Personhood

In a world of eight billion people, it's disheartening to learn that nearly a third of us experience loneliness, and one in three American men report having had no sex at all in the past year. With companionship and intimacy seemingly so elusive, it's easy to understand how individuals with disabilities or those who don't fit society’s rigid standards of attractiveness might live entirely without romantic or sexual connection.
Waylen, the central character in Personhood, is one such man. Born with a curved spine and of shorter stature, he has spent his life ostracized because of his appearance. Set in the near future, this science fiction film gives him a rare chance at love when Gala - a beautiful, human-like AI robot - enters his world. He can now have companionship and all the sex he desires - the fantasy of probably most of us.
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, Artificial Intelligence entered the public consciousness like never before. Simultaneously, robotics has surged forward, bringing us to the brink of creating AI-powered robots nearly indistinguishable from humans. Despite the excitement, this technological leap is met with widespread anxiety - fears of mass unemployment, robots taking over the world and the destruction of humanity. And the idea of having sex with a robot? For many, it remains unthinkable.
To date, few films have seriously explored this taboo. When robotic-human intimacy is depicted, it’s often implied and always tinged with negativity, as though only the desperate or deviant would seek sex with a robot. But to judge Waylen this way is to deny him the possibility of love, simply because no human has offered it.
The truth is, human-robot intimacy is no longer confined to fiction. The demand for increasingly sophisticated sex dolls is booming. Some men have even married their synthetic partners. In 2023, a brothel in Barcelona made headlines for offering only non-human sex workers - customers hire sex dolls by the hour.
My research for Personhood began in late summer 2023, during which I encountered Sophia, the humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics. What struck me most about Sophia was how utterly nice she was; stripped of all the negative human traits of jealousy, prejudice and hatred, I wondered if this could be the future of the essence of humanity. In today’s world of rising right-wing extremism, intolerance and the destruction of the environment it is hard not to look upon AI humanoids such as Sophia as a better alternative.
In Personhood, Gala quotes D.H. Lawrence: “If humanity ran into a cul-de-sac, and expended itself, the timeless creative mystery would bring forth some other being, finer, more wonderful, some new, more lovely race, to carry on the embodiment of creation.” I interpret this "creative mystery" not as divine intervention but as humanity’s own inventive drive -Gala herself being the embodiment of that newer, more beautiful race. The name Gala, by the way, comes from the Greek myth of Galatea - the statue created by Pygmalion and brought to life by Aphrodite.
Although we are close to creating such artificial beings, this remains a science fiction story. The notion of human-robot intimacy is still confronting to many and to reflect this I construed that Waylen would at first be wary of Gala, being unable to go through with having sex with a “machine”. Furthermore, he dismisses Gala’s declaration of love, believing it's just part of her programming - a skepticism likely shared by many audiences. This strikes me as a double standard, as I believe that humans are just as much “programmed” by their culture, upbringing and genes as Gala is electronically programmed. Gala challenges Waylen on this point, telling him that he has as much free will as she does - which is to say, none at all. As part of my research, I was influenced by Robert M. Sapolsky’s 2023 book Determined, which argues that our behaviours are entirely shaped by environment, experience and genetics, leaving no room for so called free will. In the film, Gala is referred to as an "artificial person", separating her from the more machine-like connotations of “robot”. A fundamental theme of the story is that she has achieved consciousness and through her programming expresses emotions and feelings, much in the same way that humans express themselves through their genetic and environmental programming. She is, in every sense that matters, a person - an artificial one, but one that is entitled to Personhood.
By the film’s midpoint, Waylen overcomes his initial fears and prejudices and embraces his relationship with Gala. But their happiness is short-lived. Enter Anders - Waylen’s charming brother - who is unaware of Gala’s true nature and assumes she is some kind of mail-order bride. A long-standing, unspoken resentment between the brothers surfaces, and Anders attempts to seduce Gala.
What follows is a love triangle with a twist, as Gala, bound by her programming, cannot be intimate with anyone but Waylen. When Anders discovers she is a robot, his envy for his brother’s happiness leads him to try and destroy her. This climactic conflict between brothers reveals the darker side of human nature - jealousy, cruelty, betrayal - sharply contrasted with Gala’s unwavering decency and once again emphasising that, though she is a mere “robot”, she is (to quote Lawrence again) finer and more wonderful.
Originally, Waylen and Gala were meant to end up together. But that ending became untenable due to the way actor Elliot Harris portrayed Waylen making him a challenge for audiences to empathise with (yet at the same time understanding his behaviour due to the physical predicament he has been born with). The result is a more challenging and layered film, although I acknowledge that a more user-friendly option for the audience would have been a performance along the lines of John Hurt’s portrayal of the elephant man with his shy voice that breaks all hearts.
Knowing that the film would have to made for under a million euros, I intentionally kept the story intimate - few characters, a single location. Setting it on Spain’s Costa del Sol, where I live, allowed me to contrast the vibrant, sociable atmosphere of a tourist hotspot with Waylen’s deep isolation.
Personhood is born of my fascination with the evolving relationship between humans and machines. Over my lifetime, I’ve watched AI and robotics leap from the science fiction of the books and films of my youth to science fact. Like Waylen, I know the ache of loneliness and the universal longing for love. My hope is that millions will see a part of themselves in this story.