Kevin O’Leary is set to join Timothée Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow in the theatrical release of “Marty Supreme,” scheduled for Christmas Day. However, he’s not too favorable about Hollywood’s hefty budgets.
O’Leary expressed concerns about the significant expenses incurred from hiring human extras, suggesting the role could be better filled by AI technology.
“There were 150 extras in almost every scene,” he remarked during an interview with World of Travel. “Those people had to stay awake for 18 hours, fully dressed, just hanging around. It cost millions of dollars.” He argues that those costs could become irrelevant once AI can effectively create realistic crowd scenes.
“Why couldn’t we just have an AI agent fill that role?” he asked. “They’re not the main actors; they merely add to the scene visually. If we used AI, we could save millions and potentially create more films. The same director could produce two movies for $35 million instead of dropping $90 million or so.”
O’Leary highlighted Tilly Nowell, a fully synthetic performer, as indicative of the industry’s future. “Tilly Nowell represents a new kind of actor—completely AI. She can take on any age, works nonstop, and doesn’t worry about unions,” he noted. He also mentioned Velvet Sunset, a non-existent band generating immense downloads through AI music, criticizing the situation as “complete BS.”
Nowell’s emergence has already stirred some backlash. In September, SAG-AFTRA condemned the notion of replacing human actors with synthetic alternatives, reaffirming the importance of keeping creativity centered around people.
When asked about the implications for real background actors hoping to find success, O’Leary maintained that this shift could create more opportunities. “Using AI could actually lead to the production of more films, which means more roles for human actors in the future,” he stated. “For artistic purposes, this should be acceptable in certain scenarios. Extras are a clear use case, and you’d hardly notice the difference.” He firmly believes this is the trajectory the industry should take.
“Technology is always advancing, and you can’t stop that,” he remarked, reflecting his investment focus in this direction.
