James Earl Jones' Darth Vader Voice Lives On Through AI: Voice Actors React

James Earl Jones' Darth Vader voice lives on through AI. Voice actors see promise and peril in that

LOS ANGELES -- Over the course of an acting career that spanned more than six decades, James Earl Jones' voice became an indelible piece of his work as a performer. On screen, Jones, who died Monday at 93, brought to life a reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams" and a haughty king of a fictional land in "Coming To America." On stage, he won two Tony Awards for "The Great White Hope" and "Fences." His work as a voice actor -- the regal dignity of his portrayal of Mufasa in "The Lion King" and the menacing and deep timbre he lent to Darth Vader in "Star Wars" -- helped cement his place as a legendary actor among generations of fans. But in the wake of his death, an aspect of Jones' career has come to the fore: consenting to the use of artificial intelligence to replicate his performance as Darth Vader after he stepped away from the role. Skywalker Sound and the Ukrainian company Respeecher used AI to recreate Jones' villain for the 2022 show "Obi-Wan Kenobi" on Disney+. Mark Hamill's voice was also "de-aged" using Respeecher for his appearance as Luke Skywalker in "The Mandalorian." Voice actors say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent -- a concern that led video game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. To some, Jones' decision to allow AI to replicate his voice raises questions about voice acting as an art, but also potentially helps lay the ground work for transparent AI agreements that fairly compensate an actor for their performance with consent. Zeke Alton, a voice actor and member of SAG-AFTRA's interactive media agreement negotiating committee, said it's "amazing" that Jones was involved in the process of replicating his voice. "If the game companies, the movie companies, gave the consent, compensation transparency to every actor that they gave James Earl Jones, we wouldn't be on strike," Alton said. "It proves that they can do it. They just don't want to for people that they feel don't have the leverage to bargain for themselves." Hollywood's video game performers announced a work stoppage -- their second in a decade -- after more than 18 months of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with game industry giants broke down over artificial intelligence protections. Members of the union have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, the technology could provide studios with a means to displace them. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year's film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months. Jones, who overcame a childhood stutter, said in previous interviews that he was "happy to be able to talk at all, because there was time when I couldn't." His goal, he said, was for his voice to be clear. Speaking with The Associated Press in 1994, he said that he tried to make Darth Vader "more human and more interesting." But George Lucas, the filmmaker who created "Star Wars," advised him to "go back to a very narrow band of expression" because the mechanical parts of the villain's body would make it difficult for him to sound more human. Neither Skywalker Sound nor Respeecher responded to a request for comment. But a sound editor with Skywalker Sound told Vanity Fair that Jones signed off on the use of archival recordings to keep Darth Vader alive and that he guided Darth Vader's performance for the Disney+ show as "a benevolent godfather." Voice actor Brock Powell said that the ability to use an actor like Jones' voice in perpetuity could eliminate the need for actors who specialize in matching voices. That type of work provides steady jobs for many performers, they said, who can recreate a famous voice for video games, animated series and other types of media. "To quote 'Jurassic Park,' the scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to ask if we should," Powell said. That type of AI use could also reduce "ingenuity" in acting, they said, because new actors might not have the chance to come in and reinvigorate a role. Crispin Freeman, an actor who has done voice matching work replicating Orlando Bloom's voice in "Pirates of the Caribbean," said that the technology may take away voice matching roles, but doesn't harm "the ability of future artists to blaze their own trails" in new roles. "We always need to keep reinventing new stories as we're going forward, and not simply relying on the old stuff," he said. "Rather than worrying, 'Oh, will someone else be able to be Darth Vader,' why don't we make a new 'Star Wars' character that's as compelling as Darth Vader?" Jones' contract could set an example of properly bargaining with an actor over their likeness, said Sarah Elmaleh, chair of SAG-AFTRA's interactive negotiating committee. Elmaleh, a voice actor, said there is a chance for these tools to be used in "meaningful, smart artistic decisions." "I worry about a world where we conflate the superficial qualities of a person's voice with their performance," she said. "I can't help getting away from the metaphor that's baked into this character itself, which is, when you conflate the man with the machine, you become a tool for other forces, other powers that be." Alton, the voice actor, said he wonders about what the use of Jones' voice as Darth Vader would mean if it were used for another 100 years and people didn't remember "all of the different things that built him into the iconic character that he was." "It's just a disembodied voice at that point. It's part of the neutering of art that generative AI has the potential to do, and it's sort of a heady subject, but it's very important for us as a world to consider what we want our entertainment and our art to be in the future," he said. "Do we want it to be human, or do we want it to be bland?"

