Retired Hollywood film star Bruce Willis did not sell the legal rights to his face, his agent confirmed Saturday.

The Daily Mail reported last week that Willis had sold the rights to his face to Deepcake, a Russian deepfake company. This company can recreate videos of actors by mimicking their old work with artificial intelligence.

Willis has "no partnership or agreement" with Deepcake, a spokesperson told BBC News.

Willis, 67, retired in March. His family said had been diagnosed with aphasia, a language disorder that involves a person's inability to understand or express speech.

Willis' face was used by Deepcake to create a "deepfake" in a commercial for Russian telecom company Megafon. Deepcake also uses a quote from Willis on its website to promote its work.

"I liked the precision of my character. It's a great opportunity for me to go back in time," the quote says.

The deepfake of Willis was created by using a neural network to put an image of his face onto the face of another actor.

"What he definitely did is that he gave us his consent (and a lot of materials) to make his Digital Twin," Deepcake told BBC News.

Deepcake later confirmed to BBC News that, "The wording about rights is wrong… Bruce couldn't sell anyone any rights, they are his by default."

The Daily Telegraph had reported on Wednesday that Willis was "the first Hollywood star to sell his rights to allow a 'digital twin' of himself to be created for use on screen."

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