“The Morning Show’s” Reese Witherspoon urges women to embrace AI as filmmaking’s future

Reese Witherspoon is urging women to get involved in artificial intelligence, calling it “the future of filmmaking” and emphasizing that industry change is inevitable. Speaking to Glamour magazine while promoting “The Morning Show’s” fourth season, the Oscar winner positioned AI adoption as both unstoppable and essential for women’s participation in Hollywood’s evolution.

What she’s saying: Witherspoon views AI integration as an unavoidable reality that requires proactive female involvement rather than resistance.

• “It’s so, so important that women are involved in AI because it will be the future of filmmaking,” Witherspoon said. “And you can be sad and lament it all you want, but the change is here.”
• “It will never be a lack of creativity and ingenuity and actual physical manual building of things. It might diminish, but it’s always going to be the highest importance in art and in expression of self.”

How she uses AI: Witherspoon integrates various AI tools into her daily routine, demonstrating practical applications beyond filmmaking.

• She uses search tools like Perplexity and shopping agent Vetted AI, which “if you’re buying a blender, it’ll show you six different blenders and also recommend the best product.”
• Simple AI serves as her AI assistant for tasks like making doctor’s appointments, helping avoid “the problems of navigating hospital systems.”
• “It’s an incredible tool to save time,” she explained.

Industry divide: Hollywood remains split on AI adoption, with prominent directors taking opposing stances on the technology’s role in filmmaking.

• James Cameron, director of “Avatar” and “Titanic,” sees potential for AI to cut blockbuster production costs in half and has expressed openness to the technology.
• Guillermo del Toro, director of “The Shape of Water,” adamantly refused to allow any AI use in his “Frankenstein” production.

The creative debate: Despite differing views on AI implementation, most industry figures agree that artificial intelligence cannot replace human creativity in storytelling.

• Cameron argued that AI lacks the human experience necessary for compelling narratives: “I just don’t personally believe that a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said — about the life that they’ve had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality — and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it…I don’t believe that’s ever going to have something that’s going to move an audience.”
• “You have to be human to write that. I don’t know anyone that’s even thinking about having AI write a screenplay,” he added.

Why this matters: Witherspoon’s advocacy represents a strategic approach to technological disruption, emphasizing female participation in shaping AI’s role in entertainment rather than opposing its inevitable integration.