‘Brutal’ Director Brady Corbet Defends Using AI to Change Dialogue

The Brutalists a director Brady Corbett defends the use of AI to change Adrien Brody a Felicity Jones‘ Hungarian accents in his acclaimed film.

“Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own,” Corbet, 36, said in a statement to Variety on Monday, January 20. “They worked for months with a dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed.”

The filmmaker added: “This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or adapt them and to do them with the utmost respect for the craft.”

The Brutalists stars Brody, 51, as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor who immigrated to America following World War II. Jones, 41, plays Tóth’s wife.

A controversy arose afterwards RedShark Newswhich includes technology, publish an interview with the film editor, Dafydd Jancóon January 11. In that interview, Jancó said that tools from Respeecher, a Ukrainian software company, are being used to make Brody and Jones’ Hungarian speech more authentic.

“We trained (them) and they did a great job but we also wanted to perfect it so that even the locals won’t see any difference,” the Hungarian editor told the outlet, explaining that he recorded his voice in the AI ​​program, as did the two leads.

“Most of their Hungarian dialogue has me speaking in there,” Jancó recognized. “We were very careful about preserving their performances. Mostly just replacing letters on the spot.”

Jancó said RedShark News that generative AI was incorporated at the end of the film, which showed architectural drawings of Brody’s character. However, Corbet explained in his statement on Monday: “(Production designer) Judy Becker and her team did not use AI to create or render any of the buildings. All images were hand drawn by artists.”

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Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Adrien Brody clears up speculation that he was banned from Saturday Night Live. The Brutalist star hosted a May 2003 episode of the NBC sketch show, when he controversially wore a so-called wig and spoke in a Jamaican accent to introduce musical guest Sean Paul. Ever since then there has been speculation that he was (…)

At the Golden Globe Awards earlier this month, The Brutalists won three major trophies: Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director Corbet, and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama for Brody. (The honor came 23 years after he scored an Academy Award The Pianist aged 29.)

“I’m very grateful,” Brody said Us Weekly and other reporters in the Beverly Hilton Press Room following his victory. “I have had a very blessed career, but as you can see, it is still a challenge to find work that is this meaningful.”

“The ability for you to have victory in your life again is incredibly healing and rewarding,” Brody added, noting that the film “speaks to my family’s struggles and the hardships they’ve faced.”