Ever since Hollywood started using the more modern but still manual "de-aging" tech, as seen in "The Irishman" - I've kept thinking: Consumer-grade deep turned out better. I remember when deep fakes became mainstream, some youtube hobbyist showcased his deep fake de-aging of Robert DeNiro, compared to what the movie makers did - and the deep fake looked better.

One problem was that DeNiro - while still a fine actor - was a man in his mid 70s trying to portray a man in his 20s/30s, as seen in the somewhat cringy fight scene.

So why not just do this: Get some cheap no-name actor / double do the acting, and let DeNiro license his face to the movie.

FWIW, I don't like that idea - but it seems to make sense? Especially with actors that are long gone. That's already been done. Speech synthesis is also becoming pretty remarkable, so you can also provide voice.

In fact, I'm surprised this tech hasn't completely taken over dubbing yet. Both the deep fake tech to get the right mouth movement, and speech synthesis to match the voice.

Anyway, I think that in 5-10 years this will be case. Unless SAG-AFTRA is powerful enough the curb that kind of use of tech.