(NewsNation) — Businessman turned actor Kevin O’Leary is chiming in on AI use in film, saying that his new movie “Marty Supreme” could have saved millions of dollars by using artificial intelligence instead of human extras.  

O’Leary was on The Hill’s “World of Travel: The Podcast” where he talked about the Timothée Chalamet-led film vehicle, which is igniting Oscar buzz for the actor.  

“Almost every scene had as many as 150 extras,” O’Leary told World of Travel. “Those people had to stay awake for 18 hours, fully dressed, moving around in the background — not even always visible on camera — and it cost millions of dollars to do that.” 

The “Shark Tank” star, who plays Gwenyth Paltrow’s husband in the movie, said the production costs are outdated when AI can create realistic-looking background characters.  

“Why couldn’t you just use AI agents in their place?” O’Leary said. “They’re not the main actors; they’re only there visually. That same director, instead of spending $90 million, could have spent $35 million and made two movies.” 

‘Marty Supreme’ is O’Leary’s first major film role, having guest starred on television shows, including, “The Neighbors” and “Grace and Frankie,” according to IMDB.

Kevin O’Leary praises ‘great’ actress Tilly Norwood  

O’Leary also mentions AI actress Tilly Norwood, whose creation has prompted outcry from many in the entertainment industry because its creator said that talent agencies are interested in signing Norwood.  

“Tilly (Norwood) is an actor who’s burst onto the scene — she’s 100 percent AI. She doesn’t exist, but she’s a great actress. She can appear at any age, she doesn’t need to eat, and she works 24 hours a day,” he said. 

“The union is going out of their minds. I’d argue, for the sake of art, you should allow it in certain cases — and extras are a great use case. You can’t tell the difference. Just put 100 Tilly (Norwood) in there and you’re good.” 

Norwood was recently created by Eline Van der Velden, an actress, comedian, technologist and CEO of AI-centric production company Particle 6.

Actors including Melissa Barrera, Kiersey Clemons and Mara Wilson have taken to social media to call out Tilly Norwood and question why agencies would prefer AI actors to actual human talent.

“Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$. How gross, read the room,” Barrera wrote on her Instagram story.

NewsNation’s Zach Kaplan contributed to this report