AI helps actors speak every language

The Future. AI is helping recreate actors’ voices to be used for foreign dubbing, character de-aging, and bringing late voices back to life. While audio deepfakes will probably become as commonplace as video ones, the tech could revolutionize how internationally filmed movies and shows are made.

Distinct dub
AI is changing the way actors speak… sometimes without even needing the actor.

• Israeli startup Deepdub created Spanish and Portuguese-language versions of the English-language horror film Every Time I Die using “computerized voice clones.”
  • The clones were created by recording five minutes of the actors speaking English.
• Respeecher recreated Mark Hamill’s voice from over 40 years ago for an episode of The Mandalorian to compliment his visual CGI recreation of Luke Skywalker.
• Somatic created two minutes of Val Kilmer’s voice (who lost it to throat cancer) for the Amazon doc Val. It reportedly moved his own son to tears.

Language lies
Sophisticated AI tech is making separate voice dubs for each country a thing of the past, and now audiences may be more keen to try out international shows in that new format. Hopefully, dubbed content won’t feel as strange because the actors’ mouths are also being adjusted to match what their lips are saying.

Of course, engineers will have to make sure that the tone and inflection don’t only match what the actor intended but also adjusts for cultural differences.

While those international dubs will certainly be covered by an actor’s contract, resurrecting a younger voice or the voice of someone that is dead is trickier territory. While Disney received Mark Hamill’s blessing for the Luke cameo, documentarian Morgan Neville faced criticism for recreating the voice of the late Anthony Bourdain in Roadrunner because he didn’t get the proper clearances. Consent is still always key.