The Ankler: “It is brutal for self-esteem. I only understood how brutal later in life.”
That’s how Alison Pill describes her experience being a child star — words that echo a comment the late Hayden Panettiere made about her own time as a kid in the industry. “It’s the most brutal experience,” Panettiere, who died in August at 36, said during an interview earlier this year.
9 comments:
Using AI to replace child actors is a somewhat interesting idea. I’m so completely against the idea in so many ways, but I’ve never heard that argument brought up in the debate around AI and art. I think it's a pretty well known fact that child actors are incredibly exploited in the industry, not just by executives but also often by parents who become financially dependent upon their own kids. There's a lot of things wrong in the industry but I can safely say that trying to replace all children's roles with AI animations of real people has gotta be the worst choice. Maybe just some actual legislation around the issues, not trying to fix the problem with AI. Much like how CGI is an interesting tool, but can’t be used to replace sets entirely, I really hope Hollywood doesn't start to pivot towards non real actors rather than just create a safer working environment.
This article does a good job highlighting the issues with the protections for children in the film industry. There is a lot of pressure and attention about their appearance and choices which can be hard on a young performer, especially because they often don’t have other experiences to compare to so are unaware how harmful a situation is until much later. However I do agree that replacing child actors with AI is not the solution. The important thing about having children in productions is their unique perspective on the world, they are often more imaginative and creative. Replacing them with machines is only going to erase the natural curiosity a child has. While it may protect kids by simply keeping them out of the industry all together, it does so at the expense of the art and the human connection that is important in film.
It is sad how exploited yet irreplaceable child actors are in the entertainment and arts field, and how, despite the existence of several relevant issues, people would still neglect the harm it brings because the profit and joy brought to the majority of the audience outweighs the darkness behind it. It also hurts to think about how child actors themselves are in a love-hate relationship with this industry. While it brings them close friends, unforgettable experiences, fame/popularity, and income, at the same time, it can also introduce toxic relationships, hazing, a missed childhood, and a disturbed personal life. It’s my first time hearing about the idea of replacing child actors with AI, but that erases all the innate qualities of a human, as well as the close proximity and relationship one can feel with a child figure. So, unless it is executed well enough for audiences to fail to recognize that it’s AI, I don’t know how this issue can be solved.
I think children in Hollywood is always going to be a topic that leads to debate. I think Alison Pill had a lot of insight into this and brought up a lot of points that I do agree with. She brought up the point regarding how most nepotism affects teens versus young children because those who’ve worked in the industry know how grueling it is. Pill also made the point about voice-acting, which was something I was curious about, and she states that it is easier compared to the normal routine of acting in-person.
At the very end of the article there is a point regarding replacing children with AI because the work conditions are so harsh. Personally I don’t love this idea, neither does Pill, but it is interesting to discuss nonetheless. I don’t think using AI to replace performance is ever going to be my first choice, I think first and foremost we should figure out how to make the system better for children who are involved in the industry versus kicking them out.
I have always felt that there is not enough safety nets put in place when it comes to child actors, and this article lays that fact out plainly. Child actors in the entertainment industry face far to many hardships for their age, and there are simply to many horror stories about child actors being treated unfairly or wrongly by professionals or their own family members and friends. Despite this fact though I don't think that using AI to create a child's face on another actor removes all like from the film. In reality child actors just need to be treated better, and real change needs to occur in the industry which at this point seems far from possible unfortunately. I believe that the entertainment industry has the power to make the necessary changes, but it would probably at the cost of money and time which I don't think the leaders of the industry is capable of accomplishing at the moment.
I have never heard of the idea to use AI actors to replace child actors. I also think it’s interesting that the author of the article presented the idea with the condition that it be “an ethical use” of AI. Which leads me to wonder what an ethical use of AI in film would actually be. I mean, even if the child actors were replaced, they would be taking from child actors who had suffered through the experiences that Pill mentions in this interview. I guess that would eliminate the suffering of future child actors – I don’t know. It was cool to see a Steven Spielberg quote because so many of his movies center around children. If the children are the center of the film, than how can an AI actor possibly capture that?! I say that, but AI seems to be advancing everyday, and could easily reach that point soon. But if AI has a place in art, art will stand still and there will never be anything new.
The comment at the very end of the article about AI replacing child actors and how previous child actor, Alison Pill, said immediately that that is not the solution really stuck with me. You hear a lot about child actors being exploited or “growing up” too fast because of how society views them or how they are being portrayed to society, but to suggest that instead of making that situation better for children we just replace them with a computerized version of children that has no actual feelings and can not fully portray all the emotions a human has is silly to me. I feel like society treats celebrities in general horribly. We tend to forget that they are human too and that they have feelings and flaws. While I do think that they often have some kind of responsibility to society, the children actors/celebrities absolutely do not. They should be allowed to act for fun and as a passion, not as a pillar of society.
I think that the exploitation that goes on in Hollywood can be very detrimental to the development of a child. We all know that a lot if stuff happens behind the scenes in Hollywood that effects not only adults but children as well. There have been numerous instances where an adult in power takes advantage of the influence they hold over children on set and nothing was done about at time with it only coming out to the public years later. While in the current day I would say there are a lot more protections for child actors I don’t think it’s enough to safely ensure that children won’t be put into dangerous situations that they should not be in. I think as a parent the risks making your child an actor has needs to be a major consideration, however I do think a lot of parents of child stars care more about the acclaim and fame their child can get for them instead of their safety
I think this topic is extremely relevant to today's world and what has been happening for years. The amount of child actors who have faced abuse, eating disorders, depression, drug abuse, toxic environments, and many other harmful effects is astounding. The regulations on keeping child actors safe are so loose and not enforced, people take advantage of that and go around it further harming the kids. It is a really sad fact and the amount of actors who died who were child actors is a very long list. Nickelodeon had a producer that was famous for making popular children's sitcoms only for it to come out later how horrible, abusive, and toxic the man was. He abused multiple kids and left them all with lasting trauma for the rest of their lives. The standard and regulations of working with a child actor need to be stronger, there has to be stronger enforcement of these rules. The things and trauma being put onto these kids are crimes and it needs to be prevented.
Post a Comment