Disney Created 'Digital Replicas' Of WandaVision Extras - And They'll Never Be Paid For It
Far be it from me, a lowly film journalist, to tell the most powerful and exorbitantly rich decisionmakers in all of Hollywood what to do. But I'd like to think I can speak for anyone with even a modicum of common sense that it's generally not great to deceptively compel hordes of background actors and extras into giving away the rights to using their likenesses however these studios see fit. That would remain true at the best of times, of course, but that ought to go double for a period when the industry knew that SAG-AFTRA (the guild representing the majority of working actors) would imminently have to negotiate a new deal with the studios, represented by the AMPTP.
Now, both the writers and actors have been forced into a two-pronged strike, where battle lines have been drawn over a host of issues. One of the most pressing involves the regulation of AI and other methods of digitally recreating performers, which studios would like to use so they won't actually have to compensate actors and extras.
With all that in mind, it couldn't possibly be a worse look for studios to have reports come out detailing such underhanded techniques in detail, like this latest one by NPR. According to the outlet, which spoke to numerous performers and other sources, Disney took dozens of background actors during filming of the streaming series "WandaVision" in 2020 and herded them into a trailer loaded with camera rigs. With no explanation, they proceeded to scan each actor's face and body for roughly "15 minutes each" in order to create digital replicas — presumably to help populate crowd scenes at a time when COVID social distancing protocols limited such activities on set. A similar technique was used to create crowd scenes and armies for Disney's "Mulan." But for everyone who had digital replicas created without proper consent, this has far more disturbing implications.
A troubling trend
You know, at some point during production of the show involving an AI brought to life against its will that proceeds to wreak havoc as a result of its own soullessness, someone at Disney should've considered the optics of creating digital likenesses of its background actors and asked themselves, "Are we the baddies?"
In a startling but not altogether shocking development, NPR reports the body-scanning that occurred during production of "WandaVision" — without Disney informing the actors of how or even when their likenesses would be used. Worst of all, none of the actors expect to be paid a cent beyond their original day rate if their digital likenesses are used. If this sounds familiar, this is basically the worst case scenario as spelled out by SAG-AFTRA union leaders on the very day they officially announced the strike. According to SAG's chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland at the time:
"...[The AMPTP] proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day's pay, and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want, with no consent and no compensation."
It's worth noting that the AMPTP denied the allegation in part, though acknowledged an interest in continued use of digital replicas. /Film's Bill Bria previously wrote about how Michael Crichton's film "Looker" predicted this exact scenario back in 1981, further proving the worth of writers, actors, and artists in general. The full NPR article is worth reading in full; it includes further reporting that other background actors had to sign non-disclosure agreements after submitting to such body scans. As writers and actors fight for their right to fair pay and continued work, the stakes have never been higher.