{"id":334134,"date":"2026-03-07T17:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T17:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/334134\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T17:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T17:44:13","slug":"seth-macfarlane-defends-using-ai-to-play-bill-clinton-in-ted-it-was-the-only-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/334134\/","title":{"rendered":"Seth MacFarlane defends using AI to play Bill Clinton in \u201cTed\u201d: &#8216;It was the only way&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Key points<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Seth MacFarlane used AI to portray Bill Clinton in season 2 of Peacock&#8217;s Ted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Family Guy creator said that the team &#8220;tried prosthetics&#8221; and &#8220;traditional CGI&#8221; before resorting to AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s an interesting example of how AI can be used as a tool,&#8221; MacFarlane opined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/person\/seth-macfarlane\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Seth MacFarlane;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Seth MacFarlane<\/a> portrays <a href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/person\/bill-clinton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Bill Clinton;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Bill Clinton<\/a> in the new season of <a href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/ted\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ted;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Ted<\/a> \u2014 and he said that the performance could only be properly achieved using AI-generated visuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/family-guy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Family Guy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Family Guy<\/a> creator <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/video\/the-only-way-i-looked-like-bill-clinton-seth-macfarlane-explains-why-he-used-ai-in-ted-6d18e0d3592143f4ad4f79d393a337f8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:explained why he opted to use AI;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">explained why he opted to use AI<\/a> to play the former president during an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve been doing my Bill Clinton impression since the early days of Family Guy,&#8221; MacFarlane said. &#8220;We filmed this like a year and a half ago. That&#8217;s how long it takes us to do the CGI. It&#8217;s an interesting example of how AI can be used as a tool and not necessarily trample on the art that the rest of the industry is doing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">MacFarlane \u2014who also directs, writes, and executive produces the series \u2014 said that the Ted team exhausted every other option before turning to AI. &#8220;We tried prosthetics, we tried traditional CGI, and everything just looked terrifying,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So we just said, &#8216;To hell with it, let&#8217;s try AI.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Seth MacFarlane as Bill Clinton with AI-generated visuals in 'Ted'Credit: peacock\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1d969daf7c3afe2dec7e2f9623ad4ab9.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Seth MacFarlane as Bill Clinton with AI-generated visuals in &#8216;Ted&#8217;<br \/>Credit: peacock<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The American Dad creator considers his AI version of Clinton a success. &#8220;It worked,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was the only way I looked like Bill Clinton.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Peacock&#8217;s Ted series serves as a &#8217;90s-set prequel to the 2012 movie of the same name. Both projects star MacFarlane as the voice of Ted, a foul-mouthed living teddy bear who is best friends with John, a human played by Mark Wahlberg in the film and by Max Burkholder in the series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the fifth episode of the show&#8217;s new second season, titled &#8220;The Sword in the Stoned,&#8221; John&#8217;s parents Matty (Scott Grimes) and Susan (Alanna Ubach) begin working at Dunkin&#8217; Donuts, and Clinton \u2014\u00a0the current president in the show&#8217;s timeline \u2014 walks in during one of their shifts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Matty, a vocal Republican, takes the opportunity to criticize Clinton&#8217;s policies, which prompts the president to clear the room to have a private conversation with him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Clinton then launches into an expletive-filled tirade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Listen here, you pockmarked piece of s&#8212;. You&#8217;ve got some set of f&#8212;in&#8217; balls,&#8221; Clinton says. &#8220;I take time out of my day to visit your little s&#8212; shop, and you&#8217;re giving me lip? Maybe the real problem is just that you&#8217;re just a f&#8212;in&#8217; loser. F&#8212; you, think you&#8217;re so f&#8212;in&#8217; tough with your f&#8212;in&#8217; s&#8212;bag mouth. Why don&#8217;t you take a swing at me, tough guy? I&#8217;ll slap you back so hard you won&#8217;t even recognize your own f&#8212;in&#8217; dick. And get a shave, you pig. The f&#8212;in&#8217; president&#8217;s here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Clinton then poses for a photo opportunity with Matty, orders Munchkins, and throws coffee at the barista.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Seth MacFarlane in Los Angeles on Jan. 10, 2024Credit: Elyse Jankowski\/Variety via Getty\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/671d66bdf9b143e2819b1027936392fb.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Seth MacFarlane in Los Angeles on Jan. 10, 2024<br \/>Credit: Elyse Jankowski\/Variety via Getty<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">MacFarlane previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=faUpeZW3kjo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:expressed mixed feelings about AI;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">expressed mixed feelings about AI<\/a> in a 2024 interview with Bill Maher on the Club Random podcast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our <a href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/ew-dispatch-newsletter-11812417\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:EW Dispatch newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">EW Dispatch newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;AI for enterprises like medicine, I think is going to be a wonderful thing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And I think a lot of doctors that I&#8217;ve spoken to feel the same way. AI is a tool. It&#8217;s not gonna replace us, it&#8217;s not gonna replace innovation, when it comes to medicine, but it&#8217;s a wonderful tool.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">MacFarlane continued, &#8220;It&#8217;s a very different development for an enterprise like that than it is for entertainment. Entertainment, we should be very scared.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/seth-macfarlane-defends-using-ai-to-play-bill-clinton-in-ted-11921477\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Entertainment Weekly;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key points Seth MacFarlane used AI to portray Bill Clinton in season 2 of Peacock&#8217;s Ted. The Family&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[37002,93,61,60,152212,153733,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-334134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bill-clinton","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-seth-macfarlane","13":"tag-traditional-cgi","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}