The actress explains how she avoided using AI during one of ‘Disclosure Day’s’ most complex sequences and opens up about her biggest fears on set.
Emily Blunt has sparked conversation after taking a firm stance on the growing role of artificial intelligence in filmmaking. The British actress admitted she feels “terrified” by AI and revealed that she consciously chose to avoid using it during one of the most pivotal scenes in ‘Disclosure Day’, the new science-fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg, due for release this June.
Speaking during a recent appearance on ‘Hot Ones’, Blunt explained that one of the film’s central sequences required something particularly unusual: portraying a Kansas City TV meteorologist who, while delivering a live weather broadcast, gradually becomes overtaken by a mysterious extraterrestrial force and begins communicating through a non-human language.
The actress revealed that the scene was filmed as an approximately four-minute continuous take and that several options existed for building the sound design behind the transformation. However, the technological approach did not sit comfortably with her. “There were different ways you could do it. You could go the AI route, which terrifies me a bit,” she admitted.
Rather than relying on digital tools, Emily Blunt opted for a much more practical and physical solution. The actress personally recorded strange vocalisations, breathing patterns, clicking sounds, distorted consonants and murmurs to create the alien language organically through performance.
“I thought maybe I could come into the studio and just record a range of weird sounds. And that’s exactly what we did,” she explained. According to Blunt, strategically placed microphones captured every vocal nuance, allowing the sound designer to later transform the recordings into something unsettling, immersive and deeply cinematic.
The project also marks another chapter in Steven Spielberg’s long-standing relationship with science fiction, a genre that has produced landmark films such as ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’, ‘Minority Report’, ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. Written alongside long-time collaborator David Koepp, ‘Disclosure Day’ explores an unsettling question: what would happen if humanity discovered, beyond all doubt, that we are not alone in the universe?
Elsewhere in the conversation, Blunt revealed that ‘Jaws’ remains her favourite Spielberg film because of the director’s unique ability to balance spectacle with emotional depth and humanity. She also recalled one of the most frightening filming experiences of her career: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’, where she spent scenes suspended high above the ground on wires. “It was probably the most terrified I’ve ever been in my career,” she admitted.
