Tom Cruise defends human craft over AI at BAFTA London event
Tom Cruise turned a career interview in London into a defence of human filmmaking over artificial intelligence.
He was speaking at BAFTA: Life in Pictures, the British academy's long-running interview series with screen careers, where he reflected on his work in front of a live audience, according to Deadline. BAFTA brings together people working in film, games and television. The room applauded.
Host Edith Bowman asked him how AI will disrupt filmmaking. Cruise answered at length. He spoke for more than six minutes about craft, crews and the shared experience of watching a film in a theatre.
Cruise said a strong summer in cinemas pointed to what audiences want. He pointed in particular to young cinemagoers turning out, and said people want human experience rather than machine-made images.
He said he did not want to lose the craftspeople who spend careers making films. That includes the crews behind camera, in workshops, cutting rooms and projection booths whose work rarely makes headlines.
Cruise has raised the issue before. He pushed for protections around AI during the 2023 negotiations involving SAG-AFTRA, the American union for screen actors, according to Deadline.
The London event was staged ahead of Digger, his next film. It is scheduled for theatrical release on 2 October. Cruise said director Alejandro González Iñárritu read him the script over two nights before he agreed to take the part.
In Digger, Cruise plays oil baron Digger Rockwell. The character must try to stop an environmental catastrophe he helped cause.
For fans, this means a short wait. The BAFTA talk looked back over decades of stunts, sets and cinema crowds. The next test is only days away, when Digger reaches theatres.
