“3 Body Problem” creators recall pranking Eiza González with fake ChatGPT script that involved 'learning 50 or 60 digits of Pi'
This isn't the first time Dan Weiss and David Benioff pranked one of their stars.
David Benioff and Dan Weiss continued their tradition of pranks against actors by sending a fake 3 Body Problem script to star Eiza González.
The creators of the Netflix sci-fi series spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the faux AI monologue they had sent over to González, who plays nanotech trailblazer Auggie Salazar in the series.
“We gave Eiza a monologue — a three-page monologue mostly written by ChatGPT, that she was supposed to learn the next day,” Weiss recalled.
Benioff said, "We had ChatGPT do it, then we had to go through it and make it seem like it could potentially be a screenplay.”
It was a long and nonsensical monologue about a swimming pool that essentially equated to a three-minute speech, and “it did involve her learning like 50 or 60 digits of Pi,” Weiss said.
“Or, I think it did?” Benioff added. “I don’t know Pi well enough to know.”
The fake scene, however, was never filmed, as executive producer Bernadette Caulfield stopped the prank dead in its tracks. “Bernie was so tired, at that point she was like, ‘I don’t have the energy to pretend fake things are happening because there are 500 real things that are happening,'” Weiss shared, adding that Caulfield informed González that "no, you don’t have to learn a monologue about a swimming pool that lasts three pages."
Weiss and Benioff also conceded that they never would have let the prank get very far and place extra burden on the crew.
An adaptation of the popular sci-fi book series by Liu Cixin, 3 Body Problem follows a group of scientists who come in contact with an extraterrestrial civilization that could threaten humanity. It marks Weiss and Benioff's first big TV project together since Game of Thrones and also stars Jess Hong, Marlo Kelly, Benedict Wong, Jovan Adepo, and Liam Cunningham. The Emmy-nominated series was renewed for seasons 2 and 3 and will conclude with three seasons.
Weiss and Benioff have played a similar prank on GoT stars Kit Harington and Alfie Allen, sending them fake scripts that involved Jon Snow's face being burned off and Theon Greyjoy dying in season 2 after being stabbed in the chest by Isaac Hempstead-Wright's Bran Stark. (Allen's Theon Greyjoy does meet his demise, but not until season 8.)
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.