James Earl Jones' Darth Vader voice lives on through AI. Voice actors see promise and peril in that

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Over the course of an acting career that spanned more than six decades, James Earl Jones' voice became an indelible piece of his work as a performer. On screen, Jones, who died Monday at 93, brought to life a reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams" and a haughty king of a fictional land in "Coming To America." On stage, he won two Tony Awards for "The Great White Hope" and "Fences." His work as a voice actor -- the regal dignity of his portrayal of Mufasa in "The Lion King" and the menacing and deep timbre he lent to Darth Vader in "Star Wars" -- helped cement his place as a legendary actor among generations of fans. But in the wake of his death, an aspect of Jones' career has come to the fore: consenting to the use of artificial intelligence to replicate his performance as Darth Vader after he stepped away from the role. Skywalker Sound and the Ukrainian company Respeecher used AI to recreate Jones' villain for the 2022 show "Obi-Wan Kenobi" on Disney+. Mark Hamill's voice was also "de-aged" using Respeecher for his appearance as Luke Skywalker in "The Mandalorian." Voice actors say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent -- a concern that led video game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. To some, Jones' decision to allow AI to replicate his voice raises questions about voice acting as an art, but also potentially helps lay the ground work for transparent AI agreements that fairly compensate an actor for their performance with consent. Zeke Alton, a voice actor and member of SAG-AFTRA's interactive media agreement negotiating committee, said it's "amazing" that Jones was involved in the process of replicating his voice. "If the game companies, the movie companies, gave the consent, compensation transparency to every actor that they gave James Earl Jones, we wouldn't be on strike," Alton said. "It proves that they can do it. They just don't want to for people that they feel don't have the leverage to bargain for themselves." Hollywood's video game performers announced a work stoppage -- their second in a decade -- after more than 18 months of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with game industry giants broke down over artificial intelligence protections. Members of the union have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, the technology could provide studios with a means to displace them. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year's film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months. Jones, who overcame a childhood stutter, said in previous interviews that he was "happy to be able to talk at all, because there was time when I couldn't." His goal, he said, was for his voice to be clear. Speaking with The Associated Press in 1994, he said that he tried to make Darth Vader "more human and more interesting." But George Lucas, the filmmaker who created "Star Wars," advised him to "go back to a very narrow band of expression" because the mechanical parts of the villain's body would make it difficult for him to sound more human. Neither Skywalker Sound nor Respeecher responded to a request for comment. But a sound editor with Skywalker Sound told Vanity Fair that Jones signed off on the use of archival recordings to keep Darth Vader alive and that he guided Darth Vader's performance for the Disney+ show as "a benevolent godfather." Voice actor Brock Powell said that the ability to use an actor like Jones' voice in perpetuity could eliminate the need for actors who specialize in matching voices. That type of work provides steady jobs for many performers, they said, who can recreate a famous voice for video games, animated series and other types of media. "To quote 'Jurassic Park,' the scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to ask if we should," Powell said. That type of AI use could also reduce "ingenuity" in acting, they said, because new actors might not have the chance to come in and reinvigorate a role. Crispin Freeman, an actor who has done voice matching work replicating Orlando Bloom's voice in "Pirates of the Caribbean," said that the technology may take away voice matching roles, but doesn't harm "the ability of future artists to blaze their own trails" in new roles. "We always need to keep reinventing new stories as we're going forward, and not simply relying on the old stuff," he said. "Rather than worrying, 'Oh, will someone else be able to be Darth Vader,' why don't we make a new 'Star Wars' character that's as compelling as Darth Vader?" Jones' contract could set an example of properly bargaining with an actor over their likeness, said Sarah Elmaleh, chair of SAG-AFTRA's interactive negotiating committee. Elmaleh, a voice actor, said there is a chance for these tools to be used in "meaningful, smart artistic decisions." "I worry about a world where we conflate the superficial qualities of a person's voice with their performance," she said. "I can't help getting away from the metaphor that's baked into this character itself, which is, when you conflate the man with the machine, you become a tool for other forces, other powers that be." Alton, the voice actor, said he wonders about what the use of Jones' voice as Darth Vader would mean if it were used for another 100 years and people didn't remember "all of the different things that built him into the iconic character that he was." "It's just a disembodied voice at that point. It's part of the neutering of art that generative AI has the potential to do, and it's sort of a heady subject, but it's very important for us as a world to consider what we want our entertainment and our art to be in the future," he said. "Do we want it to be human, or do we want it to be bland?"

