Jodie Foster has sparked debate after saying one of the year’s biggest movies felt so formulaic that it might as well have come from artificial intelligence.
Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival during a session titled “Who Owns The Future of Hollywood” with former Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, the Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker weighed in on how AI is already reshaping the movie business.
As the conversation turned to examples of AI-style storytelling, Foster pointed to Apple’s racing drama F1, led by Brad Pitt, and suggested its construction felt strikingly machine-made.
“I don’t say this disparagingly, how could I? This movie went on to make millions of dollars. But I look at a movie like F1, and I’m like ‘F1 was made by AI’,”
She laughed before continuing.
“Wasn’t it? I mean the structure was exactly the structure that you would learn in school.”
Foster then expanded on why she felt that way, arguing that even the performances and dialogue fit a highly predictable pattern.
“The actors say the lines exactly the way it would be written if a computer was writing exactly what would be the right thing for that time. And they were able to dominate the technology to make something big and beautiful and potentially where a lot of the information comes from other places,”
Since arriving in cinemas in June 2025, F1 has become one of the standout commercial successes of the year, grossing more than $630 million worldwide and becoming Apple’s highest-grossing theatrical release. It later picked up four Oscar nominations, including best picture, sound, visual effects and film editing, and won the Academy Award for best sound.
The panel did not stop at discussing one film. Lynton asked Foster what AI’s wider impact could be on Hollywood, particularly when it comes to employment and the creative process.
Foster said the technology is part of a much longer pattern of disruption in filmmaking, noting that CGI and other digital tools had already transformed production well before the current AI wave.
“AI is one more giant step forward into changing the industry,”
When asked whether writers and actors could eventually be replaced, Foster acknowledged that some forms of replacement are already happening.
“We do replace people,”
She said studios increasingly cut costs by digitally reproducing background performers rather than bringing in more extras for large scenes.
“We’re getting rid of a lot of jobs and hopefully, things like unions will be able to come in and say, you can use my actor 20 times, but you’re going to pay him 20 times. And I think that’s fair,”
Even so, Foster made clear that she does not see AI as entirely negative. In her view, the technology can still serve a useful purpose if filmmakers remain in control of how it is applied.
She said it can help with “small helpful things” such as previz, the early planning and visual mapping of scenes before a shoot begins.
“What we all would love is that filmmakers would be able to dominate AI, and never lose sight of that.”
Foster also referenced her 2025 film A Private Life, saying she used AI in the creation of a dream sequence that proved effective artistically, even if the imagery itself “made no sense.”
“If we are able to dominate AI consistently over time, we will be able to make things that reflect us, and we can make things better,”
Representatives for Jerry Bruckheimer, Apple, and Brad Pitt have been contacted for comment.