‘The Boys’ Star Antony Starr Joins Hollywood’s Anti-AI Revolt After Homelander Actor Backs Human Storytelling
The debate over artificial intelligence in film and television has become one of the most charged conversations in the entertainment industry, drawing in voices from every corner of Hollywood. As studios continue to experiment with AI-generated content, a growing number of filmmakers and actors have made their opposition to the technology unmistakably clear, and the movement is gaining a very recognizable face.
‘Backrooms’ director Kane Parsons, who made history as A24’s youngest-ever director at just 20 years old, has become one of the most vocal critics of generative AI in the creative space. His debut feature, released by A24 in May, was made on a budget of around $10 million and became an extraordinary success story. The film landed the biggest opening in A24 history with an $81.4 million domestic debut, making Parsons the youngest filmmaker in history to top the domestic box office, a record that underlines exactly the kind of original, human-driven storytelling that audiences are clearly still hungry for.
It was against that backdrop that Parsons made headlines this week by sharing his strong views on AI’s role in filmmaking. In an interview with The Australian, he placed himself firmly alongside those who want the technology gone entirely, saying he is “in the same boat as most well-adjusted people” and that if he could make generative AI disappear forever, he probably would. Parsons added that using AI tools in creative work “defeats the purpose entirely,” and that he gets no enjoyment from them whatsoever. He described generative AI not as innovation, but as a symptom of what he called a broader cultural and economic rot, with AI slop now seeping into everyday visual spaces like billboards and advertising.
The statement quickly spread online and caught the attention of Antony Starr, best known for playing the terrifying Homelander in Amazon’s ‘The Boys‘. The New Zealand actor, whose series recently wrapped its fifth and final season, weighed in on the discussion via social media, backing up the anti-AI sentiment with characteristic directness. Starr argued that recent movies have already proven that audiences want human stories rather than effects-driven spectacle, and took a pointed swing at AI-generated productions by suggesting that their casts are “horrible” and that they have no real connection to their human fans.
The timing of Starr’s comments lands as the numbers behind ‘Backrooms’ tell their own story, with the film drawing a remarkable audience that was 86 percent under the age of 35, and more than half under 25. It is the demographic Hollywood spends millions trying to court, and they showed up for a lean, human-made horror film from a director who learned his craft on YouTube, not in a studio system.
The alignment between Parsons and Starr is a signal of something shifting in the industry. Parsons himself has hinted at wanting to interrogate the themes of AI artistically in future projects, suggesting he would rather examine the technology through cinema than embrace it. With Homelander himself weighing in on the side of real storytelling, the cultural pressure on studios using AI in creative production is only growing louder.
Do you think Hollywood should draw a firm line against AI-generated scripts and content, or is there space for the technology to coexist with genuine human creativity?
