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Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist has drawn attention not just for its awards-season success but also for its use of artificial intelligence in post-production. The film, which tells the story of a Hungarian refugee architect, features significant Hungarian-language dialogue, delivered by Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones—two actors who are not native speakers.
In a recent interview, the film’s editor Dávid Jancsó revealed that AI-assisted tools were used to refine their Hungarian pronunciation, a revelation that has sparked a debate over the role of technology in filmmaking.
Much of the backlash stems from concerns about AI replacing traditional creative labor in Hollywood, an issue that played a central role in last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes. Critics argue that an actor’s performance—including accent work—should remain untouched, and some have suggested that AI’s involvement should disqualify Brody’s awards recognition. One social media user stated bluntly, “They used AI in “The Brutalist” not only to avoid paying visual artists for their work but also to manipulate the actors’ accents, a fundamental aspect of… acting. This is a disgrace.”
However, both Corbet and Jancsó have pushed back against these claims, asserting that the AI tools were used only in a limited capacity and never to replace the actors’ performances. “Adrien and Felicity’s performances are completely their own,” Corbet stated. “They worked for months with dialect coach Tanera Marshall to perfect their accents. Innovative Respeecher technology was used in Hungarian language dialogue editing only, specifically to refine certain vowels and letters for accuracy. No English language was changed. This was a manual process, done by our sound team and Respeecher in post-production. The aim was to preserve the authenticity of Adrien and Felicity’s performances in another language, not to replace or alter them and done with the utmost respect for the craft.”
A Challenge That AI Helped Solve
For Hungarian speakers, the controversy raises a different question—is it even possible for an American actor to fully master Hungarian pronunciation? The language is widely considered one of the hardest for English speakers to learn, with vowel harmonies, consonant clusters, and stress patterns that differ significantly from Indo-European languages. Even actors dedicated to linguistic authenticity can struggle to perfect the finer nuances.
Jancsó, who is a native Hungarian speaker, explained that these challenges were precisely why the AI tool was used. “If you’re coming from the Anglo-Saxon world, certain sounds can be particularly hard to grasp,” he said. The AI adjustments were minor, affecting only small pronunciation details that would have been nearly impossible for non-native speakers to perfect within a typical production schedule.
For many Hungarian viewers, the result was impressive. Compared to past Hollywood productions that have included Hungarian dialogue, “The Brutalist”’s linguistic accuracy stands out as one of the best representations of the language on screen. While AI is often viewed as a threat to creative professions, this case demonstrates how it can be used to enhance authenticity, rather than replace human performance.
The Broader AI Debate in Filmmaking
The discussion over “The Brutalist”’s use of AI is part of a larger debate on the role of artificial intelligence in cinema. In addition to dialogue refinement, Jancsó confirmed that AI tools were also used to generate architectural sketches seen in the film’s final sequences. However, Corbet clarified that these AI-generated images were not used for primary production design, stating, “Judy Becker and her team did not use AI to create or render any of the buildings. All images were hand-drawn by artists. To clarify, in the memorial video featured in the background of a shot, our editorial team created pictures intentionally designed to look like poor digital renderings circa 1980.”
Despite these clarifications, the film’s use of AI continues to be a polarizing issue, with some seeing it as a slippery slope while others view it as an example of technology being used responsibly to solve real-world creative challenges.
Corbet remains firm in his stance that AI did not compromise the integrity of his film. “The Brutalist is a film about human complexity, and every aspect of its creation was driven by human effort, creativity, and collaboration. We are incredibly proud of our team and what they’ve accomplished here.”