James Earl Jones' Darth Vader voice lives on through AI. Voice actors see promise and peril in that

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Over the course of an acting career that spanned more than six decades, James Earl Jones' voice became an indelible piece of his work as a performer. On screen, Jones, who died Monday at 93, brought to life a reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams" and a haughty king of a fictional land in "Coming To America." On stage, he won two Tony Awards for "The Great White Hope" and "Fences." His work as a voice actor -- the regal dignity of his portrayal of Mufasa in "The Lion King" and the menacing and deep timbre he lent to Darth Vader in "Star Wars" -- helped cement his place as a legendary actor among generations of fans. But in the wake of his death, an aspect of Jones' career has come to the fore: consenting to the use of artificial intelligence to replicate his performance as Darth Vader after he stepped away from the role. Skywalker Sound and the Ukrainian company Respeecher used AI to recreate Jones' villain for the 2022 show "Obi-Wan Kenobi" on Disney+. Mark Hamill's voice was also "de-aged" using Respeecher for his appearance as Luke Skywalker in "The Mandalorian." Voice actors say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent -- a concern that led video game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. To some, Jones' decision to allow AI to replicate his voice raises questions about voice acting as an art, but also potentially helps lay the ground work for transparent AI agreements that fairly compensate an actor for their performance with consent. Zeke Alton, a voice actor and member of SAG-AFTRA's interactive media agreement negotiating committee, said it's "amazing" that Jones was involved in the process of replicating his voice. "If the game companies, the movie companies, gave the consent, compensation transparency to every actor that they gave James Earl Jones, we wouldn't be on strike," Alton said. "It proves that they can do it. They just don't want to for people that they feel don't have the leverage to bargain for themselves." Hollywood's video game performers announced a work stoppage -- their second in a decade -- after more than 18 months of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with game industry giants broke down over artificial intelligence protections. Members of the union have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, the technology could provide studios with a means to displace them. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year's film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months. Jones, who overcame a childhood stutter, said in previous interviews that he was "happy to be able to talk at all, because there was time when I couldn't." His goal, he said, was for his voice to be clear. Speaking with The Associated Press in 1994, he said that he tried to make Darth Vader "more human and more interesting." But George Lucas, the filmmaker who created "Star Wars," advised him to "go back to a very narrow band of expression" because the mechanical parts of the villain's body would make it difficult for him to sound more human. Neither Skywalker Sound nor Respeecher responded to a request for comment. But a sound editor with Skywalker Sound told Vanity Fair that Jones signed off on the use of archival recordings to keep Darth Vader alive and that he guided Darth Vader's performance for the Disney+ show as "a benevolent godfather." Voice actor Brock Powell said that the ability to use an actor like Jones' voice in perpetuity could eliminate the need for actors who specialize in matching voices. That type of work provides steady jobs for many performers, they said, who can recreate a famous voice for video games, animated series and other types of media. "To quote 'Jurassic Park,' the scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to ask if we should," Powell said. That type of AI use could also reduce "ingenuity" in acting, they said, because new actors might not have the chance to come in and reinvigorate a role. Crispin Freeman, an actor who has done voice matching work replicating Orlando Bloom's voice in "Pirates of the Caribbean," said that the technology may take away voice matching roles, but doesn't harm "the ability of future artists to blaze their own trails" in new roles. "We always need to keep reinventing new stories as we're going forward, and not simply relying on the old stuff," he said. "Rather than worrying, 'Oh, will someone else be able to be Darth Vader,' why don't we make a new 'Star Wars' character that's as compelling as Darth Vader?" Jones' contract could set an example of properly bargaining with an actor over their likeness, said Sarah Elmaleh, chair of SAG-AFTRA's interactive negotiating committee. Elmaleh, a voice actor, said there is a chance for these tools to be used in "meaningful, smart artistic decisions." "I worry about a world where we conflate the superficial qualities of a person's voice with their performance," she said. "I can't help getting away from the metaphor that's baked into this character itself, which is, when you conflate the man with the machine, you become a tool for other forces, other powers that be." Alton, the voice actor, said he wonders about what the use of Jones' voice as Darth Vader would mean if it were used for another 100 years and people didn't remember "all of the different things that built him into the iconic character that he was." "It's just a disembodied voice at that point. It's part of the neutering of art that generative AI has the potential to do, and it's sort of a heady subject, but it's very important for us as a world to consider what we want our entertainment and our art to be in the future," he said. "Do we want it to be human, or do we want it to be bland?"

