Robin Williams's Daughter On AI, Matthew Lawrence Backlash

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5 days ago

Back in 2023, Robin Williams's daughter, Zelda, passionately spoke out against the 'disturbing' idea of artificial intelligence being used to recreate her late dad's voice, with the hugely beloved actor dying by suicide in 2014 at age 63.
Robin was famously very protective of the use of his voice work in life, and even feuded with Disney after they used his Aladdin character, the Genie, to sell merchandise. The feud was so dramatic that Robin didn't return for the animated movie's sequel, and Homer Simpson voice actor, Dan Castellaneta, was cast to replace him as the Genie instead. Robin did return for the third movie, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, two years later.
And Zelda advocated for her father in a statement that was issued in support of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild's fight against AI two years ago. She wrote at the time: 'I am not an impartial voice in the SAG's fight against AI. I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/ recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad.'
'This isn't theoretical, it is very very real. I've already heard AI used to get his 'voice' to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings,' she went on. 'Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance.''These recreations are, at the very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for,' Zelda concluded the post.
And this is why people have been left so mad at Matthew Lawrence — who worked with Robin as a child star — after he recently doubled down on his wish to use AI to do 'something really special' in Robin's memory.
For reference, Matthew was 12 years old when he played Robin's son Chris in the 1993 movie Mrs. Doubtfire. He was already a pretty established child actor by the time that he landed the role, but he has always been incredibly open about how influential working with Robin on this film was for him.
"He stayed a part of my life, you know?' the now-45-year-old star told People earlier this year. 'That movie could have wrapped [and] like everybody else, he could have gone his separate way, but he didn't.''He stayed invested, and he gave me some incredible life lessons that definitely kept me from some dark places at times. And I'll just never be able to thank him enough for that,' Matthew added.
In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, Matthew shared: 'I didn't quite realize it at the time, but that moment there on set of Mrs. Doubtfire, that those six to eight months were the biggest learning curve anyone can get when it comes to making movies and being an entertainer.'
'And then on top of that, you get a chance to be around Robin Williams, and he takes an investment in you, as he does with people. But in particular, he really took an investment with me,' he went on. "He really quantified what it was to be a real artist for me in the sense that he was definitely, and I worked with some great people, and he was definitely the most brilliant artist I've ever worked with.'
'But on top of that, he had the compassion, he had the humility, and he also had these things that he struggled with,' Matthew noted. 'Man, it's a real shame that he's not with us. There's not a day that goes by that I don't hear his voice,' he then told the publication. 'I even wish, now with artificial intelligence, I kind of want to go to his family and be like: 'Would you guys allow me to use his voice for some sort of creative expression?' Because I hear it every day, in my head.'
And Matthew doubled down on his idea to use AI to bring Robin's voice back to the masses during his appearance in Entertainment Weekly's Comic-Con video suite on Friday — and it did not go down well with fans.
In the conversation, Matthew explained: 'I would love — obviously, with the respect and with the OK from his family — I would love to do something really special with his voice because I know for a generation, that voice is just so iconic.''It's not just the fact that I knew him and worked with him and so it's in my head — it's in everybody's head. And it would be so cool,' Matthew went on, before detailing that the idea came to him after he watched one of Robin's old commercials. 'It's kinda like this very contemporary, modern, almost sort of foreshadowing of what's going on commercial that he did, where he did this computerized voiceover,' Matthew shared. 'And it always stuck with me. And then, during his passing, with the AI coming out, I'm like: 'Man, he's gotta be the voice of AI. He's gotta be the voice in something.' So yeah, I would love to do that.'
But this idea sparked instant criticism on social media, with one hugely viral tweet responding to Matthew's quotes simply reading: 'Tell him to fuck off.'
'No. Let the man rest and our memories of him go on,' somebody else wrote, while another tweeted: 'The possibility of exploiting the talent of dead people through AI is sincerely one of its most repugnant uses, utterly disrespectful for artist of the past and the future.' And one more added: 'theres no amount of respect or consent from his family that would ever make it okay to use AI on a person especially if theyve passed away.'
Others referenced Zelda's past comments, with one person sharing a screenshot of a news article about her quotes and writing: "Yeah, I doubt Matthew Lawrence is going to get that permission..."
"Zelda would never be okay with it. You'll never see him in AI. Don't even bother asking the first time," somebody else tweeted.Another wrote: "His daughter, Zelda Williams would absolutely refuse. She absolutely hates it when people use AI to impersonate her father."
What do you make of Matthew's comments? Let me know down below!