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For most of her career, Natasha Lyonne has been regarded as one of Hollywood’s most universally likable stars — her quirky charms enabling her to steal scenes in both offbeat indie projects and big-budget mainstream fare.
But that began to change last month, when Lyonne announced her directorial debut, Uncanny Valley, a film that she says will rely heavily on the use of artificial intelligence.
The Hollywood veteran insisted that the film will only use “ethical” AI trained only on non-proprietary data.
However, the project continues to attract backlash, which Natasha probably should’ve anticipated, given the slew of legitimate concerns about this new technology.
Lyonne is still defending her decision, claiming that the criticism is overblown and audiences will better understand her intentions once they’ve seen the film.
But as is so often the case with PR disasters, the initial misstep has set off a chain reaction.
Now, like Katy Perry before her, Natasha is running damage control and seemingly making the situation worse with each new effort at regaining the public’s goodwill.
Natasha Lyonne claims David Lynch approved of AI use by filmmakers
In a new interview with Vulture, Lyonne reveals that she lived next door to legendary director David Lynch for several years.
Lynch passed away earlier this year, and Lyonne says he stamped generative AI with his seal of approval in one of their final conversations.
“Natasha, this is a pencil,” Lyonne quotes Lynch as saying. “Everyone has access to a pencil, and likewise, everyone with a phone will be using AI, if they aren’t already.
“It’s how you use the pencil. You see?” the iconic filmmaker allegedly concluded.
Lyonne’s remarks about Lynch were met with allegations of poor taste and calculated manipulation of the discourse surrounding AI.
Many called the veracity of the anecdote into question, noting that Lynch had long been skeptical about the impact of advanced technologies on the filmmaking process.
AI criticism snowballs into broader ‘is Natasha Lyonne annoying?’ debate
Again, Natasha’s current PR crisis is following a pattern we’ve seen many times before, in which one specific misstep serves as the catalyst to a more general conversation about a celebrity’s career, persona, and “whole deal.”
In this case, many have taken the AI debate as an opportunity to share long-simmering resentments about Natasha’s schtick in general — and her voice in particular.
“Natasha Lyonne should already be cancelled for doing that obviously fake voice all the time,” wrote one user.
“Natasha Lyonne sort of lost me when she started doing the exaggerated Peter Falk impression 24/7 but this, though not unbelievable, is tacky as hell,” another added (“this” being the claim about Lynch).
“I’m wondering why Natasha Lyonne sounds like a print journalist from the 1940s. She didn’t sound like that in American Pie,” a third chimed in.
We at The Hollywood Gossip remain firmly on Team Natasha, and we’re sure she’ll overcome this recent rough patch in her career.
But she might want to rethink that whole AI movie thing — that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
Natasha Lyonne Slammed For ‘Fake’ Voice, Claims About David Lynch Friendship was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.