In the Forthcoming ‘Tron: Ares,’ Jodie Turner-Smith Gets Technical

Athena is carrying out her orders to their logical conclusion.

She was created by somebody with a dark spirit and energy, which was something that really interested me about this film, too. It opens up conversations about what can happen when artificial intelligence falls into the wrong hands. Will humanity use it to wreak havoc? It feels very current. What happens when you are prompting artificial intelligence in certain ways?

I don’t know if you saw the article about Grok AI and how people were essentially training it to become antisemitic. It makes you wonder: If someone with hateful intentions—whether they’re white supremacist, antisemitic, or homophobic—is prompting an AI with those ideas, is the AI just reflecting that? Arguing against it? And why would it, if it has no consciousness of its own?

Do you use AI in your day-to-day life?

It’s really good at helping to get organized, so I use it for those kinds of tasks—not anything creative. But I am also very aware of the water usage involved with these artificial-intelligence systems. That’s also really scary. Are we just draining the planet of water as we use ChatGPT?

You’ve worked across a wide range of genres, including action. How did playing Athena in Tron stretch you differently as an actor?

Every job stretches you differently, just because it’s never the same role. It is never the same state of mind that you are being asked to take on. Obviously, no matter what action things I’ve done, none of them have involved riding a Light Cycle. I’ve never played a computer program; that was new.

I’ve never trained this intensely for a role before—and it was amazing. Not just for my mental health, because exercise is so good for that, but also for my body. Having both a strong mind and a strong body really supported me. What’s funny is, I always told people during production that I was training for the stunts—but really, I was training so I could wear that suit.

Tell me about that.

I’m definitely a Pilates girl. I did that and weightlifting. The suit puts a lot of pressure on your body—not only wearing it and putting it on, but also doing any kind of movement. The suit is, in many ways, kind of working against you, so you have to be really mindful so that you don’t get hurt. When you need to run, jump, or even get on a wire, it gets intense. It’s heavy, but I felt ready. People really discount how physically taxing it can be to do the job. Even without this super suit, it’s a lot of hours on your feet and standing or running. It’s really wonderful when a studio will invest in keeping your body strong to make it through production. This might have been six weeks of night shoots in downtown Vancouver in the winter.