James Earl Jones' Darth Vader voice is alive in AI and voice actors aren't sure if that's a great idea

Over the course of an acting career that spanned more than six decades, James Earl Jones' voice became an indelible piece of his work as a performer. On screen, Jones, who died Monday at 93, brought to life a reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams" and a haughty king of a fictional land in "Coming To America." On stage, he won two Tony Awards for "The Great White Hope" and "Fences." His work as a voice actor -- the regal dignity of his portrayal of Mufasa in "The Lion King" and the menacing and deep timbre he lent to Darth Vader in "Star Wars" -- helped cement his place as a legendary actor among generations of fans. But in the wake of his death, an aspect of Jones' career has come to the fore: consenting to the use of artificial intelligence to replicate his performance as Darth Vader after he stepped away from the role. Skywalker Sound and the Ukrainian company Respeecher used AI to recreate Jones' villain for the 2022 show "Obi-Wan Kenobi" on Disney+. Mark Hamill's voice was also "de-aged" using Respeecher for his appearance as Luke Skywalker in "The Mandalorian." Voice actors say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent -- a concern that led video game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. To some, Jones' decision to allow AI to replicate his voice raises questions about voice acting as an art, but also potentially helps lay the ground work for transparent AI agreements that fairly compensate an actor for their performance with consent. Zeke Alton, a voice actor and member of SAG-AFTRA's interactive media agreement negotiating committee, said it's "amazing" that Jones was involved in the process of replicating his voice. "If the game companies, the movie companies, gave the consent, compensation transparency to every actor that they gave James Earl Jones, we wouldn't be on strike," Alton said. "It proves that they can do it. They just don't want to for people that they feel don't have the leverage to bargain for themselves." Hollywood's video game performers announced a work stoppage -- their second in a decade -- after more than 18 months of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with game industry giants broke down over artificial intelligence protections. Members of the union have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, the technology could provide studios with a means to displace them. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year's film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months. Jones, who overcame a childhood stutter, said in previous interviews that he was "happy to be able to talk at all, because there was time when I couldn't." His goal, he said, was for his voice to be clear. Speaking with The Associated Press in 1994, he said that he tried to make Darth Vader "more human and more interesting." But George Lucas, the filmmaker who created "Star Wars," advised him to "go back to a very narrow band of expression" because the mechanical parts of the villain's body would make it difficult for him to sound more human. Neither Skywalker Sound nor Respeecher responded to a request for comment. But a sound editor with Skywalker Sound told Vanity Fair that Jones signed off on the use of archival recordings to keep Darth Vader alive and that he guided Darth Vader's performance for the Disney+ show as "a benevolent godfather." Voice actor Brock Powell said that the ability to use an actor like Jones' voice in perpetuity could eliminate the need for actors who specialize in matching voices. That type of work provides steady jobs for many performers, they said, who can recreate a famous voice for video games, animated series and other types of media. "To quote 'Jurassic Park,' the scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to ask if we should," Powell said. That type of AI use could also reduce "ingenuity" in acting, they said, because new actors might not have the chance to come in and reinvigorate a role. Crispin Freeman, an actor who has done voice matching work replicating Orlando Bloom's voice in "Pirates of the Caribbean," said that the technology may take away voice matching roles, but doesn't harm "the ability of future artists to blaze their own trails" in new roles. "We always need to keep reinventing new stories as we're going forward, and not simply relying on the old stuff," he said. "Rather than worrying, 'Oh, will someone else be able to be Darth Vader,' why don't we make a new 'Star Wars' character that's as compelling as Darth Vader?" Jones' contract could set an example of properly bargaining with an actor over their likeness, said Sarah Elmaleh, chair of SAG-AFTRA's interactive negotiating committee. Elmaleh, a voice actor, said there is a chance for these tools to be used in "meaningful, smart artistic decisions." "I worry about a world where we conflate the superficial qualities of a person's voice with their performance," she said. "I can't help getting away from the metaphor that's baked into this character itself, which is, when you conflate the man with the machine, you become a tool for other forces, other powers that be." Alton, the voice actor, said he wonders about what the use of Jones' voice as Darth Vader would mean if it were used for another 100 years and people didn't remember "all of the different things that built him into the iconic character that he was." "It's just a disembodied voice at that point. It's part of the neutering of art that generative AI has the potential to do, and it's sort of a heady subject, but it's very important for us as a world to consider what we want our entertainment and our art to be in the future," he said. "Do we want it to be human, or do we want it to be bland?"

James Earl Jones' Darth Vader Voice Lives on Through AI. Voice Actors See Promise and Peril in That

