About five years ago, Nicole Kreuzer had a brief stint on The Mandalorian, a space Western that is part of the Star Wars franchise. She remembers dressing as a desert dweller and a set that was “very space punk, very industrial.” During her time there, the actors’ phones were locked away to safeguard production details. Then, without notice, she was told to undergo scanning. In a trailer, she stood on a platform while more than 100 cameras captured her digital likeness, all under the direction of a disembodied male voice. She asked what would be done with the images. “We can make you leap over buildings. We can make you fight,” she recalled the voice saying.
The use of artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry has become one of the central issues for striking actors and writers, with both groups demanding more guardrails around the evolving technology. Actors say their scanned images could later be used without compensation or consent. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers says they support compensation and consent for use of actors’ images, but SAG-AFTRA wants more explicit requirements for actor consent.
