Gal Gadot Says Hollywood Can’t Ignore AI: “You’re Going to Work With It or Be Out of the Game”
Gal Gadot is stepping directly into Hollywood’s messy AI debate with Bitcoin, an upcoming Doug Liman movie that uses artificial intelligence to create sets and lighting. Gadot admits the technology scares her, but she also believes ignoring it isn’t a realistic option anymore.
During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, Gadot discussed the unusual production while promoting her Prime Video action movie The Runner. She also explained the extensive legal protections she demanded before agreeing to work on a film where AI plays such a major role.
Bitcoin stars Gadot alongside Casey Affleck, Pete Davidson, and Isla Fisher. Rather than filming on elaborate physical sets, Liman shot the actors in a barebones space and plans to use AI for the environments and lighting.
Producer Ryan Kavanaugh has claimed the $70 million production saved more than $200 million by taking this approach. For Gadot, however, there was one major condition: AI couldn't touch her actual performance.
“This was the longest contract I have ever worked on,” Gadot said of the movie. “It was six months from my lawyers to go through every scenario we could think about as far as the AI component of it.
“I did not want AI to have anything to do with my performance. We had to protect that, to such an extent that SAG called my lawyers to ask for pointers to update the SAG contract to protect other actors. As far as the performances, it’s all me.”
Six months spent hammering out AI protections gives you a pretty good idea of how complicated this new territory has become for actors. Gadot isn't pretending she's completely comfortable with where the technology might lead, either.
“I am afraid of AI, but I am going to be afraid and look away? No. I am afraid but I am playing with it and learning it and trying to educate myself. The train has left the station.
“You’re going to work with it or be out of the game completely. I am trying to make the best of it and protect what I can protect. The AI component in this movie is for sets and the lighting. We had a broad crew and a lot of people were working on this movie.”
AI is being used to construct the world surrounding the actors, while the performances themselves remain human.
The stripped-down production also completely changed the rhythm of filming. With no conventional sets or lighting adjustments holding things up, Gadot compared the experience to theater, where the actors could simply keep performing.
“It felt like a pure art form of creating a movie,” she explained. “I haven’t seen a single shot. As an actress, I wait so much. There’s the legendary quote: ‘You are being paid to wait as an actor.’
“Here we would film nonstop because we didn’t have to wait for lighting. We would film on and on and on for 10 hours. It was amazing… as actors you’re always hot. You don’t cool off. We’ll see. It’s crazy.”
Whether audiences are cool with the finished experiment remains to be seen, especially with Hollywood still wrestling with how generative AI should be used.
But Bitcoin could provide an interesting test of what AI-assisted filmmaking actually looks like when the technology is restricted to production design and lighting rather than actors' performances.
The big question is whether Bitcoin's approach becomes an industry curiosity or a preview of how major movies will increasingly be made.
If a $70 million production can convincingly replace expensive physical sets and traditional lighting work with AI while contractually protecting the actors' performances, Hollywood studios are certainly going to pay attention.
We'll find out how well the experiment actually works once we see the finished movie.