If you were following the Sora 2 news closely when the limited public release of OpenAI’s new video generator started on September 30, you may have noticed some unsettling videos featuring the likeness and voice of iconic TV actor Bryan Cranston—typically in character as Breaking Bad protagonist Walter White. Cranston evidently saw those too, and he found them so unsettling he reportedly contacted his union, SAG-AFTRA, about it.
But good news: OpenAI has apparently addressed Cranston’s misgivings, and he’s praising the company publicly now.
In a statement released Monday by SAG-AFTRA (via Deadline), Cranston stated that initially he was “deeply concerned not just for myself, but for all performers whose work and identity can be misused in this way.”
To be specific, he might have been concerned about this video set in a strip mall parking lot in which Cranston (appearing as Walter White) and deceased pop musician Michael Jackson announce to Jackson’s vlog viewers that they’ve been hanging out.
Perhaps he also saw this more elaborate work of fan fiction in which Cranston and the rest of the core Breaking Bad cast are in what appears to be the Vietnam War:
Breaking Bad – I Am The Napalm (Parody Music Video)#ai #breakingbad #Memes #sora#sora2 pic.twitter.com/bt59hKqK0t
— Saga Lore AI (@Sagaloreai) October 7, 2025
On October 8, Cranston’s agency, released an indignant statement about Sora 2, asking in part:
The question is, does OpenAI and its partner companies believe that humans, writers, artists, actors, directors, producers, musicians, and athletes deserve to be compensated and credited for the work they create? Or does OpenAI believe they can just steal it, disregarding global copyright principles and blatantly dismissing creators’ rights, as well as the many people and companies who fund the production, creation, and publication of these humans’ work?
On Monday, however, Cranston had seen something he liked, and was no longer upset. He announced that he was “grateful to OpenAI for its policy and for improving its guardrails.”
Additionally, Deadline says SAG-AFTRA, OpenAI, the Association of Talent Agents, United Talent Agency, and Creative Artists Agency all released a related joint statement including the following: “While from the start it was OpenAI’s policy to require opt-in for the use of voice and likeness, OpenAI expressed regret for these unintentional generations. OpenAI has strengthened guardrails around replication of voice and likeness when individuals do not opt-in.”
On October 3, well before CAA’s angry statement about Sora 2, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman painted a slightly different picture in regards to OpenAI’s copyright policy upon the release of Sora 2. He wrote in a blog post that in light of how the product was being used, OpenAI “will give rightsholders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls,” and added, “We are going to try sharing some of this revenue with rightsholders who want their characters generated by users.”
We asked OpenAI to clarify the timeline of the Sora 2 copyright policy, and will update if we hear back.
Altman wrote in that same post that OpenAI is “going to have to somehow make money for video generation.”
