Nicolas Cage says he refused to sign an AI waiver that Amazon requested during production of "Spider-Noir," the Prime Video series in which he starred, and that the decision probably ended his working relationship with the studio. Cage made the remarks Saturday during a panel on the Empire Stage at New York Comic Con, per Variety.
"Amazon is a very AI-friendly company, to the tune of $50 billion invested in OpenAI," Cage said. "I am not an AI-friendly actor, so it's like, connect those dots! I'm not a member of their club. I didn't sign the waiver to let him use AI on 'Spider Noir.' I'm probably not going to be working with that studio again, but that's okay."
The comments put one of Hollywood's most recognizable stars squarely on the record against the AI clauses that have quietly become standard in studio contracts — and they land at a moment when actors' leverage over how their likenesses and performances are reused by AI systems has become one of the industry's most contested questions. For continuing coverage of how the industry is responding, our AI news section tracks the intersection of entertainment and artificial intelligence as it develops.
The Cancellation That Framed the Remarks
Cage's remarks came with a backdrop that makes them sting for Amazon. The studio canceled "Spider-Noir" after just one season last month, days before the first weekend of the Emmy Awards — where the series had earned 11 nominations, the most of any Prime Video program this year.
The cancellation surprised many in the industry. According to Variety, the series amassed 2.6 billion minutes viewed in its first six weeks and drew praise from critics and audiences alike, numbers that would normally put a show in the renewal conversation rather than the scrap heap.
Against that record, Cage framed the split as a matter of principle rather than sentiment. His reference to Amazon's investment in OpenAI — a figure that matches the roughly $50 billion in funding and support Amazon has publicly committed to the AI company — was presented not as insider complaint but as arithmetic: the studio funding AI's biggest player and the actor refusing to feed it his own performance simply do not belong together.
Cage's Next Move: Gen Z Directors and 'True Detective'
Cage indicated he is not slowing down — he is just redirecting. "I got to get with these young directors who are Gen Z, and they're going at it their own way, whether it's through the YouTube culture or whatever it is," he said. "They're doing it from scratch and by hand. I want to get with that."
He also expressed interest in doing more television after "Spider-Noir," which marked his first leading role in a TV series, and then let slip what comes next: a season of HBO's "True Detective."
"My agent's out there somewhere listening," Cage quipped. "That's okay that I'm the first to announce that, right?"
HBO did not immediately respond to Variety's request for comment on Cage's participation in the anthology series, so the casting remains officially unconfirmed — but the actor has a history of announcing projects on his own terms before the paperwork catches up.
Why AI Waivers Have Become a Contract Flash Point
AI waivers — contract provisions under which performers consent to studios scanning, replicating, or modifying their likeness and voice with machine-learning tools — have become one of the most quietly consequential documents in production. Signing one can authorize a studio to synthesize a performance's building blocks; refusing one, as Cage describes, draws a line around what the studio may do with the performance it filmed.
What makes Cage's stand notable is the asymmetry of the gesture. A waiver refusal by an actor of his stature carries symbolic weight that a background performer's cannot, but it also costs real money: Amazon is one of the largest producers in streaming, and Cage says plainly that he expects the refusal to cost him that relationship. Few actors at any level publicly price their principles that explicitly.
His framing also connects to a broader anxiety that has run through Hollywood since generative video and voice tools became production-grade: that every recorded performance is, potentially, training data. Whether a refusal like Cage's actually prevents a studio from applying AI to his work is governed by contract language most of the public never sees — which is precisely why the public statement matters. It converts a private negotiation into a public position, and it puts pressure on other name actors to say where they stand.
A Star Doing It 'By Hand' in an AI-Native Era
There is a certain irony in the timing. The same weekend Cage told fans he wants to work with directors "doing it from scratch and by hand," the industry around him is negotiating how much of production AI can shoulder — from previsualization to dialogue polishing to synthetic extras. Studios argue the tools cut costs; performers argue the tools are trained on them and deployed against them.
Cage has been consistent on this front for years, and his New York Comic Con remarks suggest he is comfortable being the most quoted holdout in the room. Whether that stance ages into an industry norm or a curiosity will depend less on one actor's contract negotiations than on whether audiences can tell the difference — and whether they care.
For now, the math Cage offered is hard to argue with: one studio, $50 billion toward OpenAI, and one actor who says he is not for sale to either.
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