Maxim Vitorgan was replaced with a deepfake in the series "Contact"

Actor Maxim Vitorgan was replaced with a deepfake in the series "Contact". Vitorgan said that he heard rumors about the decision to cut him out of the series "Contact", which was difficult to do because of the significance of the role for the plot.

He called data on replacement using neural networks a “big ideological victory” Maxim Vitorgan. Actor Maxim Vitorgan was cut out of the series "Contact", his face was replaced with an image generated by neural networks (deepfake), his mention was cut out of the credits.

The telegram channel “Russian cinema in the top” drew attention to this . The published screenshot shows that Vitorgan's face has been changed, but the artist's facial features are guessed in it. The creators of the series in 2021 have already used neural network technology to rejuvenate actor Pavel Maykov. Contact is published on the Premier platform (Formerly TNT-Premier), owned by Gazprom-Media. Vitorgan himself commented on the situation on Instagram, noting that he himself did not check the information.

“I also heard rumors that the creators of the series were given the task of cutting me out of there for good <...>, but this turned out to be problematic. Quite a large and plot-forming role. But! We are not used to backing down and saving Gazprom money,” Vitorgan wrote. He ironically called what happened a great "artistic and ideological victory."