Nicolas Cage Fears AI Using His Likeness After Death

Nicolas Cage has openly expressed his fear and apprehension about the advancement of artificial intelligence. The 60-year-old actor, currently promoting his new serial killer movie, Longlegs, shared his concerns in an interview with author Susan Orlean for the New Yorker.

In the conversation, Cage mentioned he was scheduled to undergo a “scan” for his upcoming Prime Video series, Spider-Man Noir, where he will reprise his role as the animated web-slinger in live action.

“I have to slip out after this to go get a scan done for the show, and then also for the movie I’m doing after the show. Two scans in one day!” he said. “They have to put me in a computer and match my eye color and change – I don’t know. They’re just going to steal my body and do whatever they want with it via digital AI. God, I hope not AI. I’m terrified of that. I’ve been very vocal about it.”

The Ghost Rider star conveyed his unease and disquiet about the potential use of his likeness after his death.

“It is [really scary]. And it makes me wonder, you know, where will the truth of the artists end up?” he continued. “Is it going to be replaced? Is it going to be transmogrified? Where’s the heartbeat going to be? I mean, what are you going to do with my body and my face when I’m dead? I don’t want you to do anything with it!”

Cage had earlier described AI as “inhumane”, highlighting his fear about posthumous exploitation of an artist’s likeness. He cited the example of James Dean’s digital resurrection for a Vietnam movie, expressing that such actions might not respect the artist’s wishes.

“You know, they have someone [who] owns the rights to James Dean right now, and they could put him in a Vietnam movie, which is what they’re trying to do. And I’m sure he, from the beyond, would not be happy about it.”

The actor will next appear in the horror film Longlegs. Directed by Oz Perkins (Gretel & Hansel, I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House), the movie centers around FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) as she probes a series of murders linked to a Satanic killer known as Longlegs, played by Cage, set in the 1990s.

Longlegs is scheduled for release in the UK on Friday (12 July), coinciding with its wider US release. However, early screenings have already garnered significant praise for Perkins’ fourth feature.

Writing on X/Twitter, Matt Neglia, editor of Next Best Picture, called Longlegs “one of the best serial killer films in recent memory”, describing the movie as “psychologically scarring”, “sinister”, and an “unnerving descent into hell that will haunt your mind and soul”.

Source: The New Yorker, Associated Press, Next Best Picture