James Cromwell stars in "I, Robot" as a brilliant scientist who may have died at the hands of a robot he created. In this interview from the movie's World Premiere, James Cromwell discusses the issues raised in the film and how they relate to contemporary times.

INTERVIEW WITH JAMES CROMWELL ('Dr. Alfred Lanning'):

You've said the issues raised in the movie are what attracted you to this project in the first place. Can you elaborate on that?
I?m interested in the dilemma about how we control the machines that we make.

Because in any machine that we make is an implicit flaw. Our minds are only a miniscule sliver about what reality is. And we, the rest of us, our feelings, our aspirations, our dreams, they are in all of reality. Our mind is a very, very, very, thin plane. The mind tells you, ?Yeah, but my plane is everything and the rest of it is not important.? This is not true.

And you saw this addressed in the script and that?s why you signed on?
I saw what they were getting at in the script. They were taking it seriously; this just wasn?t a popcorn film. It wasn?t just a murder mystery. But what Akiva Goldman and Will [Smith] wanted was to explore this dilemma. It?s a story so that people begin to recognize that they have to think. I hope they think.

But it?s coming out in the summer and it?s advertised as an action-adventure film so how do you get people to understand there actually is a good story behind all that?
You have to surprise them once they get in there. If you told them, ?Look, this is about an ethical and moral dilemma,? they?ll say, ?I don?t want to see that picture.? If you say, ?Look, it?s a romp in the hay.

You?ll love it.? Then they?ll come, and they?re surprised. That?s what a good film should do.

This is only set 30 years in the future. Is this something you see happening in 30 years?
All the dilemmas of robotics, of intelligent computers, and of biogenetics are all coming to pass within 2030. By 2030 we will have the dilemma of? This is the dilemma: a woman with a baby goes to a doctor and the doctor says, ?Your baby in your womb has the propensity to have this disease. I know what gene will fix this. I will go in and take care of it if you want me to.? The mother says, ?Of course.? He says, ?While I?m in there, would you like him to have blue eyes, blonde hair, be 6?2?, 240 lbs, and run the 100 yard dash in 9 flat?? Now what?s she going to say? ?Ah, no, I?d rather have a little?? Pretty soon then, for the people who can afford it, there will be another race of human beings. They will not be able to interbreed with those people who are not genetically modified. We will now have two stratas, two different species of human beings. Think of it. This is, to me, reprehensible. And scientists will go in that direction because they will say, ?You can?t stand in the way of science, wherever it takes us.? But I believe there?s a moral dilemma that if we don?t take really seriously, we will lose our capacity to be human. We will give it up to machines as we give up our agency now to our cars and our computers and our cell phones and whatever the hell. And that?s a real danger.

How do you stop it from going that far?
Get people to be more aware, more informed, more human. Create more opportunities for children to sing, to dance, to do art, to interact with each other. To not react violently, to understand the aspirations and the dreams and the suffering of other people at a distance. To empathize. To really celebrate and experience our humanity with ourselves and with each other. That?s the antidote.

Empathy is the key in that.
Absolutely. Balance and kindness. Everything in balance.

ADDITIONAL INTERVIEWS FROM THE WORLD PREMIERE OF ?I, ROBOT?:
Will Smith & Bruce Greenwood / Alan Tudyk / Shia LaBeouf & Paul Teutul Jr.
Special Premiere Guests: Jason Isaacs / Nick Cannon / Ron Lester