Just confirming - zero stars means you think AI will completely replace this job. Are you sure?
Creative
Acting Careers: Can Tom Cruise Finally Go for a Plane Ride Inside the Plane?
By LastJobStandingOctober 29, 2025
Resistance Rating: 2.0/5
Tom Cruise started dangling from airplanes a decade ago. Will AI relieve him so he can finally enjoy a well-deserved ginger-infused water in business class? And what's better: Seeing a Hollywood superstar or yourself in a breathtaking scene?
From Blockbusters to "Look It's Me-busters"?
Making a blockbuster currently costs millions of dollars spent on actors, specialized crews, and insurance premiums that make accountants want to head to the bar and order a few shots(1).
Meanwhile, in a Marrakech apartment, a teenager can recreate the same moment using AI. Casting themselves as Tom Cruise and their high-school nemesis as the villain. The production budget? Maybe a few dollars spent on a subscription to an AI service.
Some of the major actors stand to profit from licensing their images for AI reuse, whereas the background actors might be replaced with AI replicants without compensation(2). More than 30,000 people worked at least once as a background actor in the US in 2022(2). There is also the issue about AI actors that are unique and not based on any humans. An example of this is "Tilly Norwood" which is a 100% AI-generated product(3). The question is if, or when, an AI character like that will replace a human in a major production.
Using The PC Model™, we'll put the future of acting careers to the test.
THE PC Model™ Resistance Rating
No licenses or legal barriers. Anyone can "act" or generate actors. In some countries there is some union protection, but will the unions be able to stop this tidal wave? Our guess is no, so zero stars for turf protection.
Audiences still love stars and people crave some connection to real humans. However, AI lets people cast themselves as heroes.
Creating content for a wider audience needs ethical judgement. Creating something that's for your eyes only does not.
Theater still needs real bodies on stage and live performance, but virtual stages and holographic performance are emerging. Digital humans are already almost indistinguishable from the real deal on-screen.
Humans will still surprise and innovate. On the flip side, every performance becomes AI training data, and AI can generate infinite variations almost instantly.
Total Resistance Rating
2.0 / 5
This is the brutal truth; a career as an actor performs poorly using our model. This profession will most likely be highly, and negatively, affected by AI.
Actors will keep doing stunts and romantic scenes as long as audiences pay to watch. But more often, potential audiences will be busy orchestrating their own stunts and a date with the one that got away in high school.
The audition is not just against aspiring actors anymore. Actors are now also facing competition from millions of virtual actors.
You can still chase your dream of becoming a real-life actor, but the odds are not getting any better. Have you ever thought about being a plumber?
