Hollywood stars up in arms about AI “actress” Tilly Norwood: “How gross, read the room”

Tilly Norwood, the new up-and-coming “actress,” has Hollywood talking, but not for the reasons she might hope.

Norwood is an AI-generated performer created by comedian and Particle6 founder Eline Van der Velden, who revealed that talent agencies are already fighting to represent the cutting-edge “star.” Norwood made her first public appearance in a fully AI-generated video for Particle6 in July.

“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 told Deadline.

Union backlash

Not everyone is quite as enamored with Norwood, though.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) weighed in with a lengthy Instagram statement, stressing its belief that “creativity is, and should remain, human-centered.”

The union described Norwood as “not an actor” but “a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation.”

For SAG-AFTRA, the AI creation “creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”

Stars speak out

Numerous actors have since taken to social media to voice their frustration over the rise of AI performers.

• Melissa Barrera (“In the Heights”): “Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$. How gross, read the room.”
• Mara Wilson (“Matilda”): “And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn’t hire any of them?”
• Eiza González (“3 Body Problem”): “Shame on whoever is trying to normalize this.”
• Nicholas Alexander Chavez (“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”): “Not an actress actually nice try.”

Whoopi Goldberg weighs in: “Unfair” advantage

Speaking on “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg suggested AI performers have an unfair advantage over human actors.

“The problem with this, in my humble opinion, is that you are suddenly up against something that’s been generated with 5,000 other actors,” she said. “It’s got Bette Davis’ attitude, it’s got Humphrey Bogart’s lips.”

Van der Velden defends AI creation

Van der Velden has since tried to calm the controversy, defending Norwood as “not a replacement for a human being, but a piece of art.” She compared the project to “a new tool” or “a new paintbrush.”

“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,” she wrote on Instagram.

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