Why are Neighbours actors objecting to AI microdramas using Margot Robbie's old scenes?

TV critic Scott Bryan told the BBC that Neighbours archive footage, including early-2000s storylines featuring Margot Robbie, is being recut with AI into vertical phone microdramas of two or three minutes with cliffhangers. Actors such as Stefan Dennis, who played Paul Robinson, object to their work being repurposed to make money, and Bryan warned that repackaged archive could put actors out of work.

• Bryan put the microdrama industry at 25 billion dollars, popular in China and India.
• Fremantle, which makes Neighbours, could see it as a way to earn revenue from its archive.
• Margot Robbie had not spoken publicly at the time of the broadcast.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-10-29). Read the whole episode summary →

▸More from this episode