Greta Garbo appears in AI-made SKF advert as relative considers future film roles

Greta Garbo appears in an AI-generated advert released by Swedish industrial company SKF on 30 September 2026, more than a century after her early screen work in Sweden. Craig Reisfield, one of three relatives who manage her legacy, told the Guardian he would consider a future film role for an AI version of the actor. His comments do not identify an agreed role or a film in production.

The roughly 99-second advert intercuts the recreated Garbo with shots of ball bearings, according to the Guardian. SKF says the campaign is intended to draw attention to its magnetic bearings and a way for customers to pay for technology through energy savings over time. The company developed the initiative with Garbo’s family and Harriet Brown & Company Inc., it says.

What Garbo’s relative said about a film role

Asked by the Guardian whether the AI Garbo could take other roles, Reisfield said: ‘I won’t say no, especially having seen what I’ve seen.’ He called the recreation ‘pretty incredible and lifelike’ and asked what would prevent Garbo from returning ‘in some kind of fashion in a film role’. That is an expression of openness from one family representative, rather than an announcement of a casting decision.

Reisfield said he was ‘flabbergasted’ by the result. He told the Guardian that he knew his great-aunt personally, having driven for her and seen her at family occasions when she lived in New York. He singled out the recreation of her mannerisms, clothing, face and voice, describing the experience of seeing it as touching.

How the SKF advert recreates Garbo

The Guardian reports that the creators used text prompts with AI models including Seedream and Google’s Nano Banana Pro to construct Garbo’s appearance. According to its account, they did not feed still or moving images of her into those models because that material was protected by copyright. A human actor performed the role beneath the AI-generated appearance, while Garbo’s voice was recreated from a recording from an early film.

That account describes how this advert was made; it does not establish how a possible future film would be produced. The Guardian says Garbo’s likeness had previously appeared posthumously in work by Ferragamo, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, but describes the SKF campaign as her first moving-image AI performance. The new use therefore puts a performance, rather than a still likeness, at the centre of the family’s discussion about future roles.

Why SKF brought Garbo into its bearings campaign

SKF links the campaign to Garbo’s early screen history. The Guardian reports that she appeared in a 1921 promotional film involving the company. A separate UCLA Film & Television Archive record documents a 1921 Swedish short directed by Lasse Ring that compiled two commercials shown in Stockholm theatres. It describes Garbo, then Greta Gustafsson, modelling hats and eating pastries. The archive identifies her first leading feature role as the 1924 Swedish film The Saga of Gösta Berling.

In its announcement, SKF says the advert promotes magnetic bearings and revives a payment principle it introduced in 1919: customers could finance an investment through energy savings generated over time. Per Nilsson, the company’s global head of communication and brand, said bringing Garbo back was intended to draw more attention to frictionless and energy-efficient technology.

SKF says its magnetic bearings suspend a rotating shaft in a magnetic field without physical contact. It lists data centres, cooling systems and semiconductor applications among their uses. Chief executive Rickard Gustafson says the bearings ‘eliminate friction entirely’, while the company says they can reduce energy use, wear and maintenance. Those are SKF’s descriptions of its technology; the announcement provides no measured savings from a particular installation.