Nicolas Cage shared his thoughts on AI’s role in films and expressed criticism regarding his short appearance in Warner Bros.’ “The Flash.”
“The Flash” depicted a younger version of Cage as an alternate Superman inspired by “Superman Lives,” Tim Burton’s shelved Man of Steel project from 1998. In “The Flash,” Cage’s Superman was portrayed battling a massive spider firing red lasers from its eyes. However, the actor revealed that this portrayal differed significantly from what he originally filmed for the movie.
“When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that,” Cage told Yahoo! Entertainment in a new interview. “That was not what I did. I don’t think it was [created by] AI. I know Tim (Burton) is upset about AI, as I am.
“It was CGI, OK, so that they could de-age me, and I’m fighting a spider,” Cage said. “I didn’t do any of that, so I don’t know what happened there. … But I get where Tim’s coming from. I know what he means. I would be very unhappy if people were taking my art … and appropriating them. I get it. I mean, I’m with him in that regard. AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane. You can’t get more inhumane than artificial intelligence.”
Cage added: “But I don’t think it [was] AI [in ‘The Flash’]. I just think that they did something with it, and again, it’s out of my control. I literally went to shoot a scene for maybe an hour in the suit, looking at the destruction of a universe and trying to convey the feelings of loss and sadness and terror in my eyes. That’s all I did.”
Cage also explained what he actually did on set the day he shot his cameo for “The Flash.”
“What I was supposed to do was literally just be standing in an alternate dimension, if you will, and witnessing the destruction of the universe,” Cage said. “Kal-El was bearing witness [to] the end of a universe, and you can imagine with that short amount of time that I had, what that would mean in terms of what I can convey. I had no dialogue [so had to] convey with my eyes the emotion. So that’s what I did. I was on set for maybe three hours.”