Mercedes Kilmer Defends Val Kilmer's AI Performance as Actor IP Precedent

Mercedes Kilmer appeared on the Today Show on April 29, 2026, to respond directly to industry criticism of her father's posthumous AI performance in As Deep as the Grave. Her core argument: actors who engage with the technology now, on their own terms, are in a stronger legal and commercial position than those who wait for courts or guild negotiations to set the terms for them.

Val Kilmer died on April 1, 2025, from pneumonia. He had been cast in the film five years before his death and was too ill to shoot a single scene. AI was used to generate his appearance and performance in full.

From Workaround to Strategy

Mercedes Kilmer told Today that her father's relationship with the project evolved. "It started off as a way to overcome the limitations of his illness, but then it evolved into something that he really was like, 'Oh, wait. I have a chance to actually set a precedent,'" she said.

That precedent is specific: consent given by a living actor before death, with a family estate formally authorizing the AI process afterward. It is a fact pattern that no major production had previously established in a theatrically distributed film, and the announcement of As Deep as the Grave at the European Film Market in Berlin in March 2026 was the first time a production company publicly confirmed using generative AI to recreate a deceased performer's likeness for a theatrical feature.

The Two-Camp Divide

Mercedes Kilmer acknowledged that the industry has not received the news uniformly. "It's kind of fallen into two camps. People that maybe have a more precarious position in the industry and are worried and see AI as a threat, which is absolutely valid, and younger people, younger actors and musicians", she said.

She said the second group is responding differently. "I've gotten a lot of like really good responses from people, older people, people maybe more established in the industry, that see it as a way to protect that actors' ownership of their IP."

Proactive Licensing as IP Protection

The procedural argument Mercedes Kilmer made is the clearest public articulation yet of why timing matters in AI rights. "It's much easier to structure the rights if you proactively license something", she said. The alternative is waiting until a production wants to use a likeness, at which point the actor or estate negotiates from a weaker position.

The consent and compensation model that SAG-AFTRA codified in its 2026 studios deal reflects the same logic at the industry level: consent is established before work begins, not disputed afterward. Whether As Deep as the Grave formally operated under that guild framework is not confirmed in the public record, but the Kilmer estate's approach is consistent with what the agreement describes.

California's AB 2602 and AB 1836 provide the statutory floor for this kind of licensing. Both laws require explicit written consent before a digital replica of a living or deceased performer can be used in a production. The Kilmer estate's proactive consent is the behavior those statutes were written to incentivize.

Val Kilmer's History With AI Tools

This was not Kilmer's first engagement with AI as a production tool. For Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, he partnered with UK company Sonantic to generate an AI powered speaking voice, compensating for the throat cancer that had taken his natural voice. His daughter described a consistent orientation across his career: "He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling."

Navajo Language Recovery

Mercedes Kilmer also pointed to a dimension of the film's AI work beyond the performance itself. The production used the technology to assist in Navajo language recovery for the film, which she described as "a really ethical, interesting use of the technology." No details were provided on the specific methodology.

The film is currently in distribution discussions. No release date has been announced. "We have to contend with this technology one way or the other", Mercedes Kilmer said. Her argument, and the Kilmer estate's position, is that doing so proactively offers more protection than the alternative.

What California AB 2602 and AB 1836 Require

AB 2602 covers living performers and requires explicit written consent before a digital replica can be used in a production. The consent must be negotiated and documented in the performer's contract before work begins. Retroactive consent after filming is not sufficient under the statute.

AB 1836 covers deceased performers and requires formal authorization from the estate or designated representative before a digital replica can be used. Both laws apply to commercial productions and carry civil enforcement mechanisms. The Kilmer estate's documented consent, given while Val Kilmer was alive and formalized by the estate after his death, satisfies the requirements of both statutes.

The SAG-AFTRA 2026 Provisions on Posthumous Replicas

The SAG-AFTRA agreement ratified in May 2026 includes specific language governing AI generated replicas of deceased performers. Productions covered by the agreement must obtain authorization from the estate and pay residuals to designated beneficiaries at rates comparable to what the performer would have earned. The agreement also requires disclosure to the estate of how the replica will be used before authorization is granted.

Whether As Deep as the Grave falls under SAG-AFTRA jurisdiction depends on whether the production was a covered production at the time of filming. The public record does not confirm that status. What the SAG-AFTRA framework does establish is that the Kilmer estate's approach, proactive authorization followed by formal documentation, is the model the guild agreement treats as compliant.

The Sonantic Voice Work and What It Involved

The Sonantic partnership for Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 required Kilmer to record extensive audio material for the company to train a voice model on his specific vocal characteristics. He participated actively in the process despite the physical limitations imposed by his throat cancer treatment. Sonantic was later acquired by Spotify in 2022.

The voice work for Top Gun differed from the full visual performance reconstruction in As Deep as the Grave in scope and method. A voice model produces audio. The AI reconstruction for As Deep as the Grave generates video performance: movement, facial expression, and physical presence. The consent framework required for the two types of reconstruction is similar in structure but the technical and creative stakes of the visual reconstruction are significantly higher.

The European Film Market Context

The announcement of As Deep as the Grave at the European Film Market in Berlin in March 2026 placed the film in front of international sales agents and buyers at a major industry market. EFM draws acquisition executives from across the European and international distribution sector. Announcing there, rather than at a North American festival premiere, signals a strategy oriented toward international distribution rather than awards positioning.

The public confirmation at EFM that a deceased performer's likeness had been reconstructed using AI for a theatrical feature was itself a first. No major production company had previously made that disclosure at an industry market. The announcement made the Kilmer production's approach visible to a professional audience that will encounter similar decisions on future projects.

