Steve Carell Talks AI Fears and Dark New Film ‘Mountainhead’
Steve Carell is worried about AI. In a recent chat, he said the rise of artificial intelligence scares him, especially when it comes to art and creativity. “I like the human touch when it comes to creativity, I like the warts, the imperfections and if something’s perfect, it’s not real to me,” he said.
Carell stars in Mountainhead, a new HBO film created by Succession’s Jesse Armstrong. The movie premiered on May 31 and takes place in a world run by tech billionaires and artificial intelligence.
It’s full of power games, fake realities, and global chaos, especially after a major deepfake incident sends parts of Asia into violence and confusion.
People have already been comparing Mountainhead to Succession, which ended two years ago. But Steve doesn’t see it that way. “I think it’s Succession-ish in the sense that it’s created by Jesse Armstrong. But it’s different. It’s different in terms of its tone,” he said. He thinks Mountainhead is even darker than Succession. “That show was dark, but this is darker. And crazier,” he added.
Instead of Succession, he compares the new movie to something else entirely—Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, the 1964 satire about nuclear war. “To me, Mountainhead feels like a modern-day Doctor Strangelove, and that’s one of my favourite films of all time,” Steve said. “The darkness and the tether Mountainhead has to reality in this moment is chilling.”
The show looks at AI in a way that feels close to home. It shows what could happen if fake videos and advanced tech take over, and Steve says this kind of future might not be far away. “To a degree, it’s terrifying. The fact that this technology not only exists but is further along than most of us understand… that the timeline between where we are and what’s depicted in the film might not be that far is terrifying,” he said.
Still, even with all the heavy stuff, Carell says the movie has moments of sharp humor. “That’s why there’s a bone-chilling essence to it. This is potentially a real issue we’ll face as a society going forward. I loved the way Jesse crafted this film. It’s incredibly frightening, but there’s also some kind of a palette cleanse with very, very funny moments. I think he has it both ways,” he told News18.
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