Natasha Lyonne as a public figure is generally well-liked, but she did get backlash when it was reported that she was going to use AI to direct her first film.
Seeing that AI has become such a touchy topic online, Lyonne was met with a lot of backlash, to which she had some advice from Poker Face director Rian Johnson, who faced the wrath of the Star Wars fandom back in 2017 when The Last Jedi came out.
Talking to Variety, Johnson says that his advice to Lyonne was simple: ‘shut off the noise and just make things.’ Johnson says:
“… Any great art, during the process of making it, is going to seem like a terrible idea that will never work… Anything great is created in a bubble. If it weren’t, it would never make it past the gestation period.”
As for Lyonne’s project, she wants to clarify that it’s not a ‘generative AI movie’ and that AI will be used like a ‘tool’ for things like set extensions. There is also an emphasis that the material used for the AI will be copyright-cleared and ‘ethical’.
When it comes to backlash, it does feel like Lyonne is trying to take it easy. She says about being in the backlash hole, “I’ve never been inside of one of those before… It’s scary in there, if anyone’s wondering. It’s not fun when people say not nice things to you. It grows you up a bit.”
We don’t know when Lyonne’s movie is coming out, but you can catch her in Poker Face Season 2 now streaming on Peacock.
