From tv series to reality shows: actress Annick Van Couwenberghe in conversation
Actress Annick Van Couwenberghe has pursued several projects. She starred in the hit TV series Vloglab #Stories and Billie vs. Benjamin. More recently, she participated in episodes of Move On, on air on Vtm Go, and tv series Dertigers, which aired on VRT1 and VRTMAX and whose online version has received millions of views.
What are your thoughts on the use of artificial intelligence in acting?
I want to make clear that I am absolutely not against AI in general. It has its use to make different practical tasks in business or in your personal life easier. Like making a quick summary of meeting notes or find the easiest way to travel to a certain spot. But I am absolutely against using AI for creative jobs, that’s exactly where you can’t do without the human element. So am I against using AI in acting ? Not completely. When you use AI to make a mass scene more impressive, fine. You don’t find the detailed and personal acting craft in those wide shot scenes. But using AI to create a character ? No way ! There will always be a difference in the quality of real life acting performances as to AI-actors. And that’s normal ! A human being reacts to the situation, makes on the spot choices that match with what his or her fellow actors give in that moment. An AI actor can’t do that, so you will always remark something “off” when you watch it. Choosing AI in a production to lower the costs might seem interesting beforehand, but the result will never draw an audience in like real life acting can. And I do believe there are still not enough rules concerning the use of AI. Human privacy rights, among others, are still not protected enough because the way AI works can’t even be explained by the people who created it yet ! They don’t know exactly how the process works to get the generated outcome ! So how can you establish rules and laws that are accurate when the core process of AI-generated content is not even clear ? I hope for two things. That the audiences will keep choosing the quality made movies and series with real life actors, as such making these productions generate more profit than the AI-made ones. That will decrease the advantages of making AI-content even though it’s initially cheaper. And secondly, I hope that the rules and laws around AI will keep evolving together with the growing knowledge around AI-generated-content so human rights can be safeguarded in a righteous ànd retroactive way. I know that last element is not easy but it’s not impossible…
Do you think that CGI or artificial intelligence could improve acting?
No, I don’t. CGI or AI is learning from us, human beings. So how can it be better than the original ? It can’t. In my opinion, you can’t improve acting by using AI. Like I said, on the contrary : you will always remark something “off” in AI-acting because the AI-generated actor does not “react” to real time impulses. Another question is if you could train human actors through AI. That’s something else. If you don’t have a scene partner to work with when you need to rehearse scenes, AI could definitely help there. If you could have the AI-scene partner say the lines or even be your reader when selftaping to audition. Then AI takes up it’s practical use again. In those situations it supports the human creativity in a practical way which I think is fine and what AI is ment for.
As a screenwriter, do you use AI in your work?
Is that a rethorical question ? Haha : No ! Definitely no and I never will. At least never when it comes to the writing process. We did use AI (most of the time I write together with a friend-screenwriter) to know what the budget could be for a certain idea we wanted to include in our story. To practically know, if we went with that idea, how much difference in budget a production company would have to be willing to spend. The answer didn’t influence our choice in the storyline, it influenced the budget-details in our pitch deck. But even when we are doing our research about certain storylines in our script, we just use the internet and look things up, instead of asking Chatgpt or other AI-generating tools.
What do you think of short films that have been made entirely with AI?
I know the storylines of AI generated short films are crap ! There are examples on Youtube. I sure hope the next generation will not go for training through AI. You see what a vicious circle that would be ? AI learned from us humans and the humans would want to learn from AI ? I think that’s even kinda creepy… As if nothing creative will ever be made again if you stay in that circle, only rehashing of what’s already known. I hope the next generation will use AI just for practical stuff, like I do. That’s what it’s ment for, to make your life easier. Not to be creative ! If you rely on AI to be creative, you are basically stealing the ideas of other people… It’s other people’s ideas that AI will lead you to, not to new and innovative ideas. They have to come from within the human creator. And I think it’s even more important for new upcoming directors to be around real life actors. A director needs to “get” what acting is about and how actors work. There is a certain vibe that you have to get into. In my opinion, AI can’t do that for you.
How do you envisage the future of acting in light of new technologies?
I honestly don’t know. This generation of actors still was educated without AI and the audience are not used (yet) to AI-performances. But what will happen if the next generation grows up with AI-generated content… They will get more and more used to that and maybe they will see the difference less then we do today. I truly hope that won’t be the case. I mean, we are living in our “Industrial Revolution” today and history learns that if society (politics ?) wants to lead us in a certain direction, it’s hard to turn that back. Strikes or no strikes. So, am I worried about the future of acting ? Yes ! I am. Entertainment evolves very quickly and the way of creating content does too. I hope our children and their children will still be able to enjoy the craft of real human performances and get the chance to put their full emotions into acting performances as well. I really do…
