WandaVision actor says Disney scanned her face & body without permission

A WandaVision actor has spoken out against Disney, claiming the studio scanned her face and body without her permission before the actors strike brought the issue to light. 

On July 14, the US actors’ union SAG-AFTRA went on strike for the first time in decades, joining Hollywood’s writers on the picket line in a labor dispute against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

For actors, there are two main issues the union is aiming to address: fairer pay in the streaming era and major studios’ plans to use performers for one day, scan them, and then use artificial intelligence to generate digital performances for future projects – without pay or consent. 

If you thought this sounded too much like a Black Mirror episode, this is the reality facing actors in the tech-led era – just ask WandaVision star Alexandria Rubalcaba.

WandaVision actor says Disney scanned her face & body without permission

Alexandria Rubalcaba spoke with NPR about how she was one of a group of WandaVision background actors who claim their faces and bodies were scanned by Disney without their consent.

The company then created digital replicas of the actors, although Rubalcaba said they were never told how they will be used in the future – all they know is they won’t be getting paid if it is ever used, making her fearful that the plan is to “weed out background actors.”

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Explaining the process, Rubalcaba told the outlet that after four weeks of working on the Marvel show’s set, she and dozens of other background actors were sent to a tractor trailer and individually made to step in front of cameras set up on metal rigs behind glass. 

She was then instructed to: “Have your hands out. Have your hands in. Look this way. Look that way. Let us see your scared face. Let us see your surprised face.” 

As a background actor, Rubalcaba makes the SAG-AFTRA union rate of $187 a day, but when her digital avatar was created, she was not told how it would be used and there was no indication of payment. 

“​​What if I don’t want to be on MarioVision, or SarahVision?” she added. “I fear that AI is eventually going to weed out background actors. They won’t have any use for us anymore.”

NPR went on to outline a statement from SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who suggested some background performers have been offered just a day’s pay for their scanned imagery.

As per The Verge, he said: “This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want, with no consent and no compensation.”

However, the studios claim that they will only use the AI replicas on projects the performers have been booked for, rather than for countless future films and TV shows.

Whatever the case, it’s clear that Rubalcaba and her counterparts feel uneasy about the process, not least because of the apparent lack of transparency. Disney is yet to reply to NPR’s request for comment.

You can read more about the actors strike here and the writers strike here.