Tom Cruise attends the Australian premiere of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” on July 3, 2023, in Sydney, Australia. Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
(CNN) – Before talks between the Hollywood actors’ union and the major film and television studios failed, SAG-AFTRA managed to get Tom Cruise to exert pressure on behalf of its members, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The issue at hand was the use of artificial intelligence. According to the report, superstar Cruise joined a negotiation session in June to discuss concerns about the use of AI to replace actors and to speak in support of stunt doubles, who are also part of SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000 members. The star of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise performs his own risky scenes. Tom Cruise attends the Australian premiere of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” on July 3, 2023, in Sydney, Australia. Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images
SAG-AFTRA did not respond to a request for comment on the report, and a representative for Tom Cruise declined to comment. On Friday, SAG-AFTRA officially joined the strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the union representing Hollywood’s major film studios and streaming services. The Hollywood actors have joined the 11,000 writer members of the Writers Guild of America, who have been on strike against the AMPTP since early May. It is the first time in 63 years that both writers and actors have gone on strike.
While negotiations between the actors and the Hollywood studios face several contentious issues related to fair compensation, the debate over the use of AI in television and film is undoubtedly one of the most existential and controversial. In a statement to CNN, the AMPTP said it had offered actors “an innovative AI proposal that protects the digital image of actors.” But SAG-AFTRA argues that studios want to use AI to eliminate jobs as actors, by scanning and creating digital portraits to be used in perpetuity without fair compensation. At a press conference last week, Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA, said actors would be “in trouble” if the unions and studios do not develop an AI policy that works for everyone. “We will all be at risk of being replaced by machines,” she stated.
Recent advances in AI have made it a reality to replace actors with AI-generated versions. Cruise himself was depicted in a series of deepfakes created by a visual effects and AI artist on TikTok earlier this year. However, amidst the pre-strike negotiations, Cruise also urged SAG-AFTRA to allow actors to promote their projects, citing the precarious financial position of movie theaters amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Under the current strike rules of the union, Cruise and other actors are prohibited from interviews, tours, or promotion of any project sponsored by major studios, which means Cruise can no longer promote his latest film, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning,” which was released in the United States earlier this month.
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