Legendary actor James Earl Jones died on September 10 at 93, taking with him probably the most famous voice in Hollywood. But his agreement with studios to allow them to use artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate his voice may put his attitude at odds with other actors concerned about the use of AI to recreate their visual and auditory likenesses.
Few voices were as instantly recognizable as Jones’. The role of Darth Vader in Star Wars is probably the best-known voice acting job he ever had; nearly everyone recognizes the deep bass interspersed with creepy artificial breathing sounds. Jones also voiced the animated character Musafa in Disney’s The Lion King. While Jones had plenty of roles on camera using his whole body and face, his voice is probably the thing he will be remembered for.
Apparently Jones gave his consent to companies Skywalker Sound and Respeecher to recreate his distinctive voice for future Darth Vader performances after he retired from playing the role. The companies recreated his vocals for the 2022 TV series Obi-Wan Kenobi that ran on Disney+. They also gave fellow Star Wars alum Mark Hamill’s voice the digital de-aging treatment to reprise his role as a young Luke Skywalker in the show The Mandalorian.
But many actors are not keen on the ability of AI to recreate them so well they may be put out of a job. Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike in July over concerns that studios would digitally recreate their performances without their consent, leaving them without a role to play or a paycheck to pick up. Actors who do voice work for video games went on strike when a year-and-a-half’s worth of negotiations about AI rules and royalties broke down before the sides could reach an agreement.
But the AI issue is not cut and dried for many concerned actors. Zeke Alton is a voice actor who was a member of the SAG committee trying to hammer out rules with video game companies. He said that the agreement James Earl Jones struck with studios concerns some, but it also gives a template for how studios can create transparent and fair agreements with voice actors about allowing AI to duplicate their sound.
Alton said that if movie studios and game companies were as transparent with other actors as they were with Jones, and if those agreements included fair compensation, “we wouldn’t be on strike.”
Brock Powell, a voice actor, is not convinced. He said that if technology exists to duplicate a voice like James Earl Jones, then studios will quickly figure out that they don’t need to hire actors at all.
By the time of his death Jones was worth $40 million. That’s a hell of a nest egg to build on a 1977 role in Star Wars that paid him a mere $7,000.
