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There was more than just chopped onions after the documentary about Anthony Bourdain came to theatres on July 16.

The haunting film, and the “ethics of the people behind the project”, particularly director Morgan Neville, has caused a bit of controversy, reports Newser.

The movie has Bourdain say the lines “. . . and my life is sort of shit now. You are successful, and I am successful, and I’m wondering: Are you happy?”

But they were not actually spoken by the real Bourdain.

The lines come from one of Bourdain’s emails sent to a friend and are actually generated from artificial intelligence, a technique Neville used three times in the film.

CBS News has the clip. You can hear the AI Bourdain speak around the 30-second mark:

A review in The New Yorker, which called the doccie “haunting”, has more:

“…there were three quotes there I wanted his voice for that there were no recordings of,” Neville explained. So he got in touch with a software company, gave it about a dozen hours of recordings, and, he said, “I created an A.I. model of his voice.”

“If you watch the film, other than that line you mentioned, you probably don’t know what the other lines are that were spoken by the A.I., and you’re not going to know,” Neville said. “We can have a documentary-ethics panel about it later.”

But Neville was only using the tricks to build a story about Bourdain, who is both the villain and hero of his own story:

“It was a modern storytelling technique that I used in a few places where I thought it was important to make Tony’s words come alive,” He said in Variety.

Despite Boudain’s widow, Ottavia Bourdain, confirming she didn’t give any permission for the film to use AI technology in place of Bourdain’s voice, Neville said he got the blessing of Bourdain’s estate and literary agent.

While the use of AI is “eerie” and unsettling, opening up a debate about the ethics of filmmaking in the wake of technological advancements, it’s hardly the point of the documentary, which is heavy with something arguably more important – mental health.

The movie begins with Bourdain fidgeting on the cusp of fame and with it, increased anxiety about being an imposter.

The story of Bourdain’s life and death is complicated, multi-faceted, and “like narrative quicksand”. All Neville hoped to achieve through the film was a way for people to “process the loss of somebody… so singularly influential that his loss has been felt deeply across the globe.”

We’ll leave you with the trailer, once more:

[sources:thenewyorker&newser]