Oscars favorite The Brutalist stirs controversy after editor admits to using AI tools
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Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’ is considered a frontrunner to win Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. “I am a native Hungarian speaker and I know that it is one of the most difficult languages to learn to pronounce,” said Jancsó. “It’s an extremely unique language. We coached [Brody and Jones] and they did a fabulous job but we also wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference.”.
He said Respeecher was used as a last resort after several other methods of polishing the dialogue had been attempted. “If you’re coming from the Anglo-Saxon world certain sounds can be particularly hard to grasp,” continued Jancsó. “We first tried to ADR these harder elements with the actors. Then we tried to ADR them completely with other actors but that just didn’t work. So we looked for other options of how to enhance it.”.
Jancsó said they used the AI software to help blend his own speech with the actor’s performances. “Most of their Hungarian dialogue has a part of me talking in there,” he added. “We were very careful about keeping their performances. It’s mainly just replacing letters here and there. You can do this in ProTools yourself, but we had so much dialogue in Hungarian that we really needed to speed up the process otherwise we’d still be in post.”.
The Brutalist was one of the big winners at this year’s Golden Globes, winning Best Director, Best Male Actor (Drama) and Best Picture (Drama). After speculation mounted that the revelation could hurt the film’s chances at further awards ceremonies, including the Oscars this March, director Brady Corbet spoke out to defend the film.
