Bruce Willis did not sell to the rights to a deep fake company
The ‘Die Hard’ star denied Deepcake - a company who produces the recreated images using artificial intelligence - had bought the rights to his visage.
A representative for the 67-year-old actor told BBC News that Bruce had “no partnership or agreement” with the firm, who have boasted about having an extensive back catalogue of celebs.
His agent added: "Please know that Bruce has no partnership or agreement with this Deepcake company."
The claim that Bruce - who stepped back from Hollywood after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disordered impacting speech - has sold his likeness came from a news report by the Daily Mail that alleged he had allowed studios to superimposed him into movies after a commercial with a depiction of the ‘Pulp Fiction’ star appeared on the internet made by the company.
A statement from Deepcake agreed, saying they had not purchased them.
A rep said: "The wording about rights is wrong… Bruce couldn't sell anyone any rights, they are his by default.”
The technology is similar to used in film franchises, such as ‘Star Wars’ to edit performer’s appearance to make them look younger in prequels or bring back characters, who portrayers have passed away, such as Peter Cushing, whose likeness appeared in the 2015 flick ‘Rogue One’. It has also been used to recreate people’s voices, like when James Earl Jones - who voice Darth Vader - retired from acting. Respeecher technology was used to mimic the iconic villain’s voice in the new Disney Plus show, ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’.
This spring, the UK-based performing arts’ union expressed their concern about the tech with the launch of their campaign ‘Stop Stealing the Show’ as they believe it takes work away from real life people.
