In May 2025, an AI-generated actress called “Tilly Norwood” was developed by the Dutch company Xicoia, a division of the existing production company Particle6 that was founded by actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden. Since Norwood’s creation, her Instagram page has gained over sixty thousand followers, and her team has reached out to talent agencies in hopes she will become the “next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman”.
Van der Velden optimistically stated that the proliferation of digital actors like Tilly Norwood could usher in a new age of the film industry where production costs are cut by 90% from the decrease in actors’ wages, saying that “creativity doesn’t need to be boxed in by a budget”. She has also clarified that AI digital actors are not meant to serve as a replacement or put into competition with real-life actors, instead seeing Norwood’s creation as an act of art.
Nonetheless, the underlying significance that Norwood embodies as a digital actor triggered negative feedback across Hollywood. One major source of criticism came from the SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) union. Previously, in July 2023, the SAG-AFTRA went on a strike until November of that year in anticipation of the threats that new AI tools pose to labor in the film industry. In their recent statement, they claimed digital actors such as Norwood “creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry”. The implication that Tilly Norwood was trained on professional performers without their consent poses a potential violation of the SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) agreement. Further, if Tilly Norwood were to be hired, the AMPTP is required to notify the SAG-AFTRA and allow a good-faith bargain before replacing a human actor with a “synthetic performer.”
However, the only project Tilly Norwood has been featured in so far is a video called “AI Commissioner”, a Particle6 comedy sketch released in July 2025. With 16 different digital actors, the sketch advertised the advantages of AI synthetic performers, introducing Norwood at the end. Using an AI-generated script, The Guardian called the video “relentlessly unfunny to watch,” and it had a noticeable uncanny quality, particularly during the slight glitches and unnatural body/facial movements. Actress Whoopi Goldberg shared similar sentiments about the distinct movements between AI and real actors, asserting that audiences could tell the difference, thus making digital actors like Tilly Norwood unlikely competition. Similarly, Yves Bergquist, the director of AI in media at USC’s Entertainment Technology Center, reduces Norwood to a “gimmick,” arguing that while digital actors might be featured in films in the future, they’re not going to stand out as talent. Regardless, many household names in the acting industry, including Mara Wilson, Emily Blunt, Sophie Turner, and Ralph Ineson, have commented on their preemptive fear and disapproval of Norwood as one of the first personified digital actors.
What will the rapid progression of AI actors mean for Hollywood and the film industry? There are legal issues surrounding copyright and personality rights. Are digital actors trained on professional performances a copyright infringement? Moreover, if Tilly Norwood is not a real person, she may not possess personality (or publicity) rights to benefit from her identity, including being hired as an actress. And if she were to be hired, her lack of personhood would render her performances, unlike the ones of real actors, open to the public domain, unprotected by copyrights. Yet, entertaining the idea of synthetic performers overcoming these legal barriers, it could change the makeup of the film industry. Will the uncanny valley effect soon become minimized (or nonexistent) as AI continues to develop? Or will audiences adjust and become accustomed to digital actors’ odd movements? Perhaps, as Bergquist said, digital actors won’t gain enough notoriety to go further than extra work, which may allow production to devote more funding to other aspects of their film. Or maybe we have just met our next Scarlett Johansson.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.