This story contains spoilers for “Alien: Romulus” and “Aliens.”
Fans of the “Alien” series had some reservations about the appearance of a popular actor brought back to life by artificial intelligence.
The humanoid android named Luke (referred to in the film as a “synthetic human”) resembles the late Ian Holm, who appeared in the original 1979 Alien.
Holm also played Bilbo Baggins in “The Lord of the Rings” series and films such as “Brazil,” “Chariots of Fire” and “The Fifth Element.” He passed away in 2020 at the age of 88.
Many fans reacted to his surprise appearance with less than excitement.
Ian Holm, who co-starred with Sigourney Weaver in the original Alien and passed away in 2020, had his likeness recreated by AI in the recently released Alien: Romulus. (Robert Penn/20th Century Fox/Koval/Shutterstock)
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“The Romulus fake Ian Holm may be a cynical attempt to use a dead man’s face and voice for nostalgia purposes, but it looks awful at the very least, it can never be changed, and everyone who sees it will have to live with it for the rest of their lives,” said one person on X.
“The minute the CGI of his dead face was shown I was totally drawn in. Let’s give this guy a break,” said another.
“The extent to which Ian Holm’s reanimated corpse is used in Alien: Romulus is absolutely awful,” a third said.
Director Fede Alvarez confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that AI was used to recreate Holm’s look.
Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez defended the use of AI to recreate Holm’s likeness in the film. (Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)
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“We’re not trying to do the impossible of recreating that person’s acting talent because this is a different character,” he told the media outlet. “The only thing they have in common is the resemblance.”
Alvarez said he had contacted Holm’s widow, Sophie de Stempel, to ask for her opinion and approval.
“We did it with great respect and always with permission from his family, his children and his widow, who said, ‘We want to see him again,'” Alvarez said.
“Ian Holm felt like Hollywood had turned its back on him for 10 years after The Hobbit, and his widow felt he would have wanted to be a part of this,” the director added. “He particularly loved this character.”
Alvarez told the Los Angeles Times that he received permission from Holm’s widow, Sophie de Stempel, to recreate the scene. (Zak Hussain – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
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To recreate Holm, an animatronic likeness of the late actress was used on set and was puppeted. British actor Daniel Betts read lines to the cast and did facial capture on set. Betts’ voice was later altered to sound more like Holm’s using generative AI and computer modeling, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“We’re not going to bring somebody back to life and say, ‘This is what Ian would have done,'” Alvarez said. “Obviously, he would have done it differently. We had actors on set, working out their lines, collaborating with the actors. It’s not like we didn’t hire actors.”
“We weren’t trying to do the impossible, which is to recreate that person’s acting talent.”
The “Evil Dead” director also said he doesn’t believe AI will be able to replace actors in the future, and that using AI to create the character of Luke in Holm’s image was unique to this film.
“The way we did it would be much more expensive. It’s much cheaper to hire actors,” Alvarez said. “It would require a team of so many people and so many parts that it would never be really convenient.”
Alvarez said using AI to create Holm’s likeness in the film was a special case, and he doesn’t expect the technology to replace actors entirely. (Ernesto S. Lucio/Getty Images)
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The controversy over the use of Holm’s likeness comes as a new California bill dealing with the use of images of actors, living and dead, is expected to reach Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk soon.
The state Senate passed two bills in August: AB 1836, which would restrict the use of AI to create digital replicas of deceased performers without the consent of their families, and AB 2602, which would strengthen consent requirements for living performers to create AI replicas.
“These two bills are our union’s legislative priorities on behalf of our members and those outside the union, and will require explicit consent in California. We look forward to seeing these bills signed by Governor Gavin Newsom,” the actors’ union (SAG-AFTRA) said in a statement on its website.
The union also supports new federal legislation, the Anti-Counterfeiting Act, which was recently reintroduced in Congress.
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The Motion Picture Association, which represents several major studios including Netflix, Sony, Paramount, Universal, Disney and Warner Bros., also praised the bill.
Duncan Crabtree Ireland, national executive director and chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, spoke about the bill in an interview with Fox News Digital in July, saying, “From our perspective, this is incredibly important. The time is right now and it’s desperately needed.”
