Also, movies are dubbed in plenty of countries around the world. Just come to Europe and see how hard it might be to see the original version of a new flick in certain regions. Brody’s perfect Hungarian will be a waste. Then there’s streaming, which comes with dubbing support, not just subtitles.
I say that as someone who prefers watching movies and TV shows in the original language, like a Netflix show where Roman and Germanic tribes speak Latin and German. I couldn’t tell whether the Latin those non-Roman actors spoke was any good.
The point is absolutely nobody will care that Brody and Jones do not speak perfect Hungarian when they see what should be an inspiring story, assuming they’d hear the real dialogue.
What we’re getting instead is an AI-tuned dialogue that supposedly makes the Hungarian language perfect. This choice should make Brody and Jones ineligible for Oscar awards, especially if they were on board with using genAI to alter their speech.
Why not bring Hungarian actors to play those two roles and speak perfect Hungarian? Ah, because the moviemakers needed stars like Brody and Jones.
A line should be drawn when it comes to the use of AI in creative fields that also involve awards shows. AI-enhanced imagery should not win photography awards. Similarly, AI-enhanced actor performances should not get Oscars, even if it’s just fine-tuning of Hungarian sounds that nobody will notice.
The Brutalist isn’t the only movie headed at the Oscars with an AI controversy in tow. The Guardian points out that Emilia Pérez also features the use of the same Respeecher AI to improve the musical abilities of Karla Sofía Gascón. The actress is also likely to be nominated for the Best Actress category at the Oscars.
Should AI-enhanced performances win this year, then the Oscars should get ready to embrace AI-only movies.
It’ll be only a matter of time before someone makes a great movie using only AI tools like future versions of Sora and similar competitors. That approach wouldn’t be a problem, and I’m sure AI will play a big role in movie and TV show creation in the coming years.
I’m also sure I’ll enjoy future AI-only forms of entertainment. Let’s just avoid giving them Oscars. Or remove the awards shows entirely once AI becomes a predominant tool of entertainment creation.
