Hollywood Reacts to Controversial AI Actress Tilly Norwood

NEW YORK (AP) — The rise of an artificial intelligence-generated actress named Tilly Norwood has sparked fierce backlash from Hollywood actors. Created by Eline Van Der Velden, founder of the London-based AI studio Particle6, Tilly is being marketed as the first AI actress and is currently seeking representation from talent agencies.

Van Der Velden’s announcement at the Zurich Summit about signing Tilly with an agency prompted uproar within the entertainment community. Critics argue that the character, created without consent from real actors, undermines the art of acting. “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,” stated SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union.

Since her Instagram debut, Tilly has amassed a following of over 30,000 users, where she shares posts about her acting aspirations, claiming she can fight monsters and star in films—all in a day’s work. However, many in Hollywood view her as a symbol of a potentially harmful trend. Actress Emily Blunt criticized the idea, calling it “terrifying” and asserting that AI could disrupt the human connection of storytelling.

Other stars have voiced similar concerns. Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner and actor Cameron Cowperthwaite expressed their disapproval on social media, with Cowperthwaite saying, “This is incredibly thoughtless and frankly disturbing.” Ralph Ineson succinctly responded to the news with a blunt objection.

In defense of her creation, Van Der Velden responded to the backlash by asserting Tilly is not meant to replace humans but is instead a new form of art. “Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftsmanship,” she said, suggesting that like animation or CGI, AI brings new possibilities to storytelling.

The conversation surrounding AI in Hollywood has grown more complicated in light of recent strikes involving actors and writers, where concerns included potential exploitation through the unauthorized use of their likenesses. With major studios now negotiating protections against the misuse of actors’ work, the emergence of Tilly Norwood raises significant ethical questions for the future of film.

As industry leaders and actors grapple with the implications of AI-generated characters, the ongoing debate about the role of technology in creative fields continues to gain intensity.