AI-Generated Actress Tilly Norwood Sparks Backlash

By NOS.3 Editorial Team

Hollywood is facing a new kind of controversy, and it doesn’t involve a diva on set. Meet Tilly Norwood, not a rising starlet, but an AI-generated actress created by UK-based Particle6 and its founder, Eline Van der Velden.

The studio made headlines at the Zurich Summit when Van der Velden revealed she was in talks to sign Tilly with a real talent agency. The idea of an artificial performer with representation immediately set off alarm bells across the industry.

Emily Blunt called the prospect “terrifying” in an interview with Variety and begged agencies to stop replacing “our human connection.” Simu Liu joined in with Instagram sarcasm: “Movies are great, but you know what would be better? If actual humans didn’t play the characters in them, but by AI replicas approximating human emotion.”

On The View, Whoopi Goldberg warned that AI actors have an “unfair advantage” against real performers. Even SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s most powerful actors’ union, issued a firm statement saying creativity should remain human-centered, and AI characters trained on “stolen performances” devalue artistry and put livelihoods at risk.

Meanwhile, Norwood’s digital persona has already amassed over 30,000 Instagram followers, sharing clips from her “first acting role” in the comedy sketch “AI Commissioner.” In a post, she even claimed to feel “very real emotions.”

Van der Velden insists Tilly is “a piece of art, not a replacement for human actors.” However, with the industry still reeling from strikes over AI, Hollywood’s backlash suggests that this conversation is just beginning.

Discover more of Tilly @tillynorwood.