The A24 movie The Brutalist used an AI tool made by Ukrainian startup Respeecher to improve the Hungarian accents of the actors, as stated by the film editor Dávid Jancsó in an interview for RedShark. However, the filmmakers' move to use AI technology in the movie has sparked a heated debate over whether such a film has the right to win at the Oscars.
Respeecher's AI used in The Brutalist
A significant part of the dialogues in the film are in Hungarian, the creators wanted to make them as authentic as possible. However, it is not so easy, even when taking into account the fact that the main actor Adrien Brody is of Hungarian origin (his mother is a Hungarian refugee who emigrated to the United States in 1956) — said Dávid Jancsó.
"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."
According to Jancsó, adjustments had to be made to improve the sound of individual letters. First they tried to edit them with the actors themselves. Then they tried to do it with others, but that didn't work. Then they started looking for other options and decided on employing Respeecher's AI tool.
As expained in the interview, the work with the startup began with recording the voices of Brody and Jones to create the Hungarian language using AI. Jancsó also added his own voice to improve the dialect: he is a native speaker of the language.
"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."
AI was also used to create architectural drawings and finished buildings at the end of the movie. The film editor believes that discussing the use of AI in cinema should not be controversial.
"There’s nothing in the film using AI that hasn't been done before. It just makes the process a lot faster. We use AI to create these tiny little details that we didn't have the money or the time to shoot," Jancsó concluded.
Why The Brutalist's Oscars award is in danger?
The Brutalist is an American-Anglo-Hungarian historical film directed by Brady Corbett. It tells the story of 30 years in the life of architect Laszlo Toth, a Hungarian Jew who survived Auschwitz and emigrated to the United States with his wife, Erzsébet.
The film premiered on September 1 in the main competition of the 81st Venice International Film Festival. The film was highly praised by critics and Brady Corbett was awarded the Silver Lion for Best Director.
However, the information about the use of artificial intelligence during the creation of the movie caused outrage among some. Comic Basics writes that these controversies will significantly affect the film's chances of winning an award at the Oscars.
The Academy may be reluctant to award a movie whose editor openly discussed the role of AI, especially in light of public outrage. While the use of AI in Hollywood may be more widespread than acknowledged, being open about it could damage a film's reputation and standing in the highly competitive awards race.
About Respeecher
Respeecher is a Ukrainian startup that uses artificial intelligence to allow one person to speak in the voice of another. The product was created in 2018 by Oleksandr Serdiuk, Dmytro Belevtsov, and Grant Riber. In 2023, they raised $1 million in pre-Series A funding.
Respeecher gained popularity for reproducing the voices of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker for the Star Wars series, and in 2023, for the voice of Viktor Vector for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, as well worked on God of War Ragnarok.
