The men and women who take the punches on British film sets say artificial intelligence is quietly destroying their livelihoods, as studios multiply a handful of performers on screen instead of hiring a full stunt team.
Giedre Jackyte and Ermar Alexander, two stunt performers starring in the new thriller Bad Day at the Office, told the Express in an interview published on October 28, 2026 that the profession is in genuine danger. Their film, which stars John Hannah and Radha Mitchell, used a 22-person stunt team and more than 100 stunt performers in total, a scale of practical film-making that is becoming rare.
AI is already cutting stunt jobs
Jackyte was blunt about what the technology means for working performers.
Before AI, she said, a massive scene would have required a large team of stunt performers, which provided real work. Now, she explained, a production can pick a small group of people and multiply them digitally.
But I don't think you can fight against it, she added. They're developing more and more advanced technology, so we can't escape it. Production is always going to cut the budget and get more for less, which is understandable.
Her advice to colleagues was unsentimental: up your skills and find different ways to be useful to production. You have to think, she said, how can I better survive in this changing climate?
Adapt or be left behind
Alexander, who moved to the UK from the Philippines at the age of eight and holds a black belt in martial arts, has appeared in Marvel films. He admitted that big studios are right to look for savings, and confessed that he uses AI himself, currently helping the Claude programme to grade a short film shot two years ago, treating it as a teacher and a tool.
Jackyte acknowledged that many people are against AI and said she understands them, because it is scary. At the same time, she warned, the more you deny the fact, the more you're going to be left behind.
A film made the old way
Bad Day at the Office follows a man suffering from amnesia who wakes in a hotel room beside a corpse and must untangle a conspiracy while evading the police. According to the Express, the production went old-school: a 22-strong stunt team, two first-person POV camera operators, a dedicated weapons team, and hardly any camera trickery.
The POV rig used on set is a demanding piece of kit. Operators wear what amounts to a giant GoPro on the head with a battery pack strapped to the back, and must be constantly aware of hand positions and safe distances during staged fights, because head-on filming leaves little room for trickery.
Both performers admitted to imposter syndrome while directing established actors. Working with John Hannah, Radha Mitchell and Tamer Hassan, Alexander said, meant telling massive pros how to act in front of a camera when we're nobody. The pair ran four months of tests for the POV rig, five days a week and eight hours a day.
Hollywood's wider alarm
The warnings from the British stunt world echo a broader row across the film industry. Sylvester Stallone recently defended AI after his pitch for a half-human, half-AI movie ignited outrage, telling young performers they have chosen the most difficult profession, according to Variety.
Mads Mikkelsen has insisted that human actors must not be made redundant, saying audiences will always spot the difference, the Daily Star reported. Oscar-nominated actor James Woods has separately issued a warning that AI is not a passing fad that will simply blow over, as reported by Before It's News.
Why the human touch still matters
There is a lesson here for an industry that has always traded on craft. The box-office endurance of practical, stunt-heavy films and actor-driven dramas reminds studio executives that audiences respond to human vulnerability and physical effort, not synthetic fakery. Jackyte's own path proves the point: she arrived in London from Lithuania with £300 in her pocket, trained in martial arts, and landed her first job as an extra on Jurassic World. Alexander trained a stunt double on a Batman film before being told to enter the industry himself.
These are careers built the British way, through graft, discipline and skill. A machine can multiply a face a thousand times, but it cannot take a punch, load a prop pistol or feel the weight of a battery pack on its back. The danger is not that AI will replace the human touch; it is that accountants will decide it can.
FAQ
What did the stunt actors say about AI?
Giedre Jackyte and Ermar Alexander told the Express on October 28, 2026 that AI lets productions multiply a small group of performers digitally instead of hiring large stunt teams, cutting jobs and budgets.
What is Bad Day at the Office?
It is a thriller starring John Hannah and Radha Mitchell about an amnesiac who wakes beside a corpse, made with a 22-person stunt team, POV camera rigs and practical weapons rather than digital effects.
Which actors have warned about AI in Hollywood?
Mads Mikkelsen said human actors must not be made redundant, James Woods warned AI is not a passing fad, and Sylvester Stallone said AI will make it harder for new actors to break into the industry.