After having contractually refused to have his on-screen performances digitally modified, Keanu Reeves explains his approach and gives his opinion on the dangers of deepfake.
24 years ago, in the first part of the Matrix saga, he lent his features to Neo, a computer hacker seeking to free himself from the hold exerted by machines on his entire existence. Today, Keanu Reeves indirectly continues his fight against the excesses of artificial intelligence, as he recently declared at the microphone of Wired.
Indeed, for a few years, and in particular in the face of the development of deepfake technology, the actor has decided to add a clause to his contracts stipulating that his performances could in no case be modified digitally without his agreement.
“I don’t care if someone removes a wink during an edit. But in the early 2000s, or maybe in the 90s, one of my performances was changed”explained Keanu Reeves.
“They added a tear to my face (…). It was like I didn’t even need to be there.”
Warner Bros.
Always at the microphone Wiredthe actor continues his reasoning by evoking the deepfake, this digital process allowing for example to superimpose the expressions of an actor on the face of another person:
“The frustrating thing is that you lose your ability to act. When you deliver a performance in a film, you know it’s going to be edited, but you participate in it. When you enter the world of deepfake, no your views are taken into account. It’s terrifying. It’s going to be interesting to see how human beings deal with these technologies.”
Culturally, socially, we will find ourselves confronted with the value of reality.
Also asked about the echo that the Matrix saga can find in our time, 20 years after the release of the first film, and in the light of these new technologies, Keanu Reeves answered by wondering about the evolution of our relationship in reality:
“Once I was trying to explain the plot of The Matrix to a 15-year-old kid, and tell him that my character was really fighting for what was real. And that kid was like, ‘We’re I don’t care if it’s real.” People grow up with these tools. We already listen to music that was composed by an AI like Nirvana, there’s digital art with NFTs.”
“You’re like, ‘Look what these adorable machines can do.’ But there is a corporate power behind it that seeks to control these things. Culturally, socially, we are going to find ourselves confronted with the value of reality, or its lack of value.”
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