The family of the actor – including his daughter Aurore Bergé -, who died in February 2024, gave their agreement, because this makes it possible to “bring back to life an actor whose voice is deeply anchored in our collective imagination”.
An eternal voice? Although he died in February 2024, Sylvester Stallone's French voice actor, Alain Dorval, will once again see his voice associated with that of the American actor in his next film Armoravailable soon on Prime Video. How ? Through the use of artificial intelligence. It was the specialized company ElevenLabs which was responsible for recreating the legendary French voice of Alain Dorval, which we associate today with the cult characters of Rocky Balboa (Rocky) and John Rambo (Rambo), as part of a partnership with the company Lumière Ventures, reports Variety .
The family of the late voice actor, who died at the age of 77 after several years of fighting cancer, would have given their consent for his voice to be used again. Her daughter, Aurore Bergé, current Minister responsible for Equality between Women and Men and the Fight against Discrimination, notably declared in a press release that she wanted « do something that honors the craftsmanship and heritage of [son] father ».
« There is a big difference between artificially creating a new voice and bring back to life an actor whose voice is deeply anchored in our collective imagination »
Aurore Bergé, daughter of Alain Dorval
But this decision comes at a time when the use of artificial intelligence is creating more and more debates and controversies in the world of culture, particularly among professional voice actors who fear being replaced by this new technology. Aurore Bergé justifies herself by explaining that this choice was made in accordance with Alain Dorval's opinions on the subject. « There is a big difference between artificially creating a new voice -which my father was strongly opposed to- and bring back to life an actor whose voice is deeply anchored in our collective imagination »she maintains in the press release.
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For his part, the CEO of ElevenLabs, Mati Staniszewski, whose company can manage no less than 32 languages thanks to artificial intelligence, declared that recreating the voice of Alain Dorval was « an opportunity to show how technology can honor tradition while creating new possibilities in film production ». The main question remains whether the French voice actor's characteristic voice tone will be faithfully transcribed in this action film by Justin Routt, released last November in the United States in its English-speaking version.
