The creator of AI actor Tilly Norwood has insisted the character is “a piece of art” in response to backlash that talent agents were looking to sign the so-called “next Scarlett Johansson”.
Tilly, a white, brunette and brown-eyed AI creation, is by Eline Van der Velden, CEO of AI-focused production company Particle 6, and the AI talent studio Xicoia.
Van der Velden said in a statement posted online: “To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my 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.”
The creator claimed that AI is not a replacement for people, but a new tool or 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 wrote.
Van der Velden soft-launched Tilly earlier this year, creating accounts for the character on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, complete with AI-generated selfies of Tilly alongside captions like “Hey besties”. The creator has said she wants Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.
After a film industry summit in Zurich over the weekend, Deadline reported that several Hollywood talent agents are interested in signing Norwood.
In the Heights star Melissa Barrera, Kiersey Clemons and Toni Collette are among the Hollywood stars who have called out the development on social media, with some even suggesting a boycott of agencies that work with AI talent.
Barrera called the news “gross”, writing: “Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$.”
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On Instagram, Matilda star Mara Wilson asked: “And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn’t hire any of them?”
Nicholas Alexander Chavez, who played Lyle Menendez in Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, added: “Not an actress actually, nice try.”
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Other stars responded with humour, with The White Lotus actor Lukas Gage writing: “She was a nightmare to work with!!!!”
Van der Velden, who is also an actor, claimed in her statement that an AI character cannot “take away the craft or joy of human performance”.
“AI characters should be judged as part of their own genre, on their own merits… Each form of art has its place, and each can be valued for what it uniquely brings,” she wrote.
“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. When we celebrate all forms of creativity, we open doors to new voices, new stories, and new ways of connecting with each other.”
The 2023 strike by SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood union representing 160,000 television and movie actors, was partly related to concerns over the rise of AI in filmmaking.
During the strike, SAG-AFTRA alleged that Hollywood studios were proposing the use of “groundbreaking AI” to scan background performers and offer them only a day’s pay while the companies would retain ownership of the scans and use them for any project they want.
