David Cronenberg suggests The Brutalist AI controversy was a ‘Harvey Weinstein kind of' smear campaign

Independent

24-03-2025

David Cronenberg has suggested that the controversy over the use of AI in The Brutalist was a smear campaign orchestrated by another Oscar nominated film.
In January, social media backlash erupted after editor Dávid Jancsó revealed AI tools were used in the epic film's production.
Jancsó said that Respeecher voice cloning software had been used to make Hungarian dialogue spoken by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones sound more authentic.
At the time the film's director Brady Corbet spoke out to defend the film and the actors, saying: 'Adrien and Felicity's performances are completely their own.' Brody ultimately won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance, although the film missed out in the Best Picture category.
Speaking at the London Soundtrack Festival, per The Hollywood Reporter, Cronenberg said: 'I must confess, there was a scandal [with] The Brutalist.
'There was a discussion about Adrien Brody… but apparently they used artificial intelligence to improve his accent. I think it was a campaign against The Brutalist by some other Oscar nominees. It's very much a Harvey Weinstein kind of thing, though he wasn't around.'
The Canadian director of The Fly and Crash continued: 'We mess with actors' voices all the time.'
Referring to his 1993 film M. Butterfly, Cronenberg said: 'In the case of John (Lone), when he was being this character, this singer, I raised the pitch of his voice [to sound more feminine] and when he's revealed as a man, I lowered to his natural voice. This is just a part of moviemaking.'
In his statement defending The Brutalist at the time the controversy first emerged, the film's director Corbet said: 'Adrien and Felicity's performances are completely their own. They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents.
'Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity's performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.'
Corbet concluded his statement by saying: ' The Brutalist is a film about human complexity, and every aspect of its creation was driven by human effort, creativity and collaboration. We are incredibly proud of our team and what they've accomplished here.'