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Over the course of an acting career that spanned more than six decades, James Earl Jones' voice became an indelible piece of his work as a performer. On screen, Jones, who died Monday at 93, brought to life a reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams" and a haughty king of a fictional land in "Coming To America." On stage, he won two Tony Awards for "The Great White Hope" and "Fences." His work as a voice actor -- the regal dignity of his portrayal of Mufasa in "The Lion King" and the menacing and deep timbre he lent to Darth Vader in "Star Wars" -- helped cement his place as a legendary actor among generations of fans. But in the wake of his death, an aspect of Jones' career has come to the fore: consenting to the use of artificial intelligence to replicate his performance as Darth Vader after he stepped away from the role. Skywalker Sound and the Ukrainian company Respeecher used AI to recreate Jones' villain for the 2022 show "Obi-Wan Kenobi" on Disney+. Mark Hamill's voice was also "de-aged" using Respeecher for his appearance as Luke Skywalker in "The Mandalorian." Voice actors say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent -- a concern that led video game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. To some, Jones' decision to allow AI to replicate his voice raises questions about voice acting as an art, but also potentially helps lay the ground work for transparent AI agreements that fairly compensate an actor for their performance with consent. Zeke Alton, a voice actor and member of SAG-AFTRA's interactive media agreement negotiating committee, said it's "amazing" that Jones was involved in the process of replicating his voice. "If the game companies, the movie companies, gave the consent, compensation transparency to every actor that they gave James Earl Jones, we wouldn't be on strike," Alton said. "It proves that they can do it. They just don't want to for people that they feel don't have the leverage to bargain for themselves." Hollywood's video game performers announced a work stoppage -- their second in a decade -- after more than 18 months of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with game industry giants broke down over artificial intelligence protections. Members of the union have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, the technology could provide studios with a means to displace them. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year's film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months. Jones, who overcame a childhood stutter, said in previous interviews that he was "happy to be able to talk at all, because there was time when I couldn't." His goal, he said, was for his voice to be clear. Speaking with The Associated Press in 1994, he said that he tried to make Darth Vader "more human and more interesting." But George Lucas, the filmmaker who created "Star Wars," advised him to "go back to a very narrow band of expression" because the mechanical parts of the villain's body would make it difficult for him to sound more human. Neither Skywalker Sound nor Respeecher responded to a request for comment. But a sound editor with Skywalker Sound told Vanity Fair that Jones signed off on the use of archival recordings to keep Darth Vader alive and that he guided Darth Vader's performance for the Disney+ show as "a benevolent godfather." Voice actor Brock Powell said that the ability to use an actor like Jones' voice in perpetuity could eliminate the need for actors who specialize in matching voices. That type of work provides steady jobs for many performers, they said, who can recreate a famous voice for video games, animated series and other types of media. "To quote 'Jurassic Park,' the scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to ask if we should," Powell said. That type of AI use could also reduce "ingenuity" in acting, they said, because new actors might not have the chance to come in and reinvigorate a role. Crispin Freeman, an actor who has done voice matching work replicating Orlando Bloom's voice in "Pirates of the Caribbean," said that the technology may take away voice matching roles, but doesn't harm "the ability of future artists to blaze their own trails" in new roles. "We always need to keep reinventing new stories as we're going forward, and not simply relying on the old stuff," he said. "Rather than worrying, 'Oh, will someone else be able to be Darth Vader,' why don't we make a new 'Star Wars' character that's as compelling as Darth Vader?" Jones' contract could set an example of properly bargaining with an actor over their likeness, said Sarah Elmaleh, chair of SAG-AFTRA's interactive negotiating committee. Elmaleh, a voice actor, said there is a chance for these tools to be used in "meaningful, smart artistic decisions." "I worry about a world where we conflate the superficial qualities of a person's voice with their performance," she said. "I can't help getting away from the metaphor that's baked into this character itself, which is, when you conflate the man with the machine, you become a tool for other forces, other powers that be." Alton, the voice actor, said he wonders about what the use of Jones' voice as Darth Vader would mean if it were used for another 100 years and people didn't remember "all of the different things that built him into the iconic character that he was." "It's just a disembodied voice at that point. It's part of the neutering of art that generative AI has the potential to do, and it's sort of a heady subject, but it's very important for us as a world to consider what we want our entertainment and our art to be in the future," he said. "Do we want it to be human, or do we want it to be bland?" Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

