Jenna Ortega is sounding the alarm on how quickly artificial intelligence is taking over filmmaking, warning that the tech brings a “deep uncertainty” the industry can’t afford to overlook.
While speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival—where she’s serving on the jury with director Bong Joon Ho—the Wednesday star made it clear she’s both cautious about AI and hopeful that its risks might push artists into a creative resurgence.
Ortega noted that history shows “we just always take things too far,” adding that AI feels like “opening Pandora’s box.” She admitted the future of the technology worries her, describing this moment as “very easy to be terrified” by.
Even so, Ortega thinks this fear could inspire filmmakers to double down on what makes human artistry irreplaceable.
“There’s beauty in difficulty, and there’s beauty in mistakes, and a computer can’t do that. A computer has no soul,” she said.
She also dropped one of the festival’s most memorable lines, suggesting audiences might eventually reject AI-made films altogether.
“I hope it comes to a point where it becomes mental junk food and we see it on the screen and feel sick and don’t know why,” she said. “Sometimes audiences need to be deprived of something in order to appreciate it again.”
Bong backed up Ortega’s worries, saying AI is forcing the world to really confront “what only humans can do,” though he joked that he’d happily lead a “military squad” to wipe the technology out completely.
The jury’s distrust didn’t end there. Filmmaker Celine Song didn’t hold back, saying, “Fuck AI,” and arguing that it’s “colonizing our mind,” altering how people take in images and sound, and threatening the very humanity artists work so hard to protect.
The Marrakech Film Festival, running through December 6, brings together an international jury that includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Julia Ducournau, Celine Song, Karim Aïnouz, Hakim Belabbes, and Payman Maadi.
