If you were closely following Sora 2 news when the limited public release of OpenAI’s new video generator began on September 30, you may have noticed some disturbing videos featuring the image and voice of iconic television actor Bryan Cranston, usually in character as Break the bad protagonist Walter White. Cranston obviously saw them too, and he found them so disturbing that he reportedly contacted his union, SAG-AFTRA, about it.
But good news: OpenAI has apparently addressed Cranston’s misgivings, and he is now publicly praising the company.
In a statement released Monday by SAG-AFTRA (via Deadline), Cranston said that initially he was “deeply concerned not only for myself, but for all artists whose work and identities may be misused in this way.”
To be more specific, he might have been concerned about this video set in a mall parking lot in which Cranston (appearing as Walter White) and deceased pop musician Michael Jackson tell viewers of Jackson’s vlog that they were hanging out together.
Perhaps he’s also seen this more elaborate work of fan fiction in which Cranston and the rest of the main cast of Breaking Bad participate in what appears to be the Vietnam War:
Breaking Bad – I Am The Napalm (parody music video)#ai #break the bad #Memes #sora#sora2 pic.twitter.com/bt59hKqK0t
– Saga Lore AI (@Sagaloreai) October 7, 2025
On October 8, Cranston’s agency released an outraged statement about Sora 2, asking in part:
The question is: Do OpenAI and its partner companies believe that humans, writers, artists, actors, directors, producers, musicians, and athletes deserve to be paid and credited for the work they create? Or does OpenAI believe it can simply steal it, disregarding global copyright principles and openly rejecting the rights of creators, as well as the many people and companies who fund the production, creation and publication of these humans’ work?
By 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 safeguards”.
Additionally, Deadline reports that 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 outset it has been OpenAI’s policy to require opt-in for the use of voice and likeness, OpenAI has expressed regret for these unintentional generations. OpenAI has strengthened guardrails around voice replication and likeness when individuals do not register. “
On October 3, well before the CAA’s angry statement about Sora 2, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman painted a slightly different picture regarding 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 rights holders more granular control over character generation, similar to the opt-in model for likeness, but with additional controls,” and added, “We’re going to try to share some of that revenue.” with rights holders who want their characters to be generated by users.
We’ve asked OpenAI to clarify the Sora 2 copyright policy timeline and will update it if we receive a response.
Altman wrote in that same article that OpenAI is “going to have to make money somehow for video generation.”
