Morgan Freeman, the 88-year-old Oscar-winning actor, expressed frustration over unauthorized artificial intelligence (AI) recreations of his iconic voice, stating in a Guardian interview that his legal team is already handling multiple cases.
"I'm a little PO'd, you know," Freeman said, emphasizing that such uses feel like "robbing" him as an actor by denying him compensated opportunities. When asked about the number of ongoing disputes, he replied bluntly: "Many, yeah. Quite a few," adding that his lawyers have been "very, very busy" removing these deepfakes from the internet.
Freeman made these comments while promoting his latest film, Now You See Me: Now You Don't—the third installment in the magic-heist franchise where he reprises his role as the sharp-tongued Thaddeus Bradley. The interview, conducted amid his press tour, also touched on broader AI concerns in Hollywood, including Freeman's strong opposition to posthumous voice replication.
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| Morgan Freeman |
"I'm like any other actor: Don't mimic me with falseness," Freeman declared, underscoring his belief that AI imitations erode authenticity and performers' rights.
His voice—honed through diction training at a Los Angeles community college and famously used in films like The Shawshank Redemption (narrator), Bruce Almighty (God), and documentaries such as March of the Penguins—has become a prime target for AI exploitation in commercials, scams, and online content.
Freeman's remarks echo growing industry backlash against generative AI, which actors' unions like SAG-AFTRA have decried as a "plagiarism machine" trained on copyrighted material without consent. While some stars, like George Clooney, have called AI a "genie out of the bottle," Freeman's proactive legal approach highlights the ethical and financial stakes for voice artists in the AI era.
No specific details on the lawsuits' targets or outcomes have been disclosed, but Freeman's comments signal an ongoing fight to protect his likeness.