Morgan Freeman, whose voice is one of Hollywood’s most instantly recognizable, is taking a stand against its unauthorized use by AI.
The 88-year-old has expressed his displeasure that AI programs are cloning his distinctive voice without his involvement or consent, stating he has no intention of allowing it to be exploited.
“I’m a little PO’d, you know,” he told The Guardian. “I’m like any other actor: Don’t mimic me with falseness. I don’t appreciate it, and I get paid for doing stuff like that, so if you’re gonna do it without me, you’re robbing me.”
Freeman revealed that his legal team has already initiated legal proceedings against “many” of those who have imitated his voice, stating: “Well, I tell you, my lawyers have been very, very busy.”
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The actor, famous for his role in Bruce Almighty, recounted that he focused on improving his voice quality following advice from his community college instructor, Robert Whitman.
“If you’re going to speak, speak distinctly, hit your final consonants, and do exercises to lower your voice,” he recalled learning. “Most people’s voices are higher than they would be normally if they knew how to relax it. He taught that sort of thing.”
In addition, Freeman criticized Tilly Norwood, an AI actress who drew attention last month following reports that talent agencies were considering signing the synthetic performer as a client.
“Nobody likes her because she’s not real and that takes the part of a real person, so it’s not going to work out very well in the movies or in television,” he opined. “The union’s job is to keep actors acting, so there’s going to be that conflict.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, SAG-AFTRA has expressed its disapproval of Norwood’s presence, issuing a statement condemning AI performers soon after the “actress” gained public attention.
“To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” the union wrote. “It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”
Freeman’s career spans over 100 films, including notable works such as Amistad, Seven, Unforgiven, and The Dark Knight, as well as numerous TV dramas and documentaries. Early in his career, he appeared in 780 episodes of the children’s series The Electric Company in the 1970s.
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However, his breakthrough in Hollywood didn’t occur until 1987, when he was close to 50, earning a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role as a vicious pimp in Street Smart.
He followed up two years later with roles in both Driving Miss Daisy, where he reprised his stage role as Hoke Colburn (the chauffeur for a Jewish widow), and Glory, a film about an African-American regiment during the Civil War. His stream of successful roles has continued ever since.
Freeman’s established brand was founded upon a series of authoritative roles and documentary narrations, notably his depiction of God in the 2003 film Bruce Almighty and its 2007 sequel, Evan Almighty. His vocal delivery, it could be posited, had become inextricably linked with an air of biblical solemnity.
“It was interesting, though, the outcome of playing God in the movies. Audiences bought it. I mean bought it. I walk into a room and they say: ‘God just walked in.’ I say something, they say: ‘Oh, it’s the voice of God.’ That went on for the longest time,” Freeman said.
