Back in 2023, Robin Williams’s daughter, Zelda, passionately spoke out against the “disturbing” idea of artificial intelligence being used to recreate her late dad’s voice, with the hugely beloved actor dying by suicide in 2014 at age 63.
Robin was famously very protective of the use of his voice work in life, and even feuded with Disney after they used his Aladdin character, the Genie, to sell merchandise. The feud was so dramatic that Robin didn’t return for the animated movie’s sequel, and Homer Simpson voice actor, Dan Castellaneta, was cast to replace him as the Genie instead. Robin did return for the third movie, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, two years later.
And Zelda advocated for her father in a statement that was issued in support of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild’s fight against AI two years ago. She wrote at the time: “I am not an impartial voice in the SAG’s fight against AI. I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/ recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad.”
And this is why people have been left so mad at Matthew Lawrence — who worked with Robin as a child star — after he recently doubled down on his wish to use AI to do “something really special” in Robin’s memory.
For reference, Matthew was 12 years old when he played Robin’s son Chris in the 1993 movie Mrs. Doubtfire. He was already a pretty established child actor by the time that he landed the role, but he has always been incredibly open about how influential working with Robin on this film was for him.
In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, Matthew shared: “I didn’t quite realize it at the time, but that moment there on set of Mrs. Doubtfire, that those six to eight months were the biggest learning curve anyone can get when it comes to making movies and being an entertainer.”
“And then on top of that, you get a chance to be around Robin Williams, and he takes an investment in you, as he does with people. But in particular, he really took an investment with me,” he went on. “He really quantified what it was to be a real artist for me in the sense that he was definitely, and I worked with some great people, and he was definitely the most brilliant artist I’ve ever worked with.”
And Matthew doubled down on his idea to use AI to bring Robin’s voice back to the masses during his appearance in Entertainment Weekly’s Comic-Con video suite on Friday — and it did not go down well with fans.
But this idea sparked instant criticism on social media, with one hugely viral tweet responding to Matthew’s quotes simply reading: “Tell him to fuck off.”
Others referenced Zelda’s past comments, with one person sharing a screenshot of a news article about her quotes and writing: “Yeah, I doubt Matthew Lawrence is going to get that permission…”
What do you make of Matthew’s comments? Let me know down below!
