Crying babies. Cavemen. And John.
In his upcoming documentary, John Lennon: The Last Interview, the director uses generative AI for roughly 10% of the film, not to fake reality, but to build what he calls “thematic surrealism.”
The audio is heartbreakingly real: Lennon and Yoko Ono’s final interview, recorded hours before his murder in 1980. When the conversation turns abstract, Soderbergh turns to Meta’s AI tools.
One sequence shows crying babies in 1960s outfits. Another features cavemen acting out male behaviour.
You couldn’t shoot these scenes authentically, he argues, and if you did, they wouldn’t be funny.
The filmmaker insists on transparency, pushing back against fears of digital necromancy. “Do I look like somebody that would do that?” he asks.
With support from Lennon’s estate, Soderbergh defends his choice simply: his moral obligation is to the best version of the film.
That version arrives with honesty, absurdity, and a handful of surreal, AI-generated toddlers.
