Think of it what you will, but chances are, Andy Warhol would have loved AI. The undisputed king of pop art spent the best part of his career immersed in consumer culture, from Brillo Boxes to screenprints to celebrity-studded films. So, when Netflix announced a docuseries that uses AI technology to recreate Warhol’s voice to posthumously narrate the writing in his diaries, we weren’t all that surprised.
Executive produced by Ryan Murphy, The Andy Warhol Diaries is a six-part documentary that tells the story of Warhol’s childhood to his career as an artist, director, publisher, and beyond. Warhol began work on the diaries themselves after he was shot by writer Valerie Solanas in 1968. Themes explored include his sexuality, his relationship with fellow artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and his relationship to Catholicism.
“I’m just a freak,” Warhol says at one point during the trailer. “I wasn’t very close to anyone. Although, I guess I wanted to be.” As well as his own commentary, the documentary also features interviews with friends and contemporaries John Waters and Rob Lowe.
“Beginning with his childhood in Pittsburgh, the series traces Warhol’s almost unbelievably diverse journey fluidly moving between mediums and through eras as an artist – both revered and reviled – director, publisher, TV producer, scene maker, celebrity and much more. While he was a larger-than-life figure, Warhol was intensely private regarding his personal life,” reads the show’s official description.
The Andy Warhol Diaries drops March 9 on Netflix. Watch the trailer above.