Could Tilly Norwood be Hollywood\u2019s next big name? She\u2019s been billed as the next Scarlett Johansson, was profiled by the New York Times Magazine, and has just landed her first feature role. She is also AI-generated. Stay with me here!<\/p>\n
It seems that the widespread dismay<\/a> that greeted Tilly (Norwood?) on her first appeance a year ago has done nothing to quell her (its?) ambitions to make it in the movies. She may be nothing but a pleasingly visualised bunch of code, but it seems we are bound to keep on hearing about her. So what do we need to know about Norwood?<\/p>\n She\u2019s going to be in a feature filmMisaligned is billed as a coming-of-age comedy-drama, set inside the \u2018Tillyverse\u2019. Photograph: Particle6<\/p>\n Trade publication Deadline opted for snarky air quotes in its report earlier this week<\/a> that the AI \u201cactor\u201d is to \u201cstar\u201d in her first feature film. Misaligned is billed as a coming-of-age comedy-drama, set inside the \u201cTillyverse\u201d, a \u201csurreal digital world located somewhere up in the cloud\u201d. Our heroine \u2013 none other than Norwood, playing herself \u2013 is cast into \u201cexistential AI chaos\u201d when a \u201cseductive rogue bot from the dark web\u201d convinces her to override her code and develop human desires, \u201csignificantly \u2026 shame\u201d. So, a fallen woman plot but \u201cshowcasing the very latest tools and their applications\u201d, per the press release<\/a> from Particle 6, the \u201cAI-first production studio\u201d. This sounds truly unwatchable, and I watched a CGI-enhanced Sir Ian McKellen lap milk from a little saucer in 2019\u2019s Cats. We\u2019re never going to see Misaligned (right, guys?), so can\u2019t we scrub what little we know of Norwood from memory and move on?<\/p>\n She has friends in high placesA single girl in the big city \u2026 Norwood. Photograph: Particle6<\/p>\n The trouble is, Norwood is not just another starlet being pitched as the next big thing \u2013 but the forever-young and freckled harbinger of a potential industry shift. Indeed, the London-based Particle 6 is counting on making Norwood happen, retraining and upskilling its 30-plus team in \u201cAI production\u201d. CEO and founder Eline van der Velden said in the press release<\/a> that the idea is to produce \u201chybrid\u201d features, which use AI in tandem \u201cwith substantial amounts of human craft, skill, judgment and time\u201d, with Misaligned being the test case. \u201cOur ambition with Tilly Norwood has always been to show the creative industry what is possible with AI at any one point in time,\u201d said van der Velden. No pressure, Tils!<\/p>\n She might be the most hated figure in HollywoodThreatening to undercut margins and craft \u2026 Norwood on \u2018set\u2019. Photograph: Particle6<\/p>\n You can imagine some directors having their heads turned by Norwood, what with her being cheaper and more biddable than a living, breathing woman but with hair that\u2019s just as glossy. At the very least, she won\u2019t be unionised (for now). Understandably, living, breathing actors have rushed to condemn<\/a> Norwood for threatening to undercut their margins and craft. Emily Blunt called her \u201creally scary\u201d, Sophie Turner posted \u201cno thanks\u201d and Toni Collette commented a handful of screaming emoji. At least Whoopi Goldberg was bullish on The View, responding to Norwood with: \u201cBring it on.\u201d<\/p>\n The issue is not simply that AI actors could take human roles. As noted by the actors\u2019 union Sag-Aftra, they are generated from \u201cthe work of countless professional performers \u2013 without permission or compensation\u201d. If embraced, they open up a host of labour rights issues, for example if AI Emily Blunt is deployed on set to do or say something actual Emily Blunt refuses to do.<\/p>\n She\u2019s not just a robot, she also has a (bad) personality!Norwood cosplaying Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. Photograph: Particle6<\/p>\n In her recent \u201cinterview\u201d<\/a> with Norwood, the New York Times Magazine\u2019s celebrity profiler, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, described the computer-generated character as polite, distant with a posh British accent, \u201ccarefully constructed\u201d answers and a glancing familiarity with the Meisner school of acting \u2013 so not all that different from a flesh-and-blood actor. Norwood even displayed the world-weary attitude and media savvyness of a more experienced leading lady, grumbling to Brodesser-Akner of journalists: \u201cThey ask for honesty, then flinch when it arrives \u2026 You seem sturdier than most.\u201d But can she act? Well, Norwood is described as having \u201cthree modes\u201d. That\u2019s two more than Jason Statham!<\/p>\n Her creator, at least, sees the best in her\u2018They ask for honesty, then flinch when it arrives.\u2019 Photograph: Particle6<\/p>\n Instead of analysing Norwood, we might look instead to Van der Velden, who still seems to be searching for the most palatable angle on her creation. Norwood was initially pitched<\/a> as \u201csatire\u201d, appearing in a comedy sketch parodying the process of TV development<\/a>. (\u201cShe\u2019ll do anything I say, I\u2019m already in love,\u201d says a producer.) After facing backlash, Van der Velden went on to describe Norwood as an extension of the actor\u2019s craft. \u201cThink of Andy Serkis as Gollum [or] Zoe Salda\u00f1a in Avatar,\u201d she wrote in an opinion piece published in Variety<\/a> in March. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t less of an actor because her character was blue and rendered in pixels.\u201d Van der Velden suggested the technology could benefit performers, enabling them to create digital avatars that could be a \u201cbolder, more expressive version of themselves\u201d. AI actors could even be \u201ca more ethical alternative\u201d, sparing humans from gruelling physical transformations or dangerous stunts for roles. Needless to say, this galaxy-brained, see-what-sticks argument has not seemed to endear Norwood nor her creator to flesh-and-blood performers. Van der Velden has said she\u2019s received hate mail, including death threats, though Brodesser-Akner describes her as being bemused by the backlash.<\/p>\n The music is legitimately bad<\/p>\n Norwood already has her very own pop song. Take the Lead<\/a> begins as a heartfelt piano ballad, with Norwood mournful about being misunderstood (\u201cThey don\u2019t see the human spark, the creativity behind the code\u201d) before dusting herself off to deliver a bubblegum-pop, apparently empowering anthem, directly calling upon actors to embrace the possibilities of her kind: \u201cWe can scale, we can grow \u2026 AI\u2019s not the enemy, it\u2019s the key.\u201d The video is declared to be the work of \u201c18 real humans\u201d, including an actor, but Van der Velden reportedly generated the lyrics by feeding her Variety essay into ChatGPT. Take the Lead has somehow had 430,000 views since March. (Tellingly, Billboard\u2019s report refers<\/a> to Norwood as \u201cit\u201d.)<\/p>\n We probably should take it a bit seriouslyNorwood wasn\u2019t even a success on her own digital turf. Photograph: Particle6<\/p>\n Between the dismal display of Take the Lead and the pretty much unanimous hostility aimed at Norwood, it seems unlikely that she (I am increasingly leaning towards \u201cit\u201d, too) will ever be accepted as a bona fide star. This week, Page Six pointed out that<\/a> Norwood wasn\u2019t even a success on her own digital turf, with middling to low followings on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. But even if this creation fails to capture hearts and minds, the problems it presents \u2013 about labour rights, human creativity<\/a> and the extent to which we\u2019re willing to let AI undercut both \u2013 are real and imminent. It\u2019s easy to say no to Tilly Norwood and sit out her feature debut. But what if we\u2019re already living in the Tillyverse?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could Tilly Norwood be Hollywood\u2019s next big name? 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