Olivia Williams Calls for ‘Nudity Rider’-Style Rules for AI Body Scans
Olivia Williams says actors need ‘nudity rider’-type controls for AI body scans
Siebbi, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Actors across the UK are calling for tighter consent rules over how studios collect and use digital body scans, after actor Olivia Williams compared current practices to “signing away your body for free.” The Crown and Dune: Prophecy star said that AI scanning should be subject to the same protections as nudity or intimate scenes—formal riders that specify how a performer’s body may be filmed, stored, or reused.
Williams told The Guardian that many actors, especially day-players and extras, are being scanned without a full understanding of how their biometric data could be repurposed. “It’s not science fiction anymore,” she said. “You walk into a trailer, someone tells you to stand still for thirty seconds, and suddenly your body exists in perpetuity.” The call has intensified pressure on the UK actors’ union Equity, which is negotiating new AI guidelines with producers’ group Pact.
The technology in question has quietly become standard on large-scale productions. Studios use full-body scans to generate digital doubles for crowd scenes, stunts, or continuity, and those scans can later be fed into AI systems to synthesize new motion or reuse likenesses. Industry lawyers warn that many contracts include vague language granting “perpetual rights” to scan data—clauses that can turn into blanket permission for future use.
The concern is less about technology itself than about control. Performers argue that if their digital doubles are reused in later projects, they should receive both notification and payment. “It’s not just about money,” Williams said. “It’s about dignity and artistic authorship.” Her comments echo growing fears among Hollywood unions, which have made AI consent a core demand in negotiations since last year’s SAG-AFTRA strikes.
The scale of potential misuse is hard to ignore. A 2024 survey by the European Audiovisual Observatory found that 41 percent of UK and EU performers had undergone full or partial scans in the previous two years. Yet fewer than 15 percent said they knew how or when that data might be reused. In the United States, similar concerns led to “digital replica” clauses being added to major studio contracts, and the UK could soon follow with legislation modeled on California’s system.
Producers counter that scans reduce on-set risk and streamline visual effects, saving time and money. But those arguments ring hollow to performers who see a future where their physical presence is optional. The question is whether the industry can codify consent before another backlash erupts.
Williams’ “nudity rider” analogy may provide a template: specific contracts, renewed per project, with clearly defined purposes and expiration terms. As the entertainment world learns to treat AI data as part of an actor’s body—not a prop—the next version of the standard deal memo might look very different.