Meet Tilly Norwood, the AI 'actress' prompting backlash from real Hollywood stars

She can fight monsters, flee explosions, and even cry on Graham Norton — but Tilly Norwood is no Hollywood darling.

An AI "actress" called Tilly Norwood, and the European company that created her, have been criticized by real, live Hollywood talent and the American union that represents actors following the virtual star's debut.

Eline Van der Velden, CEO of AI production company Particle6, which created Norwood, said a number of entertainment companies were interested in signing deals with the AI creation, which especially riled actors.

"Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$," Scream actor Melissa Barrera wrote in an Instagram story post responding to a Deadline article about the digital creation.

Other actors posted in agreement in comments under Barrera's post, including Toni Collette, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Kiersey Clemons and Mara Wilson.

On The View, Whoopi Goldberg said the AI creations generated from many different sources could pose trouble for actors.

"It's got Bette Davis' attitude, it's got Humphrey Bogart's lips … and so it's a little bit of an unfair advantage," she said. "But you know what? Bring it on. Because you can always tell them from us."

Actor Ralph Ineson put it simply in a post on X in response to the news: "F--k off."

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing working actors in the U.S., refuted the idea that Norwood is an actor at all.

"It's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation," the union said in a statement.

"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."

The union added that its rules require notice and bargaining before AI performers can be used by producers. In 2023, actors went on strike. The use of AI was a sticking point, and the union ultimately won protections that limit the ability of studios to use AI reproductions of actors without informed consent or compensation.

In response to the blowback, Van der Velden said she never intended for Norwood to replace a human actor.

"I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool — a new paintbrush. Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories," Van der Velden wrote in a statement on the Tilly Norwood Instagram account.

Norwood is the first AI creation from Xicoia, an AI talent studio that Van der Velden told Deadline she is launching alongside Particle6, her AI company that uses the technology across the media production process, from editing to creating "digital twins" of people.

So far, Norwood has only appeared in a brief comedic video called "AI Commissioner," produced by Particle6. In the video's YouTube description, the company bills her as a "fully screen-ready AI actress, designed for any role and always ready to perform."

Van der Velden said in an interview in July that she used ChatGPT to write and refine the script for the sketch, before programming the generated characters with the dialogue and working them through various prompts in order to get their delivery right.

She said the whole process took about a month and that she hoped Norwood could become "the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman."

Many viewers who commented on the video didn't seem as enthused.

"Well … At least sketch writers know they are safe from AI for now," wrote one YouTube commenter. Another added, 'This is so dystopian."

According to Deadline, Van der Velden told an audience at the Zurich Summit film conference last weekend that people in the entertainment industry are warming to the idea of using AI.

"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,' " Van der Velden reportedly said.

Following the backlash, Gersh Agency president Leslie Siebert told Variety that her agency would not sign Norwood, though she said she wouldn't be surprised if another agency does.

Whether or not studios are warming to AI-generated performers, the technology has begun to creep into the movie-making process.

It's been used to de-age stars, dub shows in different languages and enhance visual effects, among other things.

OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has also thrown its weight behind AI video and film, with the company's creative director reportedly working on an animated AI feature film which he's said he hopes will premiere at Cannes Film Festival next May.

And big names like James Cameron have shown interest in such tools, with the famed director now on the board of AI company StabilityAI.

Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars, has allowed AI to be used in films it considers for awards.

Some movies have already incorporated the technology — including Emilia Perez and The Brutalist, both of which were nominated for best picture and won multiple Academy Awards, despite their use of AI to alter characters' voices.