NEED TO KNOW
Hollywood had a lot to say after Dutch actor and comedian Eline Van Der Velden claimed on Sept. 27 that talent agencies are interested in signing her AI-generated actress, Tilly Norwood
“Good Lord, we’re screwed. That is really, really scary,” Emily Blunt said in an interview, in reaction to seeing an image of the AI-generated actress
The Screen Actors Guild condemned the AI-generated actress’ existence in a statement, stating, “To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor”
The latest artificial intelligence controversy gripping Hollywood has a name: Tilly Norwood.
According to Deadline, Dutch actor and comedian Eline Van Der Velden claimed that her new AI talent studio Xicoia is in negotiations with talent agents interested in signing Norwood, an AI actress, during an appearance at the Zurich Summit on Saturday, Sept. 27, sparking immediate pushback and criticisms from celebrities, like Emily Blunt, Sophie Turner, Whoopi Goldberg and the Screen Actors Guild.
“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,” Van der Velden said at the event, per Deadline.
An Instagram account attributed to Norwood began posting photos as far back as May 6; it currently has over 36,000 followers and has shared videos, like “my first ever role” in a video titled AI Commissioner back in July, which Norwood’s account wrote “playfully explores the future of TV development.” The completely AI-generated video features Norwood and other synthetic actors promoting supposed positives associated with AI’s use in television development, including a promise to monetize the AI actress’ ‘interview’ appearances and an AI-generated man saying, “She’ll do anything I say — I’m already in love.”
“Wow…. No thanks,” Turner, 29, wrote in a comment in response to the video.
Tilly Norwood/Instagram
AI-generated actress Tilly Norwood
“Does it disappoint me? I don’t know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is,” Blunt, the 42-year-old Oscar-nominated actress, told Variety on Sept. 30 when she was first made aware of Norwood’s existence. When she was shown an AI-generated image of Norwood, Blunt 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.”
When Variety told Blunt that Norwood’s creators “want her to be the next Scarlett Johansson,” she responded, “but we have Scarlett Johansson.”
SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents tens of thousand of actors and other performers, said in a statement regarding the AI actress issued on Tuesday, Sept. 30 that the guild “believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered.”
“The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics,” the statement read. “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. 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.”
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“It doesn’t solve any ‘problem’ — it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry,” the statement added. “Additionally, signatory producers should be aware that they may not use synthetic performers without complying with our contractual obligations, which require notice and bargaining whenever a synthetic performer is going to be used.”
Goldberg, 69, also weighed in on the controversy on The View Monday, Sept. 29, stating that “the problem with this, in my humble opinion, is that suddenly you are up against something that has been generated with 5,000 other actors.”
“It’s been given all of these – it’s got Bette Davis’ attitude, it’s got my humor, and so it’s a little bit of an unfair advantage, but you know what, bring it on,” she said. “Because you can always tell them from us, we move differently, our faces move differently, our bodies move differently. Maybe in two or three years it’ll be seamless, but it’s not seamless yet.”
Van der Velden, Norwood’s creator, released a statement claiming Norwood “is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art,” in a message shared to her Instagram on Sunday, Sept. 28. “Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity,” the statement read.
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