Bruce Willis
Digital twin cannot become self-sufficient
Bruce Willis announced his retirement for health reasons in March.
© F.Sadou/AdMedia/ImageCollect
Hollywood star Bruce Willis has not sold the rights to his digital likeness to a deepfake company, his team has now explained.
Bruce Willis’s (67) team has denied reports that the Hollywood star sold his digital likeness to a deepfake company. It was previously rumored that the actor may have ceded rights to Deepcake to allow the creation of a “digital twin” of himself. So Willis could have appeared in projects after the end of his career.
In a statement for the US industry portal “The Hollywood Reporter” However, Bruce Willis’ team has now stated that he “has no partnership or agreement with the Deepcake company”. A spokesman for Deepcake also told The Hollywood Reporter that Willis’ rights could not be sold because they belong to him by default. The company has created a digital twin of Willis for advertising campaigns in 2021, with Willis deciding on any future use.
Willis’ digital twin appeared in a commercial for Russian mobile phone company Megafon last year on. Willis himself said in a statement on the company’s website, the project represented “a great opportunity to go back in time” for him. The neural network of the deepfake technology used was fed with data from his films “Die Hard” and “The Fifth Element”. Therefore, according to Willis, his character is similar to “the pictures of the time”.
End of career in spring
In March of this year, Willis’ family announced that the actor was retiring. In a message that, among other things, his daughter Rumer (34) published on Instagramit said: “With the amazing supporters of Bruce, we want to share as a family that our beloved Bruce is struggling with health issues and was recently diagnosed with aphasia which is affecting his cognitive abilities.”
This is a disorder that can affect all areas of speech. Those affected may have problems speaking and understanding language, including reading and writing.