Kevin O’Leary Rips Timothée Chalamet Movie for Wasting Millions by Ignoring AI
Shark Tank mogul Kevin O’Leary, who appears alongside Timothée Chalamet in A24’s Marty Supreme, says the production burned millions by shunning AI, arguing in a World of Travel interview that smarter tech could have slashed the bill.
I did not have Kevin O'Leary weighing in on background actors on my bingo card, but here we are. The Shark Tank investor shows up alongside Timothee Chalamet in A24's Marty Supreme, and after spending time on set, he says the movie could have saved a pile of cash by swapping human extras for AI.
O'Leary's cost-cutting fix: replace extras with AI
O'Leary talked about his role and his business-first read on the production during a recent interview with World of Travel. He has been pouring money into AI lately and, unsurprisingly, sees it as the answer to expensive set days filled with background performers.
"Almost every scene had as many as 150 extras. Now, those people have to stay awake for 18 hours, be completely dressed in the background. [They’re] not necessarily in the movie, but they’re necessary to be there moving around. And yet, it costs millions of dollars to do that. Why couldn’t you simply just put AI agents in their place? They’re not the main actors. They’re only in the story visually, and it would save millions of dollars, so more movies could be made. That same director, instead of spending $90 million or whatever he spent, could’ve spent $35 million and made two movies."
Couple things to note there. Marty Supreme is estimated at around $70 million, which is reportedly the biggest budget in A24 history, not the $90 million number O'Leary tosses out. And yes, background players are a big, complicated part of how these scenes come to life. O'Leary's take: if they are only there for visual texture, let the algorithms handle it and funnel the savings into making more films.
The AI 'actress' he points to
He also brought up Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated performer who has gotten plenty of pushback since popping up online. O'Leary repeatedly called her 'Tilly Norwell' and held her up as proof of where this is headed: a digital actor who can look any age, never needs a break, and 'works' around the clock. As he put it, that has unions "going out of their minds." His broader point: you cannot stop the tech, and he is investing heavily to ride the wave.
Agree or not, it is a very investor-brain way to look at a film set: treat the crowd as a line item, automate it, and move on. We will see how that argument plays in a business that has been loudly debating AI all year.
Marty Supreme opens in theaters on December 25, 2025.