Taika Waititi Says It’s “Probably Inevitable” AI Will Be Used in Hollywood But It’s “Boring and Lame” to “Type in Prompts to Make a Movie”

Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun, starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, was developed years before AI arrived in full force and the discussion about its potential permeated Hollywood. But at the film’s New York special screening on Monday, the team behind the movie told The Hollywood Reporter it’s a timely story that underscores the necessity of embracing our own humanity amid the rise of new technology and the power of human connection in and outside of the industry.

Ishiguro’s dystopian coming-of-age drama is set in a version of the future where people can “lift” their children, a process that genetically engineers them to have enhanced academic abilities. The drive to create more successful children also fuels an isolating society, leading to the development and creation of purchasable, solar-powered artificial intelligence known as Artificial Friends. Ortega portrays Klara, a slightly defective A.F. and the story’s narrator, brought home by Adams’ Chrissy for her daughter Josie (Mia Tharia), who has become sick since being lifted.

“What I love so much about this story, and why I wanted to do this story, is because yes, Klara is an Artificial Friend and she comes into this very broken, complicated family that really doesn’t communicate enough with one another. But by the end of the story, she allows them to appreciate one another’s flaws, to talk it out,” Ortega explained of her role. “In this very isolated, dark, weird, dystopian world, she brings them back to knowing love. And what has been so true in all these different centuries of being human, and at the core of everything, is that it is always about love, and it’s always going to be about love.”

For Waititi, who not only directed but also co-wrote the film with Dahvi Waller, he worked closely with Ishiguro on translating the popular novel for the screen.

“Right from the start, I talked to Ishiguro and said, ‘This is the kind of tone I’m looking for. This is the sort of thing I want to do,’ and he was so supportive. He said, ‘I don’t want you to do a faithful, super loyal adaptation of the book because that’s going to be boring. Every time someone tries to do that with my work, it doesn’t work out,’” Waititi said. “So he encouraged me to push it more in my direction.”

On Klara and the Sun, Waititi’s vision was informed by a history of telling stories led by younger protagonists, as well as his own life as a father. That helped him lean into what was on the page even when it diverged from it.

While there are many themes in Ishiguro’s novel, its most poignant touch upon the relationship between technology and humanity. Klara and the Sun is as much a conversation about how the development and use of technology, in particular ways, deteriorate Josie’s experience of being alive as it is about how robot friend Klara discovers the ways her own technology cannot and will not ever replicate the distinctly human experience.

“There’s this idea of being lifted and giving our children all of these advantages. But as it shows, there’s a great risk to that,” noted Adams. “In our story, the stakes are very heightened, but I think everything’s about the journey. This idea of chasing perfection, chasing achievement over chasing experience, is something that we have to examine.”

Ortega emphasized the message that sits at the heart of the book’s ending. “Artificial intelligence doesn’t feel love; it doesn’t know anything about it. It can be curious. It can try, but at the end of the day, it’s the people that we’re surrounded by that make life and living so special,” Ortega said.

When it comes to working on the film, its director, cast and studio leadership all underscored the power of human collaboration and creativity in bringing it to life. For Waititi, he “didn’t get into making film to sit by myself in a room and type in prompts to make a movie. That just seems so boring and lame to me. I want to interact with people.”

“You get spontaneity, and the mistakes and the things where you stumble through a performance, and you discover things through getting a line wrong or trying to fix up a line you’ve messed up. That’s what makes us so unique and so amazing: the ability to pivot and to use our mistakes to make something more interesting,” he continued. “I think robots are trained on all the successes and all the perfect stuff that humans have made. You’re not trained on the mistakes. There’s a big discussion about AI coming in: Will people use it? How much will they use it? I know it’s probably inevitable that we end up using it in our industry, but as long as it’s used by humans as a tool, as opposed to a replacement — I don’t want to replace humans. I want to work with them.”

Added Adams, “The point of this movie and the novel is that the best that certain technology like AI can do is reflect ourselves back to us. It’s our responsibility to take the opportunity to see the best in each other. If used correctly, advancements in technology can do amazing things. But if used incorrectly, it can separate us. We’re at that threshold, and I really hope we choose each other.”