Roadrunnerdirector used audio deepfake to recreate Anthony Bourdain's voice in documentary

Filmmaker Morgan Neville says he had the blessing of Bourdain’s estate and literary agent.

Morgan Neville, the director ofRoadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, has revealed that he used A.I.

software to recreate the late chef and travel guru’s voice for parts of the new documentary.

(Bourdain died by suicide in 2018, at age 61.)

model" of Bourdain’s voice in multiple interviews published this week.

“We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.”

The bigger the quantity, the better the result.

We worked with four companies before settling on the best.

And they were like, Tony would have been cool with that.

I wasn’t putting words into his mouth.

I was just trying to make them come alive."

With the blessing of his estate and literary agent we used A.I.

The use of new technology to simulate deceased individuals on screen has been equally controversial in recent years.

Both incidents sparkedextensive debateover the ethicsofdepicting deceased actorsthrough CGI.

Roadrunnerwill be released in theaters July 16.

This article has been updated with a statement from Morgan Neville.