AI actress Tilly Norwood creates a stir in Hollywood
Source: Particle6 / Instagram
Meet Tilly Norwood – possibly the most-talked-about actress in Hollywood right now. It’s even been suggested she could be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.
But despite her bright smile, burgeoning online presence and self-declared eagerness to forge a career on the big screen, Tilly is not the real deal.
This aspiring AI actress is the creation of producer Eline Van der Velden, CEO of European AI production studio Particle6.
Particle6 launched Tilly on Instagram several months ago and she has made international headlines this week after Van der Velden addressed a panel discussion on AI developments at the Zurich Summit, a creatives industries conference held alongside the annual Zurich Film Festival.
The producer, who has just also launched an AI talent studio called Xicoia, told the forum that studios and other entertainment companies were quietly embracing artificial intelligence.
“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’,” Deadline reported Van der Velden saying.
“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 has predicted that the 21st century will be “defined by synthetic talent”.
She’s also made no secret of her ambitions for the AI actress, telling Britain’s Broadcast International in July: “We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the aim of what we’re doing.”
Tilly’s Instagram account describes her as “a creation”. It features flattering images from her everyday life – sitting outside a coffee shop, browsing clothes racks and taking photos in a park – as well as offering a glimpse of her bedroom and cluttered desk.
One post includes a montage of clips purporting to show her in various film roles, with the accompanying caption: “In 20 seconds I fought monsters, fled explosions, sold you a car, and nearly won an Oscar. All in a day’s work … literally!”.
There’s even a short comedy sketch showing Tilly in her “first ever role” in a comedy sketch titled AI Commissioner.
Concern about real-life actors and creatives being replaced by “digital replicas” generated by AI was one of the reasons for the long-running Hollywood actors strike in 2023, and Tilly’s “debut” has sparked a backlash both online and in the real world.
Shown an image of Tilly Norwood by Variety, actress Emily Blunt said she found the development “terrifying”.
“No, are you serious? That’s an AI?,” Blunt 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.”
In a response to one of Tilly’s Instagram posts, actor Brendan Bradley snapped: “The content you have generated primarily seek to grift, not give. Exploit not entertain.”
Another, Kylie Karson, wrote: “What you’re doing isn’t clever or futuristic, it’s harmful. You’re putting people’s careers at risk and treating artists as disposable. Human beings bring stories to life in a way AI never can.”
It was also suggested that Tilly bore an uncanny resemblance to Scottish actor Briony Monroe, who herself weighed into the controversy, stating: “It has been brought to my attention that an image of my face may have been used for this picture of ‘Tilly Norwood’ (an AI created ‘actress’).”
The actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, said it would meet the AI challenge
“To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor,” the union said in a statement. “It’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers – without permission or compensation.”
Van der Velden has responded to the criticisms, arguing that AI characters should be judged on their own merits and not compared with human actors.
In a statement shared on social media on Monday (AEST), she said Tilly was not a replacement for a human being but a creative work, likening her to things like animation, puppetry and CGI, which “opened up 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,” Van der Velden said.
“She represents experimentation, not substitution.”
Source: Particle6 Productions
Interesting, while the AI Commissioner sketch begins with text stating “The video you’re about to view is 100% AI generated”, Van der Velden’s own description of how it was created reveals that there was considerable human involvement.
The script – said to playfully explore the future of TV development – was created with Chat GPT, she told Broadcast International, but it was based on her briefing, with other people also involved in adapting it to create the final version. Human direction was also necessary to finetune the “performances” by the AI actors and get the comedic emphasis right.
Sharing the news of her first role in AI Commissioner on Facebook, Tilly wrote: “I may be AI generated, but I’m feeling very real emotions right now. I am so excited for what’s coming next!”
Actress Whoopi Goldberg, host of US daytime talk show The View, said the problem with AI was that “you are suddenly up against something that’s been generated with 5000 other actors”. An AI actor may have “Bette Davis’ attitude, Humphrey Bogart’s lips” and Goldberg’s humour, giving it an unfair advantage.
“But you know what? Bring it on,” Goldberg told her fellow panellists on Tuesday (AEST).
“Because you can always tell them from us. We move differently, our faces move differently, our bodies move differently. And maybe in two or three years it’ll be seamless but it’s not seamless yet.”
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