Kevin O’Leary is starring alongside Timothée Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow in the upcoming Christmas theatrical release “Marty Supreme.” But he isn’t defending Hollywood’s spending habits.
Instead, O’Leary says the film wasted millions of dollars by hiring human extras whom he believes should have been replaced with AI.
“Almost every scene had as many as 150 extras,” O’Leary told World of Travel in an interview. “Those people had to stay awake for 18 hours, be completely dressed, in the background, not necessarily in the movie, but necessary to be there moving around, and yet it costs millions of dollars to do that.”
The investor, who plays Paltrow’s husband in the film, says the costs are outdated when AI can generate realistic stand-ins for crowd scenes.
“Why couldn’t you simply just put AI agents in their place?” he said. “They’re not the main actors, they’re only in the story visually, and it would save millions of dollars so more movies could be made. That same director, instead of spending $90 million or whatever he spent, could’ve spent $35 million and made two movies.”
The AI ‘Actress’ Behind the Hollywood Uproar
O’Leary pointed to Tilly Norwell, a fully artificial performer, as a sign of where the industry is headed.
“Tilly Norwell is an actor that’s burst onto the scene. She is 100 percent AI. She doesn’t exist, but she’s a great actress. She can come in at any age you want, she doesn’t need to eat, so she works 24 hours a day, and the union is going out of their minds,” he said. “Also in music, Velvet Sunset is a band that is in the top 10 percent of all downloads right now and it’s complete BS. They don’t exist. It’s just AI music.”
Norwell’s presence has already triggered industry backlash. In September, SAG-AFTRA issued a statement condemning Tilly Norwell and reaffirming that creativity “should remain human-centered” while opposing “the replacement of human performers by synthetics.”
More Movies, Fewer Extras
Pressed on the human cost of that shift and the dreams of real background actors hoping for their break, O’Leary argued the opposite outcome.
“More movies would be made with this formula, which means more opportunities for human actors in the future,” he said. “I’d argue, for the sake of the art, you should allow it in certain cases, and an extra is a really good use case because you can’t tell the difference. Just put 100 Tilly Norwells in there and you’re good.”
To O’Leary, this is simply where the industry is headed.
“You can’t stop the advancement of technology,” he said. “So I’m spending a lot of time investing in it.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lindsey Granger and Kolyn Boyd are the co-creators of “World of Travel,” a series that explores the past, present and future of extraordinary places around the globe. The series has a complimentary podcast that interviews business leaders, world travelers and tastemakers from around the globe. You can watch our most recent episode featuring Kevin O’Leary on the United Arab Emirates here and future episodes each Wednesday at 4 p.m. EDT on The Hill’s YouTube page.
Lindsey Granger is the co-host of “Rising.” Kolyn Boyd is a film director based in Washington, D.C.
Catch complimentary podcasts every Thursday at 4 p.m. on The Hill’s YouTube channel.
