This AI Robot Just Nabbed the Lead Role in a Sci-Fi Movie (2024)

• For the first time ever, an AI robot will star in a feature film, per The Hollywood Reporter.
• A humanoid actress named Erica will appear in b, a sci-fi flick that eerily mirrors the android's own origin story.
• The roboticist who created Erica actually taught her method acting through one-on-one sessions.

Professional acting involves having some close encounters on set. Whether that means talking in tight quarters, rubbing shoulders, or sharing a kiss, none of these scenarios are safe amid the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Naturally, filming movies is extraordinarily difficult at the moment.

But that isn't stopping Hollywood from trying.

Say hello to Erica (seen above), a special kind of thespian who is immune to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. How's that? Because she's a humanoid robot. Erica will soon be the first artificially intelligent actor to take on the lead role in a film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Erica will star in the forthcoming sci-fi movie b, the $70 million story of a scientist who has come up with a program to "perfect" human DNA (a la eugenics), which glitches and becomes dangerous, according to THR. So the scientist must help Erica, the AI organism that he's created, escape the lab.

This story aligns with Erica's real-world origin tale. Japanese scientists Hiroshi Ishiguro and Kohei Ogawa designed the humanoid robot to study human-computer interaction. Ishiguro is so embedded in this stuff that he's even created an android of his own daughter in the past, which Alex Mar describes beautifully in a 2017 WIRED profile of his ingenious, yet haunting work.

For her performance in b, Ishiguro and Ogawa have taught Erica to act by applying method acting principles to artificial intelligence.

"In other methods of acting, actors involve their own life experiences in the role," Sam Khoze, a producer involved with the film, told THR. "But Erica has no life experiences. She was created from scratch to play the role. We had to simulate her motions and emotions through one-on-one sessions, such as controlling the speed of her movements, talking through her feelings and coaching character development and body language."

This isn't the first time Hollywood has gotten creative with its casting. Last year, MOI Worldwide and Image Engine announced they'll be using James Dean in Finding Jack, a live-action film about the Vietnam War. The twist, of course, is that James Dean has been dead for 65 years.

The visual effects wizards at those studios are recreating Dean using a technique called "full body" CGI, which means the team will use actual footage of the actor, including photos and video. A separate actor, still unnamed, will provide his voice. Finding Jack is supposed to come out this Veteran's Day, but it's unclear if COVID-19 has impacted that timeline.

You won't be able to see Erica's performance in b, meanwhile, until at least sometime in late 2021. Producers are still looking for a director and Erica's human co-stars, though Erica did complete some scenes in Japan back in 2019. The team behind the flick expects to finish shooting in Europe sometime in June 2021.