Jamie Lee Curtis recently found herself battling an imposter-her own digitally cloned likeness hawking dental products she’d never endorsed. On May 12, 2025, after exhausting official channels, Curtis publicly appealed to Mark Zuckerberg on Instagram about an unauthorized AI advertisement that repurposed footage from her MSNBC interview about Los Angeles wildfires. This wasn’t just another celebrity inconvenience; it represented something far more troubling: the front line of Hollywood’s growing identity crisis as artificial intelligence increasingly blurs the lines between authentic performance and technological fabrication.
The entertainment industry now faces similar trust and authenticity challenges as online casinos that pay real money, where consumers must carefully verify legitimacy before engaging. Just as players must distinguish between authentic gaming platforms and fraudulent imitators, audiences increasingly need tools to differentiate between genuine celebrity content and sophisticated AI forgeries.
When we watch a film or see a celebrity endorsement, we’re entering into an unspoken contract of authenticity-one that AI manipulations fundamentally undermine. Hollywood’s struggle feels particularly acute because what’s being replicated isn’t just digital assets but creative expression itself-the very soul of artistic endeavor that has defined cinema since its inception. The question becomes: when does technological enhancement cross over into outright deception?
The Celebrity Deepfake Dilemma
Curtis isn’t navigating these murky waters alone. In her public plea, she mentioned fellow actors Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, and Drake have encountered similar AI impersonation challenges. Their collective experience highlights a troubling reality: as AI technology becomes more sophisticated and accessible, the barrier between genuine celebrity expression and convincing forgery grows increasingly thin.
What’s particularly concerning is the speed at which these technologies have evolved.
Five years ago, most deepfakes were relatively easy to spot. Today? The forgeries that prompted Curtis’s protest were convincing enough to fool thousands of viewers. Meta eventually confirmed the advertisements violated their policies and removed them-but only after significant public pressure.
The absence of comprehensive regulation means celebrities often find themselves playing digital whack-a-mole with their own images. Once one forgery is taken down, another pops up elsewhere. It’s a strange moment in entertainment history when actors find themselves competing not just with other performers but with unauthorized algorithmic versions of themselves.
And the Oscar Goes to…
Perhaps even more complex are cases where AI enhancement receives critical acclaim. Both Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez” and A24’s “The Brutalist“-which collectively amassed an astounding 230 awards-sparked heated debate after revealing their use of AI voice technology from a company called Respeecher.
“Emilia Pérez” employed AI to blend lead actor Karla Sofía Gascón’s voice with that of Camille, a French singer who co-wrote the film’s music. Meanwhile, “The Brutalist” enhanced the Hungarian dialect spoken by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones after traditional dialogue replacement proved ineffective.
During the 97th Academy Awards, these technological interventions prompted a fundamental question: Should performances enhanced by AI qualify for acting awards? Critics argued such practices “diminish the authenticity of a film and open the door to unregulated and unrestricted use of AI” in filmmaking.
The controversy strikes at the heart of what we value in performance. When we applaud an actor’s work, what exactly are we celebrating-their raw talent, their collaboration with technology, or some new hybrid form of creativity that requires us to redefine artistic achievement altogether?
When AI goes to Trial
The courts have begun weighing in on these thorny questions. In 2024, Bollywood singer Arijit Singh won a landmark case against Codible Ventures LLP for using AI to clone his voice without permission.
The Bombay High Court ruling established that “making AI tools available that enable the conversion of any voice into that of a celebrity without permission constitutes a violation of the celebrity’s personality rights.” Justice R.I. Chagla’s decision-the first Indian ruling addressing generative AI tools in music-emphasized that a celebrity’s voice forms “a key component of their personal identity and public persona.”
What struck me about this case was Justice Chagla’s observation about performers being particularly “vulnerable to being targeted by unauthorized generative AI content.” It pinpoints why these controversies feel so unsettling-they target not just intellectual property but personal identity itself.
The Human Touch
Behind these individual controversies lurks a deeper existential question: what makes a performance meaningful? Is it the raw human emotion, the technical excellence, or something more ineffable that no algorithm can capture?
The industry finds itself at a crossroads, attempting to harness AI’s incredible potential without sacrificing the human connection that makes stories worth telling in the first place. It’s not simply about resisting technological change-that battle was lost long ago. Rather, it’s about finding thoughtful frameworks that allow innovation while respecting creative boundaries.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this technological shift is that we’re writing the rules as we go. There’s no established playbook for determining when AI enhancement crosses ethical lines or diminishes artistic achievement.
What seems increasingly clear is that transparency will be crucial going forward. Audiences deserve to know when they’re watching performances enhanced by AI, just as we expect to know when stunts are performed by doubles or scenes rely heavily on special effects.
The entertainment we love has always been a beautiful illusion. But there’s a world of difference between being transported by master storytellers and being deceived by algorithms. As Hollywood continues navigating these uncharted waters, finding that distinction might be its most important plot twist yet.
