Bill Hader is a man of many talents but it’s the Deepfake video where he morphs into Tom Cruise and Seth Rogen that has many fans picking their jaws up off the floor. We know that Hader is an amazing impressionist but how did he do that?
The YouTube video that has everyone talking was uploaded by Ctrl Shift Face and features a 2008 Bill Hader appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. In the original clip, Hader did impressions of both Tom Cruise and Seth Rogen that were impressive, to say the least. But when the actors’ faces replace Haders during this newly “remastered” version of the interview, this Deepfake becomes something else altogether.
During his conversation with David Letterman, Bill Hader talks about doing a table read for Tropic Thunder before re-enacting a conversation that he had with Tom Cruise. As he’s talking, Hader (who already resembles Cruise a little bit) morphs into him and it looks like Letterman is sitting with Cruise instead.
Then, to further amaze and terrify those watching, Hader launches into a Seth Rogan impression in which he sounds exactly like the funny man. And as he did with Tom Cruise, Bill Hader was turned into Rogen, again using this Deepfake technology.
Watch the shocking video below.
What is Deepfake and how does it work?
While videos like this one of Bill Hader as Tom Cruise and Seth Rogen are fascinating, this technology is also a bit terrifying when one thinks of the possibilities. Oftentimes, it’s very hard, if not impossible, to distinguish if a video is real or if it is a Deepfake.
The term itself was coined in 2017, so this technology isn’t brand new, but lately, many more of these videos have been popping up, causing many to wonder how it all works.
Deepfake uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in order to superimpose the face of one person onto the face of another, as seen in the Bill Hader video. The more video content available of the person being “created” in the Deepfake, the more realistic it will look.
While this all sounds very complicated, technology actually makes creating Deepfake videos rather easy. There are plenty of tutorials online that can teach an internet user how to create their own Deepfake videos quickly.
While this technology has been around for a few years already, it’s growing popularity has many concerned about how it can be used in a malicious manner. In fact, there has recently been a bill proposed in the Senate to make malicious Deepfake videos illegal.