James Earl Jones' Darth Vader Has Already Been Immortalized With AI

James Earl Jones died Monday at the age of 93. But long before he did, he gave Lucasfilm permission to recreate his iconic Darth Vader voice for shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi. If anyone could make the Dark Side sound good, it was James Earl Jones. The actor, who died Monday at the age of 93, provided the voice for Darth Vader in more than a dozen Star Wars properties, from A New Hope to Star Tours. He made the Force sound ominous in a way that made it appealing. With his passing, it feels as though all the power and gravitas and respect he brought to the character is gone. It's not. It's in the hands of AI. A few years ago, when Jones provided a few lines of dialog as Vader for The Rise of Skywalker, he'd expressed interest in wrapping up his time as the Sith Lord, according to Vanity Fair. Lucasfilm, in need of a way to continue the character -- and particular to continue having a version of the character's voice as it sounded in those early Star Wars movies -- turned to a Ukrainian company called Respeecher that used artificial intelligence to make a recreation of the Vader voice based on Jones' past performances. (The actor signed off on the use of his archive to train the speech model.) Ultimately, Respeecher's work, completed amidst Russia's invasion of Ukraine, ended up in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and what, if any, Vader performance that comes in the future could now depend on its AI. (Reps for Respeecher and Lucasfilm did not immediately return emails seeking comment.) Jones' passing marks a pivotal moment in the future of AI-generated performances. During last year's prolonged Hollywood actors' strike, one of the biggest sticking points between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, and the studios was whether or not studios needed to secure permissions to use a past performance to train AI models. Ultimately, SAG won guardrails around the use of AI in recreating performances. Now the question is: How will those play out with Darth Vader? It's a particularly interesting question when it comes to voice acting specifically. The full recreation of vocals may feel further along than the full recreation of whole performances, but they also feel more poignant. When Paul McCartney used AI to help fashion a Beatles song from tapes made when the Fab Four were still alive, the results felt haunted. When OpenAI released a demo of its voice assistant Sky and Scarlett Johansson believed it sounded much like the voice she used in Her, she was "shocked, angered, and in disbelief" that the company "would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine." OpenAI denied she was the inspiration, but paused the demo. Video game voice actors are on strike right now to get protections for their vocal performances. Voices, it seems, are currently at their highest value. Ultimately, what will now happen to the Darth Vader voice is not really a question of rights -- Jones gave permission -- but rather one of emotion. Will Lucasfilm, or its parent company Disney, want to produce future Star Wars shows or movies featuring AI Vader following Jones' death? Will people respond positively to them? With a character as iconic as Vader, should there be a point at which fans let go? From Audrey Hepburn selling Dove chocolates to hologram Tupac, posthumous performances have been a part of pop culture for years. But unlike Audrey and Pac, Jones is in on the plan; he is seemingly the first celebrity to have allowed his iconic presence to be recreated with AI before his passing. What will likely decide how well AI Vader goes over is how it's handled. A Darth Vader feature film may not be as warmly received as, say, a Force ghost cameo or a flashback. It'll be a test to see how welcomed the character will be now that the man behind it is gone.

