‘I’m just a freak’: Andy Warhol’s secret ‘longings’ exposed in ‘Diaries’
The late Andy Warhol will read his own “famously guarded” private secrets in a new Netflix docuseries out March 9.
Titled “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” the six-parter vocally brings the pop art icon, who died in 1987, back to life — using cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to narrate the most revealing moments from his legendary life. Based on his infamous journals, the project spans from his childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the soup can illustrations, as well as a never-before-seen glimpse into Warhol’s secret relationships and “romantic longings,” via diary entries he penned throughout the 20th century.
“I’m just a freak, I wasn’t very close to anyone. Although, I guess I wanted to be,” the AI-engineered Warhol says in the new trailer released Wednesday.
The most intimate parts of the Superstar maker’s life will be brought to light through the use of the robot-like technology that will “honor two hallmarks of Andy’s life and artistic practice, stemming from his desire ‘to be a machine,’ ” director Andrew Rossi told Entertainment Weekly.
“Andy admired the fact that ‘machines have less problems,’ saying that, ‘I do have feelings, but I wish I didn’t.’ He even had himself made into a robot and a hologram during his lifetime, and he said, ‘the reason I’m painting this way is that I want to be a machine,’ ” Rossi said.
“So I thought that cloning Andy’s voice could function like a Warholian portrait, and the [Andy Warhol] Foundation approved.”
The series will also expose “never before seen archival material that provides evidence of Andy’s intimate and sometimes secret relationships, including letters, poetry, Super 8 film and other media that had not been restored or widely viewed until now,” he added. Rossi also admitted the diaries will “reveal Andy’s romantic longings and spiritual side as a living, breathing gay man.”
Remaking Warhol’s voice to personally confess these influential times — which was done by having actor Bill Irwin record the diaries’ entries before they were morphed in a newly created text-to-speech algorithm — was also the only fitting way to reveal the artist’s deep mysteries to the world, according to Rossi.
“Andy Warhol was famously guarded about his personal thoughts and opinions,” he said. “That’s one reason his diaries are such a rare and fascinating window; he could be incredibly raw and emotional as he talked to his diarist over the phone. To fully appreciate the radical vulnerability that Andy shares in the diaries, I felt that we needed to hear the words in Andy’s own voice.”
Specifically, Warhol’s AI resurrection will detail a golden age he enjoyed from the 1960s through the 1980s, delving into the time spent at his “silver factory” studio in Midtown as well as a relationship with fellow artist Jean-Michel Basquiat prior to Warhol’s death in 1987, EW reported. (Basquiat died the following year.)
“My goal is for this collage of art and journalism to depict sides of Andy you’ve never seen or heard before,” Rossi said.
