Stan Nze On AI In Filmmaking: ‘It Should Enhance, Not Take Over Your Job’

The conversation about what happens to an actor’s face when they are not on set has moved from a distant debate to a very real concern.

Actors around the world are now licensing their images to AI companies only to later find their digital versions appearing in content they never agreed to, including fake advertisements and controversial videos.

It is a conversation that has crossed continents and landed in Lagos, where Nollywood actor and filmmaker Stan Nze stepped into the debate this Wednesday at the AMVCA 12 Young Filmmaker’s Day, with a take that was equal parts practical and provocative.

Nze spoke at the Young Filmmaker’s Day, held as part of the buildup to the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.

The session, themed “Audacious Storytelling and Attracting the Right Opportunities”, brought together up-and-coming creatives looking for guidance in an industry that is changing fast.

True to the day’s energy, Nze was refreshingly honest, not just about AI as a tool but also about the specific and increasingly personal question of actors making money from their own image through the technology.

On that front, he did not mince words. “There are times when I’m so booked and I wish I had my image somewhere, and I’m like, ‘This date, I get am for AI o, and I get paid’,” he said. “So, how do I maximise my image? I do not have time to be on every set. Everybody wants a date; I don’t have it, but my AI has a date.”

It is a way of thinking that is becoming more common in the entertainment world, where the use of digital replicas of actors is now a serious business, complete with contracts, consent clauses, and compensation terms.

For Nze, though, the thinking is less about legal frameworks and more about common sense, the response of a busy working actor to a reality that is not going away.

But what made his perspective especially useful for the young filmmakers in the room was that he did not reduce the AI conversation to money alone.

His strongest words were for filmmakers who he believes are using the technology to cover up for what they do not know.

“Trust me, if you didn’t know what a good story was, anything that AI gives you is what you’d accept,” he said plainly. “If you told AI to help you do a script, and if you didn’t have basic knowledge of what good scriptwriting is, what films convey great emotion and what films people will see and be moved to tears by, you would be at the mercy of whatever AI gives you.”

It is a concern that rings true across the industry, where the few projects that have leaned too heavily on AI for creative output have largely been dismissed as flat and unconvincing by audiences.

What Nze ultimately offered the young creatives at the AMVCA Young Filmmaker’s Day was not a how-to on technology but a mindset.

“As a filmmaker, you need to know your onions. You need to understand what filmmaking is about; you still need to go to film school. You still need to learn human behaviour. Some of the things that you will incorporate into a film that will tell a story,” he said. “AI should enhance, not take over your job.”

He ended on an optimistic note: “I’m looking forward to the time where we really collaborate with this technology.”

In a room full of young filmmakers trying to figure out what bold storytelling looks like in the age of AI, it was probably the most grounded thing said all day.

The conversation continues to build as Africa’s biggest night in film draws closer.

Catch the AMVCA 12 award ceremony live on Saturday, May 9th, on Africa Magic channels on DStv and GOtv.