Is This ‘Beau Is Afraid’ Character a De-Aged Joaquin Phoenix? Why AI Has Some Viewers Asking Which Film Actors Are Real

Armen Nahapetian wants the world to know: Im not AI. The 16-year-old actor is gaining notice, but not only for playing a teenage version of Joaquin Phoenixs titular worrywart in Ari Asters epic dark comedy Beau Is Afraid. He added the disclaimer to his Instagram bio because people keep thinking hes not a real person, but instead a digitally de-aged Phoenix.

I went to the movie theater a few weeks ago, and one of the employees was pointing at the poster saying, Oh, my God, youre real! Nahapetian recalls, speaking with Variety.

The main poster art features four versions of Beau, all posing in shimmering gray satin pajamas. Theres a Phoenix wearing a farmers hat, a Phoenix sporting male pattern baldness, a Phoenix buried under wrinkles and a smooth-faced Nahapetian. The theater employees confusion may seem absurd, but the reasoning makes sense: Here are three Joaquin Phoenixes; by inference, the fourth must be one too, right?

The poster art for Beau Is Afraid Courtesy Everett Collection The Beau mix-up goes beyond the key art. Photographs of Nahapetian at the films premiere dumbfounded a fair number of social media users, who had also mistaken the actor for a de-aged Phoenix after watching the trailer.

The confusion can be interpreted as a symptom of audiences now expecting actors to be digitally transformed in the media they watch. Once cutting-edge tech, such effects have become a reular ingredient in the publics media diet, appearing in practically every Marvel project and even modestly budgeted films like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Scream VI.

Advancements in generative AI have automated many steps in visual effects work, and these programs are becoming more accessible. Cristbal Valenzuela, CEO of AI research company Runway, told Variety in February that AI tools are being employed on productions that wouldnt have looked to them a few years ago, such as indie Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once and even Stephen Colberts The Late Show.

Everyone is going to be able to make the films and the blockbusters that only a handful of people were able to, Valenzuela said.

Trailers for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny tout a locomotive set-piece featuring a digitally de-aged Harrison Ford. To achieve the effect, Lucasfilm fed reference footage into an AI program, making the 80-year-old actor resemble his 38-year-old self in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Eight years ago, another film tapped moviegoers collective memories of Ford. The Age of Adaline, starring Blake Lively as a woman who doesnt grow old, cast Anthony Ingruber for flashback sequences of Fords character. Ingruber was hired after going viral for his uncanny impression of Han Solo. If the film were conceived today, would producers consider employing de-aging effects instead?

Anthony Ingruber and Blake Lively in The Age of Adaline Lionsgate/courtesy Everett Collecti / Everett Collection These digital alterations have a latent impact on audiences relationship with stars. From the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park to the neon netherworld of Tron, CGI has produced spectacles outside of reality since its first integration into moviemaking. Now, visual effects can alter performers too, to both subtle and dramatic degrees. Add to that the encroachment of increasingly undetectable deep-fake videos and voice clones that proliferate on social media. Such developments forecast a dilemma: What is the value of an actor when a viewer cannot accurately discern if that is one on-screen?

As strange as Nahapetians situation may seem, it could certainly happen again. In fact, it has already happened before. During the second season of Ted Lasso, there was a brewing fan theory that Brett Goldsteins character, the foulmouthed soccer veteran Roy Kent, was a CGI creation. Perhaps it was the Apple TV+ series soft lighting or Goldsteins stunningly symmetrical facial hair that roused suspicions.

Brett Goldstein in Ted Lasso Apple TV/Courtesy Everett Collection Its quite disconcerting, because Ive seen a lot of sci-fi films. And I started to be like, Maybe I am [CGI], Goldstein joked on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the time. Theyd implant memories to make me think I wasnt.

Nahapetian couldnt have foreseen his plight either, but hes accepted it with a sense of humor.

Its half joking, but half being serious, Nahapetian says about his updated Instagram bio. I thought people would eventually realize that, you know, Im a real boy.