The Estate Authorization Distinction

The legal distinction between a living actor's written consent and a deceased actor's estate authorization matters under both California law and the SAG-AFTRA agreement. Living performers retain personal rights that belong to them as individuals. After death, those rights pass to the estate or designated beneficiaries, who hold them under a different legal framework.

An estate authorizing a posthumous replica is not the same act as a performer consenting to their own likeness use. Mercedes Kilmer's public statements constitute part of the estate's public record but do not themselves create legal authorization in the absence of formal documentation. The Kilmer estate's position is that the combination of Kilmer's prior consent and the estate's subsequent authorization satisfies both the moral and legal standards the industry is currently developing.

What As Deep as the Grave Required From the AI Production

Director Coerte Voorhees cast Kilmer in As Deep as the Grave five years before his death. The film required sustained performance across multiple scenes, not a brief appearance or a single line. Kilmer's illness made any physical production impossible. The decision to use AI to complete the performance was made while Kilmer was alive, with his participation in defining how the AI reconstruction would work.

That sequence, casting a living performer, then using AI to generate the performance after their physical participation became impossible, is the specific fact pattern the Kilmer production establishes as precedent. It is neither a posthumous marketing use of an archival likeness nor a deepfake. It is a performance commitment fulfilled through AI reconstruction with the performer's documented involvement in the process.

The Right of Publicity Dimension

California's right of publicity statute protects a person's name, likeness, and voice from commercial exploitation without consent. The statute survives death: deceased performers' estates can assert right of publicity claims for 70 years after death. Productions that use a deceased performer's likeness without estate authorization can face civil liability under this framework independent of the guild agreements.

The Kilmer estate's proactive authorization satisfies right of publicity requirements alongside the guild and statutory obligations. By establishing that consent chain while Kilmer was alive, the estate eliminated the primary legal exposure that would have attached to a posthumous production using his likeness without documented authorization. That legal protection travels with the project through distribution.

What Other Estates Are Watching

The Kilmer production is not the first posthumous AI likeness work in Hollywood, but it is the first theatrically distributed feature to make the consent framework publicly explicit. Other estates holding rights to deceased performers' likenesses have been watching how this production navigates the regulatory environment. The combination of AB 1836 compliance, SAG-AFTRA alignment, and public disclosure at EFM gives it more documentation than prior productions.

Estates for performers who died during or after the 2020s guilds AI discussions have access to a clearer framework than estates for performers who died before that period. The Kilmer case establishes that a production can move from concept to distribution announcement with its consent record intact. That demonstration is what Mercedes Kilmer was pointing to when she described the project as setting a precedent.

Coerte Voorhees and the Production History

Coerte Voorhees directed As Deep as the Grave, a thriller set in rural Mexico that requires Kilmer's Father Fintan character across multiple scenes. Voorhees has worked primarily in genre filmmaking and independent production. The film was produced by First Line Films. Kilmer was cast before his throat cancer reached the stage that made physical production impossible, and the production held the project in development long enough to build the AI reconstruction approach rather than recast.

That five-year development timeline is unusual. Most productions facing a cast member's serious illness recast rather than develop new technology to keep the original performer. The decision to build an AI reconstruction pipeline for Kilmer specifically reflects both the production team's commitment to his interpretation of the role and Kilmer's own consent to participate in defining how that reconstruction would work.

The Today Show Context and Public Reception

Mercedes Kilmer's Today Show appearance on April 29, 2026, placed the Kilmer family's position in front of a general audience rather than an industry audience. The Today Show reaches viewers who may not follow Hollywood trade press or guild negotiations. Her appearance translated the proactive licensing argument from an industry policy conversation into a consumer facing statement about what AI technology means for how beloved performers continue to exist in new work after their deaths.

Public response to AI performer reconstructions has been divided along lines that do not map cleanly onto industry or generational categories. Some audiences describe posthumous AI performances as meaningful continuations. Others describe them as violations of the natural conclusion of a career. Mercedes Kilmer's Today Show framing emphasized the former, grounding it in her father's own documented position on the technology. Her account of his orientation toward emerging tools as creative opportunities rather than threats is the most direct publicly available statement of what Kilmer himself believed about the project.

The Today Show appearance also served a function that industry panels and trade press coverage could not. General audiences who know Kilmer's work from Top Gun, Batman Forever, and The Doors are the eventual audience for As Deep as the Grave. Their understanding of what the project is and why the family authorized it will shape how those audiences receive the film. Mercedes Kilmer's public framing of the project as her father's own idea and his final opportunity to establish a precedent is the story that general audiences will carry into the theater. For the filmmakers and estates watching this case, the precedent she described is both a legal template and a creative one: a performer who engaged with the technology while alive left clearer instructions and clearer rights than any posthumous reconstruction without that documented participation could have achieved. The Kilmer estate has made that case more thoroughly in public than any legal filing could require.

What the Kilmer Estate's Approach Established

The documented consent Kilmer gave while alive, combined with Mercedes Kilmer's active public advocacy for the project after his death, created a record that future estates and attorneys can point to when navigating similar situations. Most AI posthumous performance discussions begin after the performer's death with no documented position to work from.

The Kilmer case begins with a performer who understood what the technology could do, agreed to participate in defining how it would use his likeness and voice, and left family members who could represent that participation publicly. That sequence is not replicable for performers who die without engaging with these tools. But it is reproducible as a model for living performers who want to establish their position before the question is forced on their estates.

Filmmakers exploring what AI integrated production looks like in practice can access the current generation of video and image tools at AI FILMS Studio.

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Sources

Today.com | Variety | Consequence.net | The Wrap | Screen Rant