Keanu Reeves has slammed deepfakes as "scary"
Like hundreds of other A-listers, the 'John Wick' actor, 58, is having his image used across the Internet in false clips - including 'Matrix'-themed porn videos - and fears the technology means actors lose their "agency" as it's happening without their permission
17 February 2023
He told the March issue of tech magazine WIRED when asked what he thought about 'Die Hard' actor Bruce Willis, 67, being deepfaked last year into Russian telecom commercials: "What's frustrating about that is you lose your agency. When you give a performance in a film, you know you're going to be edited, but you're participating in that.
"If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view.
That's scary. "It's going to be interesting to see how humans deal with these technologies."
Keanu added about the rise of machines in every aspect of life: "They're having such cultural, sociological impacts, and the species is being studied.
"There's so much 'data' on behaviours now. Technologies are finding places in our education, in our medicine, in our entertainment, in our politics, and how we war and how we work."
The actor spoke about tech in a new cover story for WIRED alongside stuntman and 'John Wick' franchise director Chad Stahelski, 54, about the upcoming fourth film in the hitman series.
The 'Point Break' actor said about the importance of still seeing films in cinemas: "It's dreams, right?
"And immersion. I think the power of cinema-part of it is its novelty, but also its scale.
"You see a close-up of a wonderful performance with emotions and storytelling that touch you. Whether it's horror or action or comedy, you're seeing a face that's, you know, 20 feet tall. Yeah. You're, like, there. The intimacy of that."
Read the full article 'Keanu Will Never Surrender to the Machines' by Angela Watercutter in WIRED's March issue, and on WIRED.com.
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