The Andy Warhol Diaries, a published collection of the artists’ personal reflections, is a work of art in and of itself. But it did not come from the artists’ own hand.
Warhol dictated his confessions, from the mundane to the intimate to the controversial and scandalous, to his friend and amanuensis, Pat Hackett — beginning after Warhol was shot in 1976 and continuing until five days before his death in 1987. Hackett’s edited version of his musings became a bestseller, but adapting it to the screen gave Warhol’s reverie a vibrant, new vitality — and four Emmy nominations.
Suspend your disbelief for the narration, and you take the place of Hackett listening to Warhol on one end of a receiver. A monotonous mix of narration by voice actor Bill Irwin and an AI recreation of Warhol’s voice tells the artists’ tales of nights out, love affairs, fallouts, fire, and everything in-between. The robotic voice teeters on the edge of the uncanny valley, but is similar enough for recounting Warhol’s illustrious life. After all, Andy did always say he wanted to be a machine.