How James Earl Jones became the voice of Darth Vader - for ever

The late actor described his role in Star Wars as 'just a special effect'. But thanks to AI, he'll be playing it for decades to come In 1976, George Lucas was a filmmaker in search of a voice. He'd just returned to Hollywood from Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, where the fledgling director had worked miracles shooting a rickety space opera on a minuscule budget. But while the filming of Star Wars had gone as smoothly as could be expected, Lucas had concerns about the project's mega-villain, Darth Vader - particularly the yeasty Bristol accent that had led co-star Carrie Fisher to dub the character "Darth Farmer". Farmer/Vader was played by 6ft 6in former strongman David Prowse, who thought his voice would be included in the final cut. Lucas, however, knew a rustic Darth Lord of the Sith wouldn't cut it and decided Prowse's rural burr was for the snip. But who could he hire to overdub Darth Vader's menacing monologues? With time running out - the release date of Star Wars had already been pushed back from Christmas 1976 to May 1977 - he had narrowed his options to two. One was a Hollywood icon whose rich, languid voice was familiar to millions. The other was a Michigan farm boy who had experienced a childhood stutter so severe he gave up speaking altogether for several years. Aptly for a movie about another underdog farmboy - the soon-to-be-famous Luke Skywalker - Lucas gave the job to the latter. Today, James Earl Jones is synonymous with Darth Vader. The actor, who died at age 93, imbued in the fallen Jedi Knight a wonderfully pantomime quality. He was a baddie you wanted to boo but whom you could never quite bring yourself to hate. Yet Jones almost missed out on the job entirely, with Lucas seriously considering hiring Citizen Kane director Orson Wells instead - all while Prowse, back in London, thought he was going to be both the vocal and physical embodiment of Vader. Prowse, Welles, Jones - this bizarre dub triangle understandably gave Lucas a Death Star-sized headache. Prowse would never have worked, and his exclusion led to a breakdown in his relationship with his director that, decades later, resulted in Lucas barring him from official Star Wars fan events. Lucas was, however, genuinely torn between Welles and Earl-Jones. The idea of a movie-making icon such as Welles slipping into a recording booth to blather on about "The Force" and "Rebel Spies" might seem absurd today. What next - Stanley Kubrick playing a Cylon in Battlestar: Galactica? Richard Attenborough...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle? But in the Seventies, Welles's glory days were a long way behind and he was living from paycheque to paycheque in the hope of financing his passion project, The Other Side of The Wind (posthumously released by Netflix in 2018). At this point, he was taking any job going. He was the voice of Paul Masson California Wine, Findus Frozen Peas, and the Cadillac Eldorado. He wasn't above science fiction either, and in 1986, would play the planet-sized robot Unicron in the original animated Transformers movie. In other words, he was available. Lucas reached out, and, according to Jones, the two directors met and discussed Darth Vader. Nobody knows how that summit went, but Lucas later suggested that the gig was Jones's to lose. "I knew the voice had to be very, very special," Lucas said at an event honouring Jones's contribution to acting. "It was really a choice between Orson Welles and James Earl Jones. James Earl Jones won hands down." Jones later suggested that Lucas wanted a voice that sounded 'darker" than Welles' plummy tones. So they "hired a guy born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, and stutters". The fact that Jones was willing to do the job for just $7000 may also have been a factor - it's difficult to imagine a hard-up grandee such as Welles working for such a sum. James Earl Jones approached Darth Vader as simply another gig - if even that. He requested that his name be omitted from the Star Wars credits because he was "just a special effect". Little could he have guessed that Vader would follow him throughout his career. It would do see even after he had retired. Jones last voiced Vader in a cameo in The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. But while he was done with Darth Vader, Star Wars was not finished with him, and in 2022, he agreed to allow his voice to be "cloned" by a Ukrainian AI company so that it could be used in the Disney prequel series Obi-Wan Kenobi. The process of breathing digital life into Jones's voice proved unexpectedly fraught - not least because Russia invaded Ukraine late in production, and the developers found themselves fine-tuning Darth Vader as missiles thundered overhead. Fortunately, they got the project over the line with Jones helping as a consultant - a sort of "benevolent godfather," according to supervising sound editor Matthew Wood. He wasn't the first Star Wars actor to be digitally recreated by Disney. The same Ukrainian developer had used AI to recreate the voice of a young Luke Skywalker for The Mandalorian. But while "AI" Darth Vader had the actor's blessing, the issue of digital recreation of actors' voices is still a fraught one - especially when the original performer has passed. There were misgivings over the "cameo" by the late Ian Holm in the new Alien: Romulus sequel (Ridley Scott, who directed Holm in the original Alien, said the actor would have been delighted to return to the franchise). Most notorious was the appearance in the 2016 Star Wars spin-off Rogue One, a digital likeness of Moff Tarkin actor Peter Cushing, who died in 1994 when computers were still coming out of the Stone Age. Cushing's estate consented to his appearance in Rogue One. But the use of his image is now the subject of legal action. Disney is being sued by Tyburn Film Productions, a London-based film company that says it signed a contract with the actor, giving it a veto over the creation of his image using special effects. Disney contends it has the right to use Cushing's image from the original 1977 movie. The case is to go to court, and the judgement will have implications for the use of the CGI likeness of dead actors. However, this will not have much impact on the future appearance of Darth Vader. Jones was happy to have his voice conjured by AI and was always appreciative of Star Wars and its fanbase - and more than willing to recite such iconic Vader-isms as "No, I am your father". He has now left us, but Darth Vader will remain a beloved villain for decades to come.

Why James Earl Jones will continue to voice Darth Vader despite death | World News - Times of India

Obi-Wan Kenobi isn't a particularly great show, more so since that one of the greatest Jedi Knights of all time keeps getting bested by random Stormtroopers but one of the highlights of the show was Darth Vader sounding exactly like James Earl Jones did in the 80s. It later turned out that Jones had signed over the rights to his archival voice work to Lucasfilm, and his voice work in Obi-Wan Kenobi was possible due to an AI startup called Respeecher.This means, that even after he became one with the Force, his iconic voice will reverberate through eternity, even when humanity has taken over other planets and Disney is still making Star Wars movies. Prior to his death, Jones made arrangements to ensure that his voice would endure in future Star Wars projects. According to a report from Vanity Fair (via Deadline), Jones had signed over the rights to his archival voice work, allowing the Ukrainian startup Respeecher to use AI technology to recreate his voice for future appearances of Darth Vader, including in Disney Plus' Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan - Obi-Wan vs Darth Vader - (HDR - 4K - 5.1) Respeecher uses sound bites to "clone" an actor's voice, enabling studios to record new lines without the actor being present. Matthew Wood, Skywalker Sound's supervising sound editor, revealed that Jones had expressed his wish to step away from the role, and he was presented with the option of using AI to preserve his voice. With Jones' approval, Lucasfilm tasked Respeecher with recreating the familiar sound of Darth Vader, mimicking the villain's voice from 45 years ago for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Audiences will notice that Vader's voice in Obi-Wan sounds much like it did in the earlier films, a deliberate choice made possible by Jones' foresight. Although AI will now be used to continue Darth Vader's voice, Jones had still played the role of a "benevolent godfather" during his lifetime, guiding the studio in their depiction of the character. This collaboration with Respeecher wasn't the first for Lucasfilm, as the startup also recreated the younger voice of Luke Skywalker in Disney Plus' The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Respeecher used clips from Mark Hamill's early radio broadcasts, interviews, ADRs, and dubs to digitally recreate Skywalker's voice, showcasing the potential of AI technology to preserve iconic voices for future generations. As AI speech synthesis tools like Respeecher, Voicemod, Veritone, and others continue to advance, the practice of digitally recreating voices may become more common among celebrities. For Jones, this technology allows his legendary portrayal of Darth Vader to continue captivating audiences, preserving the voice of one of the most iconic villains in film history, even after his passing. At TOI World Desk, our dedicated team of seasoned journalists and passionate writers tirelessly sifts through the vast tapestry of global events to bring you the latest news and diverse perspectives round the clock. With an unwavering commitment to accuracy, depth, and timeliness, we strive to keep you informed about the ever-evolving world, delivering a nuanced understanding of international affairs to our readers. Join us on a journey across continents as we unravel the stories that shape our interconnected world.

