Hollywood is facing a new kind of star power with “AI actor” Tilly Norwood, who doesn’t exist outside of code — and she’s already negotiating with talent agencies.
Norwood is a character made entirely by artificial intelligence, dubbed Hollywood’s first “AI actor.” She is the product of a company named Xicoia, which bills itself as the world’s first artificial intelligence talent studio.
Since Dutch producer and comedian Eline Van der Velden launched the digital character’s prospective career, Norwood has been the talk of Hollywood.
Earlier this month, Van der Velden, founder of the AI production studio Particle6, promoted Norwood at the Zurich Summit, the industry sidebar of the Zurich Film Festival. She said Norwood was in talks with talent agencies and that she expected to announce a signing soon.
“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 told Deadline’s Diana Lodderhose.
“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.”
But not everyone is excited about Norwood potentially signing with a talent agency.
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In a statement Tuesday, the Screen Actors Guild said that “creativity is, and should remain, human-centered.”
“To be clear, ‘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,” the guild said. “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.”
“Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this , drop their a$$,” In The Heights actor Melissa Barrera wrote on her Instagram Stories. “How gross, read the room.”
“Any talent agency that engages in this should be boycotted by all guilds. Deeply misguided & totally disturbed,” Natasha Lyonne wrote on Instagram.
Emily Blunt spoke about Norwood during an episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, referring to the idea of an AI actor as “terrifying.”
“Does it disappoint me? I don’t know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is,” Blunt said.
When Blunt was shown a photo of Norwood, she said, “No, are you serious? That’s an AI? 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.”
Blunt also suggested that Norwood’s creators want her to be “the next Scarlett Johansson.”
“But we have Scarlett Johansson,” she added.
Whoopi Goldberg opened up about her thoughts on Norwood during Monday’s episode of The View.
“The problem with this, in my humble opinion, is that you’re up against something that’s been generated with 5,000 other actors. It’s been given all of these — it’s got Bette Davis’s attitude … it’s got my humour,” she began.
“It’s a little bit of an unfair advantage. But you know what? Bring it on,” Goldberg said. “Because you can always tell them from us.”
In response to the backlash, Van der Velden shared a statement on Norwood’s Instagram, writing, “To those who have expressed anger over the creation of our AI character, Tilly Norwood: she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art.”
“Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity,” Van der Velden continued. “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, who is also an actor, said that nothing can take away “the craft or joy of human performance.”
“Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftsmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping performance. It takes time, skill, and iteration to bring such a character to life,” she wrote. “She represents experimentation, not substitution. Much of my work has always been about holding up a mirror to society through satire, and this is no different.”
Van der Velden said she believes that AI characters should be judged as part of their own genre and on their own merits rather than compared directly with “human actors.”
“Each form of art has its place, and each can be valued for what it uniquely brings. 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. “When we celebrate all forms of creativity, we open doors to new voices, new stories, and new ways of connecting with each other.”
Artificial intelligence is often used as a tool in film production, though its implementation is hotly debated. It was a major bargaining point in the lengthy strike by SAG-AFTRA that concluded in late 2023, with some safeguards put in place to protect the use of actors’ likenesses and performances by AI.
— With files from The Associated Press
