Robert Downey Jr. isn’t concerned Marvel Studios will try to recreate his likeness using artificial intelligence (AI).
Robert Downey Jr. isn’t concerned Marvel Studios will try to recreate his likeness using artificial intelligence
The 59-year-old actor starred as the tech genius Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) from 'Iron Man' in 2008 until 2019's 'Avengers: Endgame' and has insisted he isn't worried the studio will attempt to "hijack [his] character's soul" by employing machine learning to bring him into a future movie.
When asked about his stance on AI in the film industry during an appearance on the 'On With Kara Swisher' podcast, Downey Jr. told the host: "I will say this — there’s two tracks.
"One is — how do I feel about everything that’s going on, and my answer is I feel about it minimally because I have an actual emotional life that’s occurring that doesn’t have a lot of room for that.
"And to go back to the MCU, I'm not worried about them hijacking my character’s soul because there’s like three or four guys and gals who make all the decisions there anyway and they would never do that to me, with or without me."
The 'Oppenheimer' star added he "intends to sue all future executives just on spec" if they tried to recreate his likeness using the technology.
After Swisher pointed out studios could attempt to do just that after his passing, Downey Jr. rebutted: "I know, but my law firm will still be very active."
The actor is due to return to the MCU as Doctor Doom in 'Avengers: Doomsday' and 'Avengers: Secret Wars', and previously revealed he signed on to play the character after he and Marvel boss Kevin Feige concluded they wanted to do justice to the beloved villain.
Speaking on 'The Hollywood Reporter's Award Chatter' podcast, Downey Jr. said: "[Feige is] a very sophisticated, creative thinker about, 'How can we not go backwards? How can we not disappoint expectations? How can we continue to beat expectations?'
"And he brought up Victor von Doom, and I looked into [the] character, and I was like, 'Wow.' And later on, he goes, 'Let's get Victor von Doom right. Let's get that right.'"
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