Kevin O'Leary Wants AI To Replace Background Extras

Dan Lalonde
Oct 22
2 min read

Updated: Oct 23

Kevin O'Leary AI background extras Marty Supreme

Some of my best memories on a film set are when I was a background extra. From talking to Jeff Bridge on opening a castle door for him on 'The Seventh Son' to playing a Dubai businessman in 'Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol', where I got to see Tom Cruise work on the nearby set of the prison jailbreak scene.

Kevin O'Leary is pissing me and every other film union crew with an interview on The Hill’s “World of Travel: The Podcast,” about his new film 'Marty Supreme' that he says could have saved money using AI to replace background extras.

“Almost every scene had as many as 150 extras. Now, those people have to stay awake for 18 hours, be completely dressed in the background. [They’re] not necessarily in the movie, but they’re necessary to be there moving around. And yet, it costs millions of dollars to do that. Why couldn’t you simply put AI agents in their place? Because they’re not the main actors. They’re only in the story visually. [You could] save millions of dollars, so more movies could be made. The same director, instead of spending $90 million or whatever he spent, could’ve spent $35 million and made two movies.”

Leary also talked about AI actress Tilly Norwood, whom he called by the wrong name of Tilly Norwell: “She’s 100% AI. She doesn’t exist. But she’s a great actress. She can come in any age you want. She doesn’t need to eat, so she works 24 hours a day. The union is going out of their mind."

Leary showed more of his knowledge on the subject when he called the AI band The Velvet Sunset wrong when it's The Velvet Sundown: “Velvet Sunset is a band that’s on the top 10% of all downloads right now. And it’s complete BS. They don’t exist. It’s just AI music. It’s coming. You can’t stop the advancement of technology, so I’m spending a lot of time investing.”

Leary continued with: “I’d argue, for the sake of the art, you should allow [AI] in certain cases. An extra is a really good case, because you can’t tell the difference. You just put 100 Norwell Tillies in there and you’re good.”

Do you want less AI for film and TV? Comment below with your thoughts.