Disney+ Scares Viewers With Creepy AI Actors

One of the issues of concern for actors (and writers) in Hollywood during the strikes was people losing their jobs to A.I.

They were worried about a tool like ChatGPT generating dialog for shows or digital technology replacing actors with CGI creations. It seems, however, that Disney may have already taken the first steps of replacing real actors and extras with fakes. But something about them is a little bit off.

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Disney A.I. Actors

In the Disney+ movie Prom Pact, CGI extras are causing some problems. The film was released earlier this year. It’s a romantic comedy starring Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Milo Mandeim. Prom Pact follows the plot of two friends receiving prom proposals.

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But the standard teenage rom-com is attracting some attention online and in social media over its use of A.I.-generated actors.

During one scene in the movie, there is a basketball game. However, some people in the stands don’t look like people. They appear almost like plastic store mannequins who are clapping their hands. It’s a very unsettling image. And given that we are in the Halloween season, it’s an interesting spooky scene.

Someone found a row of AI background actors in Disney’s ‘Prom Pact.’ pic.twitter.com/BJBzErF16y

— Complex Pop Culture (@ComplexPop) October 12, 2023

Except…it’s not a horror film. It’s a romantic comedy that just happens to have alien/robot-looking humanoids attending a basketball game.

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Some have speculated that the extras in question were made from 3D models in post-production instead of A.I. However, it has generated some traffic online and caused many Disney fans to do a double-take while watching.

But Why?

An odd situation about this movie is that many of the extras in the film are real people. So why are there CGI people sitting in front of a natural person? Wouldn’t they at least put the real people up front and save the CGI humans for the background?

Who knows.

It’s not uncommon for many movies to use CGI-generated people for large group shots. But this is typically done in scenes with a scope where you cannot tell.

Perhaps in post-production, Disney felt that the scene was still too empty. Or maybe there were once real actors in those spots who were digitally removed for one reason or another. And therefore, they had to fill the gap.

Either way, it proves that studios are already looking into ways to save money by generating actors with fake people. Perhaps the members of SAG-AFTRA have more to worry about than they thought.

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Then again, if they are going to be replaced by plastic-looking people with dead eyes who move like robots…maybe they don’t have to worry.