Tilly Norwood, a character created by artificial intelligence, has become a controversial figure in the entertainment industry, sparking heated debates about the role of AI in acting. Eline van der Velden, who started the UK-based AI production studio Particle6 and its AI division Xicoia, made Norwood. She is a young actress from London who wants to be famous and has “girl next door vibes.” Her Instagram account, which has been active since May 2025, has AI-generated headshots, selfies, and clips from her first comedy sketch, “AI Commissioner,” in which she plays a character who is looking into the future of TV development.
Norwood’s online presence is like that of a real influencer, with more than 50,000 followers by early October. She posts about shopping and iced coffee, which makes it hard to tell the difference between real and fake performers.
The character was officially revealed at the Zurich Film Festival in late September 2025. There, van der Velden said that talent agencies were talking to Norwood about acting roles. Deadline Hollywood reported this news, which made Norwood the first AI entity to get traditional Hollywood representation. This led to comparisons to stars like Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman.
Van der Velden, who used to be a physicist and is now a producer and comedian, said at the summit that studios had gotten over their initial doubts and that some executives were interested in AI-generated content. But this excitement quickly turned into backlash, which showed how scared Hollywood is that AI will take away jobs and creativity.
Hollywood’s reaction has been mostly negative, with famous actors speaking out against the idea of AI taking the place of real performers. Emily Blunt called the development “terrifying” and begged agencies to “stop taking away our human connection.” Melissa Barrera, an actress from Scream, told actors on Instagram to stop signing with Norwood, calling it “gross” and “tone-deaf.” Whoopi Goldberg said on The View that people can tell the difference between real and fake performances by seeing how faces and bodies move in different ways.
Simu Liu from Marvel said on social media that movies would be better if AI copies of people could mimic emotions. Mara Wilson, who is famous for her role in Matilda, asked if it was wrong to make Norwood by combining the faces of many young women without hiring them. These reactions show that there is a bigger worry that the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike made worse. The main issue was AI’s ability to copy performers without their permission.
The union that represents more than 160,000 performers, SAG-AFTRA, strongly condemned the character Norwood, saying that “he is not an actor” but rather a computer-generated character trained on the work of real professionals who were not paid. President Sean Astin promised to talk to agents about the problem and stressed that creativity must always be focused on people. The union is against replacing human actors with “synthetics” because it sees this as a threat to the essence of acting, which comes from empathy, life experience, and free will—things that can’t be fully replicated by an algorithm. Critics like Jenelle Riley from Variety said that calling AI entities “actresses” was wrong because the job requires things that no digital creation can do, like going to auditions and dealing with problems on set. There are also moral issues with personality rights violations and the misuse of training data, similar to past issues with using AI to create dead actors in movies like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
In his defense, van der Velden said that Norwood is not meant to replace people, but rather to be a “new tool—like a paintbrush” that works like CGI or animation to make stories more interesting without taking away from live acting. She called the project “a piece of art” that started important conversations about creativity. Particle6’s technology, which has been improved with ten AI programs, lets Norwood do a wide range of things, from fighting monsters to emotional scenes, in seconds, making him seem efficient and tireless. Some people in the industry, like Yves Bergquist from USC, called the hype “nonsense” and said that executives weren’t really interested in fully synthetic leads. Some publicists are thinking about how to represent her, while others, like Gersh, say they won’t sign her. This split is also seen on social media: Some people are upset about job threats from AI, while others see it as a way for outsiders to create content.
The argument has bigger effects on Hollywood’s future. Supporters say that AI could lower production costs, which would allow independent filmmakers to compete with studios by making movies on a budget. Norwood’s ability to never age and always be available appeals to executives who are quietly adopting AI for digital content in order to be more efficient. But critics say that the market will be flooded with “slop,” which will take away the human element that draws people in—stories based on real emotions. Comparing AI stars to virtual idols like Hatsune Miku or early CGI attempts like Aki Ross makes it seem like they might end up in smaller roles in animation or ads instead of big movies. Ultimately, viewers decide whether something is viable. If audiences don’t like strange synthetic performances, as Goldberg thinks they will, human actors win.
As of October 2025, no agency has confirmed signing Norwood, but the firestorm continues, forcing Hollywood to deal with AI’s dual role as both an innovator and a disruptor. This fight could lead to rules about AI training data and performer protections, making sure that technology adds to art instead of replacing it. Whether Norwood fades as a novelty or ushers in a synthetic era, her emergence has undeniably humanized the fears and aspirations shaping entertainment’s evolution.
