ElevenLabs partners with McConaughey, Caine for AI voice cloning

AI audio company ElevenLabs announced partnerships with actors Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine on November 11, 2025, at its inaugural Summit in San Francisco, where it launched its Iconic Marketplace for licensing AI-generated celebrity voices.businesswire
McConaughey, who is both an investor and customer, is using the technology to create a Spanish-language version of his newsletter Lyrics of Livin’ narrated in his AI-cloned voice, while Caine’s voice joins over 25 other iconic figures available for commercial licensing.businesswire
The marketplace aims to address ethical concerns around AI voice cloning by enabling companies to legally license voices of famous figures ranging from living celebrities to historical icons like Maya Angelou, Alan Turing, and John Wayne.businesswire
The announcements come as unauthorized AI voice replication sparks growing controversy in Hollywood, with the platform positioning itself as a “consent-based, performer-first approach” to celebrity voice licensing.techbuzz

ElevenLabs Partners With McConaughey and Caine for AI Voice Cloning

AI audio company ElevenLabs announced partnerships with actors Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine on November 11, 2025, allowing the company to create digital replicas of their voices at a time when unauthorized AI voice cloning has sparked widespread controversy in Hollywood.

The announcements came at ElevenLabs’ inaugural Summit in San Francisco, where the company launched its Iconic Marketplace alongside revealing McConaughey as both an investor and customer. The 92-year-old Caine becomes a centerpiece of the marketplace, which enables companies to license AI-generated voices of over 25 famous figures—the majority deceased—including Maya Angelou, John Wayne, Judy Garland, and Alan Turing.businesswire

“With ElevenLabs, we can preserve and share voices—not just mine, but anyone’s,” Caine said in a statement. “ElevenLabs is at the very forefront of technology, using innovation not to replace humanity, but to celebrate it.”businesswire

McConaughey, who invested an undisclosed sum in the company valued at $6.6 billion as of September 2025, will use the technology to create a Spanish-language version of his newsletter-podcast “Lyrics of Livin'” narrated in his AI-cloned voice. “Since our first conversation, I’ve been impressed by how the ElevenLabs team has taken the magic of the core technology and turned it into products that creators, enterprises, and storytellers use daily,” McConaughey stated.reuters

Industry Tensions Rise Over AI Voice Technology

The partnerships arrive amid escalating tensions over AI voice replication. On the same day as the ElevenLabs announcement, Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman told The Guardian his lawyers have been “very, very busy” pursuing unauthorized AI clones of his voice. “I’m like any other actor: don’t mimic me with falseness. I don’t appreciate it, and I get paid for doing stuff like that, so if you’re gonna do it without me, you’re robbing me,” Freeman said.wbls

The National Association of Voice Actors reports that nearly 15 percent of voice actors have lost work to synthetic voices, according to a 2025 survey. Tim Friedlander, the organization’s president, told a local news station that voice actors are “kind of the canaries in the coal mine” for AI concerns across the entertainment industry.globenewswire

ElevenLabs emphasizes its marketplace “solves a key ethical challenge in AI-driven media creation by enabling the ethical sourcing and licensing” of voices. CEO Mati Staniszewski said the company is “proud to build tools that democratize the creative process, expand access to technology, and foster responsible innovation”. The company does not publicly list pricing for celebrity voice licenses, requiring potential clients to contact them directly with project details.businesswire