A Look Behind the Technology That Brought Val Kilmer's Voice Back for TOP GUN: MAVERICK
Top Gun: Maverick came out this past weekend, and in what ended up being the biggest opening weekend of Tom Cruise’s career, we got a love letter to fans of the original movie in an incredible viewing experience. One aspect of the movie that stood out was the cameo from Val Kilmer, who reprised his role from the first film, as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky.
We had been told a while back that he would return, but fans knew it would be tricky as the actor has lost the ability to speak due to his throat cancer treatment in 2014.
The film ended up from Kilmer’s real life, with Iceman also having cancer and communicating through typing. Kilmer gets to say one brief line of dialogue, but his speaking voice was created by artificial intelligence. Kilmer announced in August 2021 that he had partnered with the company Sonantic to create an A.I.-powered speaking voice for himself. The actor supplied the company with hours of archival footage featuring his speaking voice that was then fed through the company’s algorithms and turned into a model.
John Flynn, CTO and cofounder of Sonantic, said in a statement to Forbes:
“In the end, we generated more than 40 different voice models and selected the best, highest-quality, most expressive one. Those new algorithms are now embedded into our voice engine, so future clients can automatically take advantage of them as well.”
Kilmer originally said in a statement about the A.I.:
“I’m grateful to the entire team at Sonantic who masterfully restored my voice in a way I’ve never imagined possible. As human beings, the ability to communicate is the core of our existence and the side effects from throat cancer have made it difficult for others to understand me. The chance to narrate my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar, is an incredibly special gift.”
Forbes reported:
“After cleaning up old audio recordings of Kilmer, [Sonantic] used a ‘voice engine’ to teach the voice model how to speak like Kilmer. The engine had around 10 times less data than it would have been given in a typical project, Sonantic said, and it wasn’t enough. The company then decided to come up with new algorithms that could produce a higher-quality voice model using the available data.”
They ended up with a really special scene between Maverick and Iceman. I’m so glad he was able to make it into the film, and this tech was able to assist in making it happen. Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters everywhere now.
via: Variety