James Earl Jones has died - but as the voice of Darth Vader, he will live forever

Swinburne University of Technology provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. It is difficult to imagine a world of pop culture villains without Darth Vader. The masked and cloaked figure now casts perhaps the longest shadow of any film character on popular culture. When Vader first appeared on screen in 1977, audiences recognised something elemental, and reportedly did something that hadn't been done since the days of Vaudeville and silent cinema: instinctively, they hissed. One look at Vader and you recognise a cinematic villain. Beyond the visual, every element of Vader builds the perfect bad guy. There's that voice, provided by James Earl Jones, who died today at age 93. There are the lines - "I am your father". Then there's that theme tune by John Williams, a piece of music so well loved that it's often forgotten that it wasn't written until the second Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. George Lucas created Darth Vader in the earliest drafts of the original Star Wars script, after completing American Graffiti in the early 1970s, describing him as a "a tall, grim-looking general". Lucas was inspired by comic books and the serial shorts of the 1940s like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. When it came time to film Star Wars, Lucas hired an English bodybuilder and strongman, David Prowse, to fill out the suit. Yet Prowse spoke with a strong Devonshire accent, earning him the nickname "Darth Farmer" on set. Lucas searched for a replacement voice to be dubbed over Prowse, and, after asking Orson Welles finally settled on the profoundly sonorous James Earl Jones. Prowse, who had hoped to voice the lines himself like Anthony Daniels had for C-3PO, had a strained relationship with Lucas from that moment on, and when Vader was unmasked at the end of Return of the Jedi in 1983, it was English stage actor Sebastian Shaw who appeared to deliver the character's final lines. Vader's mythos Vader has always been a composite character. Despite being one of the most famous parents in the galaxy, he has many different creators. Lucas, Prowse and Jones are joined by Williams, but also Ralph McQuarrie, the concept artist whose dramatic images defined the character, and Ben Burtt, the sound designer whose breathing through a scuba mask you hear whenever Vader is on screen. Vader's mythos has also been built over the years through actor Hayden Christensen's appearances in the prequel films and recent Disney+ series. In popular culture, Vader has become a useful shorthand to describe everything from being a bad dad to a political villain. When Ronald Reagan proposed his Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed "Star Wars" by the press, newspapers ran cartoons of him as Vader. Dick Cheney called himself the "Darth Vader of the Bush administration," defiantly wearing the villainous mantle. Here in Australia, then-Federal Minister Christopher Pyne went up against Vader as the Empire's chief fixer. The voice lives on That James Earl Jones was the only black actor in the original Star Wars film was not lost on viewers at the time. Astronomer Carl Sagan criticised Star Wars on the Johnny Carson show in 1978: they're all white [...] not even all the colours represented on the Earth are present, much less greens and blues and purples and oranges. More recently, Melissa Harris Perry observed that Vader is voiced by a black man while villainous, but portrayed by a white man when redeemed. Jones' passing marks the end of an era for Vader as a character. Yet death has always been as central to the Star Wars franchise as its impermanence. After all, Ben Kenobi's death in the very first Star Wars film has not stopped the character from appearing in almost every subsequent film and gaining his own spin-off TV series. "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine," he says to Vader. Then there's Han Solo, whose character was killed off in The Force Awakens in 2015 before getting a dedicated film, Solo, just two years later. So it may be with James Earl Jones and Vader. In 2022, fans were surprised to hear the ageing Jones appear as the voice of Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. It was later revealed Jones had signed over the rights to his archival voice work to Lucasfilm, and his performance had been created from that work using AI startup Respeecher, opening the possibility of infinite future appearances. Voiced by Jones or not, it is clear Vader has become one of popular culture's most enduring villains. We will certainly hear more from him in the future - even if he is more machine now than man.