*Morgan Freeman made it clear that the unauthorized use of AI to mimic his voice is unacceptable.
“If you’re gonna do it without me, you’re robbing me,” the Oscar-winning actor said, addressing the growing trend of artificial intelligence cloning performers’ voices and images. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Freeman thanked fans for calling out a TikTok clip that falsely claimed, “Narrated by me, Morgan Freeman.” He confirmed he had given no such approval, and his legal team is now involved.
Freeman’s concerns reflect a broader unease within the entertainment industry over AI-generated content. As eWeek reports, actors including Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Keanu Reeves, Stephen Fry, and Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams, have criticized image and voice replication technologies. Meanwhile, Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine have partnered with AI voice company ElevenLabs to authorize the cloning of their voices.
The discussion of AI comes as Hollywood experiments with new digital techniques. TriStar Pictures’ 2024 release, “Here,” directed by Robert Zemeckis, used real-time AI face transformation to portray Tom Hanks and Robin Wright across decades. Metaphysic, the visual effects company behind the technology, trained custom machine-learning models on the actors’ previous films, enabling instant facial modifications without traditional postproduction.
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Zemeckis told The New York Times, “You couldn’t have made this movie three years ago,” noting that conventional effects would have required hundreds of artists and a much larger budget.
Unlike prior de-aging methods, such as ILM’s work on “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” Metaphysic’s AI allows transformations to be seen during filming, bypassing months of extensive postproduction.
Freeman’s objection to AI voice replication underscores ongoing questions about consent, control, and creative ownership as Hollywood increasingly adopts these technologies.
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