A routing failure at Shanghai-based streaming service LanternPlay sent a 74-second rehearsal clip to 26 million subscriber accounts at 08:12 on Friday, turning a private comeback discussion into a public ultimatum. The clip featured Evelyn Mai Senn, the 89-year-old Shanghai-born actress, saying she would return to the screen only if producers promised not to replace her performance with a computer-generated younger version.
LanternPlay said 6.2 million users opened the clip before it was removed 18 minutes later. The company said the fault affected its recommendation and notification systems, not customer payment details; it has suspended promotional video alerts while it checks the software. Senn’s representatives confirmed the recording was genuine and said the actress would address her plans herself.
A comeback on her terms
“I will not return as a face pasted over somebody else’s performance,” Senn says in the clip, recorded during a closed rehearsal for a proposed historical drama. She also says she is willing to resume acting after a 14-year absence, but only if the camera records her as she is. The production had discussed a digital de-ageing process for scenes spanning several decades.
I will not return as a face pasted over somebody else’s performance.
Evelyn Mai Senn, actress
The studio, Silver Heron Pictures, had offered Senn a reported RMB 40 million (about €5.1 million) contract for the role, according to two people briefed on the negotiations. Its producer, who was not named in the rehearsal recording, has not publicly responded. Senn’s agent said no contract had been signed and that she had not authorised the clip’s release.
How the clip escaped
LanternPlay customer-care director Akanksha Balay-Banerjee said a test file was wrongly labelled as a launch trailer after a software update. “A rehearsal asset should never have been eligible for subscriber alerts. We failed to catch that before the morning send,” she said, adding that the company had begun contacting subscribers and would publish a technical account by 16 October.
Broadcast-systems consultant Vivek Rao said the speed and scale of the distribution pointed to a failure in the platform’s safeguards, not a single mistaken tap. “A test clip has to pass through several gates before it reaches a mass audience. If one label can open all of them, the design is unsafe,” he said. LanternPlay has not said how many staff accounts could access the rehearsal file.
Senn’s words have sharpened a debate in China’s film industry over studios’ use of digital replicas, which can alter an actor’s appearance or reproduce parts of a performance. Screen archivist Constance Paucek-Keebler said older performers had little control over how their likenesses might be reused once a production held the necessary footage. “The technology is moving faster than the contracts,” she said.
In a short video posted Friday evening, Senn confirmed she was considering a comeback but said no studio had permission to reproduce her face or voice. She thanked viewers for sharing the clip, while criticising LanternPlay for distributing a conversation that was not meant for the public. The streamer said it would meet her representatives and review its release controls before restoring video alerts.
