Tilly Norwood has become one of the most divisive actresses in Hollywood — and she’s not even a human being.
The AI-generated actor was created by Eline Van der Velden, a Dutch actor and comedian who said at a tech event on Sept. 27 that a number of talent agents are interested in signing Norwood, according to Deadline.
The revelation by Van der Velden has sparked a backlash from Hollywood actors, directors and other creatives.
Here’s what to know.
Who is Tilly Norwood?
The world’s most controversial actor at the moment is an AI-generated creation of Xicoia, an artificial intelligence talent studio launched by Van der Velden.
The Dutch actor said at the Zurich Summit in Switzerland on Sept. 27 that companies are interested in using Norwood.
“We were in a lot of boardrooms around February time, and everyone was like, ‘No, this is nothing. It’s not going to happen’. Then, by May, people were like, ‘We need to do something with you guys.’ When we first launched Tilly, people were like, ‘What’s that?’ and now we’re going to be announcing which agency is going to be representing her in the next few months,” Van der Velden said in her presentation, according to Deadline.
Van der Velden then compared her aspirations with the AI-generated actor to real-life actors.
“We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the aim of what we’re doing,” Van der Velden told the UK’s Broadcast International.
If a talent agency signs the AI-generated actor, it would make Norwood one of the first to be represented by the talent agents that have always worked with flesh-and-blood actors.
What is the Backlash Against Tilly Norwood?
Multiple actors and directors have spoken out against the notion of a 100% AI actor.
“I don’t know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is,” actor Emily Blunt told Variety.
She was then shown an image of Norwood.
“No, are you serious? That’s an AI?” she said. “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.”
“This is literally the mark of the end of the industry as we know it… say goodbye to actors,” Oscar-nominated director Luca Guadagnino wrote on X. “No one should be supporting this.”
Name-checking Johansson as an aspiration for Norwood may have been a particularly sensitive issue.
In 2024, Johansson said she hired legal counsel after claiming the company OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, used her voice’s likeness without her consent for one of its new AI voice assistants.
Johansson’s famously smoky voice was used in the 2013 science-fiction movie “Her” to power a fictionalized AI chatbot. OpenAI denied modeling the assistant after Johansson, but ultimately suspended using the voice.
The use of artificial intelligence by film studios was also a crucial bargaining point in the actors’ strike in 2023. Actors, directors and other creators were concerned their likenesses or voices could be used in films, movies and other creations without their compensation or consent.
The SAG-AFTRA union weighed in with a statement after learning about Tilly Norwood.
“SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered,” the union said. “The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.
“To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood” is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” the statement continued.
“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. It doesn’t solve any ‘problem’ — it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”
How Has Tilly Norwood’s Creator Responded to the Backlash?
Van der Velden responded with a lengthy statement shared on Sept. 28 on Instagram.
“To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood: she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art,” she wrote. “Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.”
“I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool — a new paintbrush,” she continued. “Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories. I’m an actor myself, and nothing — certainly not an AI character — can take away the craft or joy of human performance.”