Actor and entrepreneur Mark Wahlberg is open to an AI version of himself appearing in future movies, with his children or grandchildren helping decide what comes next.
“I would be interested because I think in the future, if that’s where things go, it would be cool that my children or my grandchildren could be in charge of my likeness and my image, and hopefully put me in some good movies,” Wahlberg said during a conversation at TechCrunch Disrupt.
That is an intriguing possibility, not an announcement that a digital Wahlberg has signed up for its next role. Asked by TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos whether he had visited Creative Artists Agency’s digital-replica facility, he said he had not, though he would consider the idea.
He pictured his children or grandchildren overseeing his image, rather than simply making it available for any project. The conversation did not announce a cloning agreement or a completed scan.
Wahlberg also drew a distinction between using AI to support a production and using it to replace the people making it. For a planned Pete Rose biographical movie in which he would play the baseball star, he said the team was discussing AI to enhance the stadium setting.
“But if you can use it to enhance what you’re doing, I’m all for that,” Wahlberg explained after saying he did not favor simply asking ChatGPT for a script and making it without real actors.
Related: Robin Williams’ Daughter Slams AI Recreations of Father: ‘Disturbing’
Wahlberg has appeared in big effects-driven movies, but he told TechCrunch that storytelling interested him more than effects for their own sake. For the baseball project, he described stadium work as a possibility the team was discussing, not a finished effect.
The facility Loizos asked about, theCAAvault, already has a documented history. In its May 2024 partnership announcement, technology company Veritone said it was helping CAA organize and store participating performers’ digital assets, including scans and voice recordings, in personal vaults.
In a separate 2024 TechCrunch interview about the service, CAA’s head of strategic development, Alexandra Shannon, explained that individual clients owned those assets and could decide whether to give others access. That earlier explanation describes the service’s approach; it does not establish that Wahlberg has enrolled or negotiated those terms.
Those distinctions matter for viewers as well as performers. An actor’s willingness to consider an authorized digital likeness is not permission for anyone to copy his voice, attach his face to an advertisement or make him appear to endorse a product.
Movieguide® has also explored ways parents can discuss AI-generated content with their children, including comparing generated images with real ones and looking closely at details. The point is to encourage questions about what appears on a screen, not to assume that recognizing a familiar face settles whether a clip is genuine.
For families, Wahlberg’s comments offer a useful conversation starter. Who made this image, who agreed to it and what is it asking us to believe? A digital performance presented honestly as entertainment is a different proposition from a clip passed off as something a person actually said or did.
Wahlberg’s position leaves room for technology while keeping actors and storytelling in the picture. Whether his own digital double ever gets a role remains an open question — and, in the future he described, one his family would help answer.
Read Next: Gene Wilder’s WILLY WONKA Returns to Screens
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
