Yahoo Lifestyle AI Was Nearly Used to Recreate the French Voice of Sylvester Stallone. Now, European Dubbers Are Doubling Down on the Need for Protection
A drama featuring Sylvester Stallone and France’s minister for gender equality, Aurore Bergé, is becoming a catalyst for a battle pitting Europe’s thriving dubbing industry against the existential threat of AI.
For 50 years, Bergé’s father, Alain Dorval, was known as the “Voix de Stallone.” From the 1970s onwards, French audiences identified Dorval’s baritone with Stallone in some 30 films, including the “Rocky” and “Rambo” franchises as well as the “Creed” and “The Expandables” movies.
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Now, after his passing in February 2024, plans announced in January by U.K.-based startup ElevenLabs to recreate Dorval’s voice using AI technology for the French release of Stallone’s heist thriller “Armor” on Amazon France next month are sparking controversy. Bergé has denied giving ElevenLabs permission to use or publish Dorval’s cloned voice, though she admitted to agreeing to a trial run.
“It definitely created an uproar,” says Jimmy Shuman, an American expat who is the general delegate of the French guild for actors and performers (SFA). He points out that Dorval “was an ardent opponent of using artificial intelligence to dub.” On top of that, the planned use of Dorval’s voice “struck us as a provocation,” Shuman adds, “because we are in the process of negotiating agreements on limits for artificial intelligence and dubbing.”
The attempt to clone Dorval’s voice marked the first instance of using AI technology for dubbing purposes in a major motion picture, according to a statement from ElevenLabs, which could not be reached for comment.
The prospect that AI is encroaching on the jobs of thousands of dubbing actors and on the quality of dubbed content is especially relevant in Europe, where actors like Dorval can become just as famous in their respective countries as the Hollywood stars to whom they lend their voices.
According to Business Research Insights, the global film dubbing market was worth $4.04 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach more than $7 billion by 2033. In a recent report, the firm notes that outside of Hollywood, “streaming services like Netflix now hold a significant portion of the market.”
Unsurprisingly, Italy, which according to a Netflix study ranks first among countries where people prefer to watch dubbed content, is at the forefront of the battle brewing between dubbing actors and the fast-growing global AI industrial complex.
“We are the only ones that so far have managed to insert an AI clause in our [collective] contract,” says Daniele Giuliani, the president of Italy’s national dubbers’ association ANAD who recently voiced Fear in the Italian dub of “Inside Out 2” and was the language’s dubbing director for “A Complete Unknown.” That AI clause basically says that when a voice actor is hired in Italy, their voice can only be used for that specific product. If a company intends to clone their voice with AI, they need to stipulate a separate contract.
Spain’s dubbers, however, were the first in Europe to draft an AI clause which they sent to the studios to start negotiations that are still ongoing. In January 2024, dubbers across the country agreed to “stop working for the distributors that didn’t offer the right protections in the assignments of rights we sign before working,” says voice actor Sara Gómez Alonso, who is the Spanish co-president of United Voice Actors, a global coalition of voice acting associations that have united to pursue their shared goals.
Alonso points out that “Italy in December managed to include a reference to an AI clause in their national contract, which was a great hit.” In Spain, instead, “We stopped signing. And this has forced distributors to come down from the heights and talk to us.”
Amid the ongoing battle between dubbers and AI companies, a separate – but related – controversy recently erupted, prompted by news that Ukrainian software company Respeecher was used in Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” to improve the authenticity of the Hungarian dialogue of stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, who are both Oscar-nominated for their roles.
Here is Alonso’s take on this thorny issue: “If Adam Brody’s voice was modified in order to sound more Hungarian – more realistic – how can he then be considered for an award for a job that he didn’t really do to the fullest because it was modified, enhanced with the technology?” she says.
Interestingly, for the Italian dub of “The Brutalist,” dubbing director Gianni Galassi hired a Hungarian consultant to help the Italian voice actors add a Hungarian inflection to their Italian when required by the original version.
Of course Hollywood is not immune to the various implications the use of AI can have on actors’ voices.
Los Angeles-based voice actor and activist Tim Friedlander, president of the National Association of Voice Actors, calls the “Voix de Stallone” case in France “a great example of our concerns over the lack of control that most of us currently have over our voice,” he says.
In the U.S., one of the things that makes this battle difficult, especially within organizations like SAG-AFTRA, is that “there are hundreds of different contracts,” Friedlander points out. SAG-AFTRA doesn’t have the ability to put in a blanket AI protection over all their contracts, “so each one of those [contracts] has to be negotiated with AI protections individually,” he continues. (SAG-AFTRA chief Duncan Crabtree-Ireland declined to be interviewed for this article.)
So, what’s the epilogue to the “Voix de Stallone” drama?
An Amazon spokesperson announced last week that Michel Vigné will voice Stallone’s role in France, meaning the danger of AI replacing feature film dubbers has been averted. At least for now.
“They are not quite there yet,” says Schuman, when asked about whether AI software is capable of transforming a Hollywood actors’ voice directly into French or Italian. But it’s just a matter of time “before they will be able to do that,” he cautions.
Be prepared. More dubbing drama coming soon.
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