Emily Blunt is revealing how she was “terrified” to use AI in her upcoming film Disclosure Day, directed by Steven Spielberg, so she decided to find another way to pull off one of her character’s most unusual scenes.
On a recent episode of Hot Ones, Blunt appeared to promote Disclosure Day, which hits theaters June 12. In the film, she plays Margaret Fairchild, a TV meteorologist and former journalist who suddenly gains abilities after an encounter with non-human life. In one scene, Margaret has a major vocal change and begins speaking a non-human language during a live weather segment.
“It’s a four-minute oner that we shot that leads up to that moment where she’s gradually sort of disintegrating,” the Devil Wears Prada 2 actress said. “There’s various ways you could do it. You could go the AI route, which I’m a bit terrified of.”
So Blunt found another way to create the sounds her character required without relying on AI.
“I thought I could make some really strange sounds,” she continued. “I said maybe I could come in and we’ll just do a range of weird sounds. And it’s what we did. I did sort of the clicking sounds, I did sort of humming sounds, consonant sounds, breathing, strange sounds.”
There were also microphones placed around the set as needed to achieve their goal. “The sound designer went away and created that weird sound,” she added.
Disclosure Day explores what could happen if humanity had proof that we are not alone. In addition to Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, Colin Firth and Wyatt Russell star.
Earlier this week, the first wave of social media reactions from journalists and critics who attended preview screenings described Disclosure Day as one of Spielberg’s best films in years. The three-time Oscar winner is well known for his work in the sci-fi genre, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Super 8, War of the Worlds and Ready Player One.