Why an AI actor has irked Hollywood

Hollywood is up in arms again. This time, an AI “actor” has made the bigwigs in the entertainment industry furious. Tilly Norwood, who is not a real person, has created a stir in Hollywood.

A-listers like Emily Blunt and Natasha Lyonne have criticised the synthetic performer who is reportedly in talks with major talent agencies. Her creator has responded to the backlash.

Here’s what we know.

Who is Tilly Norwood?

Tilly Norwood is created by an artificial intelligence (AI) talent studio Xicoia, a spin-off of AI production studio Particle6, of Dutch comedian, writer and actor Eline Van der Velden.

Norwood, who has her own social media accounts, was recently unveiled at the Zurich film festival. Her creator said in September that the AI “actor” has drawn interest from talent agents.

“We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the aim of what we’re doing,” creator Van der Velden told Broadcast International. She said that economic reasons were leading the movie and TV business toward AI production.

She told the crowd they should expect public announcements about high-profile projects using the technology in the coming months.

In a post on LinkedIn, Van der Velden commented, “Audiences? They care about the story - not whether the star has a pulse. Tilly is already attracting interest from talent agencies and fans. The age of synthetic actors isn’t ‘coming’ — it’s here.”

Norwood has featured in a fully AI-generated comedy sketch, AI Commissioner. “I may be AI generated, but I’m feeling very real emotions right now,” her creators wrote on her Facebook page on the day it was released. “I am so excited for what’s coming next!”

Outrage in Hollywood

Tilly Norwood is facing the ire of Hollywood.

The Devil Wears Prada star Emily Blunt told a Variety podcast: “Does it disappoint me? I don’t know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is.”

When shown an image of Norwood, she said: “No, are you serious? That’s an AI? Good Lord, we’re screwed. That is really, really scary, Come on, agencies, don’t do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection.”

Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnegro posted on social media that this was the end of the industry as we know it: “Say goodbye to actors. No one should be supporting this".

Some Hollywood actors called for the talent agencies hiring the so-called AI-generated actress to be outed.

Scream’s Melissa Barrera wrote on her Instagram stories: “Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$.”

“And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn’t hire any of them?” Matilda star Mara Wilson wrote.

Actor-comedian Whoopi Goldberg said on the US talk show, The View, that AI-generated actors have “a bit of an unfair advantage.” “The problem with this, in my humble opinion, is that you are suddenly up against something that’s been generated with 5000 other actors.”

However, she added that she was up for the challenge. “Bring it on. You can always tell them from us. We move differently, our faces move differently, our bodies move differently.”

Russian Doll actor Natasha Lyonne demanded that anyone who worked with Norwood be boycotted. “Any talent agency that engages in this should be boycotted by all guilds,” she said, as per BBC. “Deeply misguided & totally disturbed.”

Norwood “is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers,” the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, said in a statement.

“It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience,” the union said.

The furore over Norwood comes amid an intense debate in Hollywood over the use of AI in films and television . Two years ago, during labour strikes in the industry, writers and actors demanded protection from the technology.

AI actor’s creator responds to backlash

In a statement on Norwood’s Instagram page, her creator Van der Velden said that she is “not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art”.

“Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance,” she said, adding that such creations should be judged “as part of their own genre” rather than compared to human actors.

“Each form of art has its place, and each can be valued for what it uniquely brings. I hope we can welcome AI as part of the wider artistic family: one more way to express ourselves, alongside theatre, film, painting, music, and countless others,” the Dutch creator wrote.

“When we celebrate all forms of creativity, we open doors to new voices, new stories, and new ways of connecting with each other.”

With inputs from agencies