SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood Stars, And Movie Fans Decry AI Actress ‘Tilly Norwood’
The 2025 Zurich Film Festival has sent Hollywood into turmoil after its unveiling of AI actress Tilly Norwood. After her ‘on stage’ debut, Norwood’s creator announced at the Zurich Summit that the AI actress could see her big-screen debut soon, as she has apparently caught the interest of big studios and talent agencies.
Though the announcement has been widely condemned as an existential threat to the industry by actors and SAG-AFTRA, there are some who see this announcement as nothing more than a marketing stunt.
Appearing alongside Luma AI’s Dream Labs LA director Verena Puhm at the September 2025 summit, the UK-based Particle6 and Xicoia founder Eline Van der Velden shared details regarding the announcement.
Per Deadline, Van der Velden declared, “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.”
The announcement stirred a string of headlines from major outlets, which left some Hollywood stars reacting in outrage on social media.
However, social media users were quick to point out the critical details that Van der Velden’s announcement misses.
“Why are there articles about this everywhere? This is so clearly a marketing campaign by Xicoia and Particle6 for their tools that drive this AI character,” a user pointed out in the comments section of a Reddit thread that discussed the announcement.
The user went on, “None of their claims about agency interest are even verified by anyone reporting on it, they’re just parroting what Xicoia is claiming. It’s just click bait sensationalism.”
According to Van der Velden, she couldn’t name the studios and agencies that approached her company because of NDAs. Consequently, none of the major outlets reporting on the story has given any names, which left many movie fans suspicious of the timing and the intentions behind the announcement, which has earned the previously obscure startup immense public interest.
Another Reddit user asserted, “Wonder how much Xicoia paid all these publications for articles. This is clearly manufactured outrage designed to drive investment interest.”
In the comments section of the Deadline post that broke the news, some movie fans hit directly at Van der Velden, bringing attention to her past failed attempts to make a name for herself in the entertainment industry.
“Eline Van der Velden is a failed actress and has been bumming around Hollywood trying to get work off gimmicks for years. google her ‘female borat’ videos,” pointed out one commenter. “This is all about attention and I seriously doubt she’s having any real conversations with real talent agents about her so called ‘ai actress.'”
When the AI was launched, the company touted it as the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman. From crying on the Graham Norton Show to walking on the red carpet, Norwood’s debut video by Particle6 depicts a stunningly beautiful actress with seemingly perfect visual features.
However, cracks begin to show when she finally speaks; the creation doesn’t exactly live up to the high standards claimed by the company. Besides struggling to replicate human emotion, Tilly Norwood hardly sounds human and doesn’t exactly have the facial expression to accompany her words.
Her performance was heavily criticized in the video’s comments section as users pointed out her multiple flaws, including her inability to maintain a consistent single face, her teeth glitching and folding into a single white block mid-speech, and the sense of creepiness that accompanies her speech.
The universal criticism of the performance hasn’t alleviated the fear that Tilly Norwood is the first of many AI performers that could soon put the very people whose faces and performances are used to create and train AI out of work.
The news of filmmakers being interested in hiring Norwood and the vast attention gained by the AI’s creators after the events in Zurich are evidence of how big a threat actors and other employees of the entertainment industry are facing.
Hollywood stars on Instagram were quick to condemn Van der Velden’s announcement, as many called for mass exits from whichever talent agency picks the AI as a client.
Reacting to the news, actress Chelsea Edmundson took to Instagram to express her dissatisfaction with the announcement.
“Not surprised that the first major ‘AI actor’ is a young woman that they can fully control and make do whatever they want,” Edmundson decried.
Echoing Edmundson’s comments, actress Mara Wilson weighed in, declaring, “And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn’t hire any of them?”
Scream star Melissa Barrera posted on her Instagram stories, “Hope all the actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$. How Gross, read the room,” in response to the news, as shared by Deadline. Similarly, actor and writer Luke Barnett said, “I hope whichever agency wins loses every a lister they have.”
In response to the news, SAG-AFTRA, which demands a notice and bargaining before producers can use AI in their projects as part of the settlement agreement to their 2023 strike, issued a statement, prefacing, “SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.”
“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,” the statement continued.
It further declared, “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. 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.”
“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,” SAG-AFTRA concluded.
From Whoopi Goldberg and Emily Blunt to Lucas Gage and Nicolas Alexander Chavez, Hollywood aired its disapproval of Norwood all over social media.
“After many human actors called for a boycott against agencies who sign AI actors, the studio head claims Tilly is not a replacement for a human being but a creative work, and that AI characters should be judged as part of their own genre, rather than compared directly with human actors,” prefaced Star Trek actress Whoopi Goldberg on The View.
She then bemoaned, “The problem with this is that you are suddenly up against something that’s been generated with five thousand other actors. It’s been given all of these… you know, it’s got Betty Davis’ attitude. It’s got Humphrey Bogard’s, it’s got my humor. So it’s a little bit of an unfair advantage. But bring it on, because you can always tell ‘them’ from us.”
English actress Emily Blunt also weighed in on the announcement during an interview with Variety, explaining, “Does it disappoint me? I don’t know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is.”
Upon being shown an image of Norwood, Blunt then asserted, “No, are you serious? That’s an AI? Good Lord, we’re screwed. That is really, really scary,” and went on to warn, “Come on, agencies, don’t do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection.”
However, while the disdain is shared across the industry, the loud condemnation only became a marketing platform for the AI startup that created Norwood. Tilly Norwood became a household name in Hollywood overnight, creating massive interest in Particle6 and its AI subsidiary, which had hardly seen any headlines before the announcement.
Many movie fans on Reddit also questioned why any studio would sign Tilly Norwood when they can simply create their own AI actors, since laws around copyrighting AI are so vague.
“Careful this AI thing is probably at the ‘all publicity is good publicity’ stage,” opined another Reddit user, pointing out, “They just want people to be familiar with this project.”
Echoing the above user’s sentiment, u/justgetoffmylawn added, “This. There’s no agency interest. It’s not a thing. Particle6 is a ‘company’ run by a comedian with no AI experience.”
“Anyone in this thread has access to the same AI tools. Good luck getting signed by UTA. It’s a non-story that’s getting ridiculous publicity,” the user concluded.
Van der Velden took to social media to address the backlash, prefacing,, “To those who have expressed anger over the creation of our 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,” Van der Velden’s statement continued, further explaining, “I see AI not as replacement for people, but as a new tool—a new 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.”
Pointing to her own professional background, she explained, “I’m an actor myself, and nothing – certainly not an AI character – can take away the craft or joy of human performance.”
“Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftsmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance. It takes time, skill, and iteration to bring such a character to life,” Van der Velden declared. “She represents experimentation, not substitution. Much of my work has always been about holding up a mirror to society through satire, and this is no different.”
She would then proceed to elaborate, stating, “I also believe Al characters should be judged as part of their own genre, on their own merits, rather than compared directly with human actors. Each form of art has its place, and each can be valued for what it uniquely brings.”
“I hope we can welcome Al 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,” Van der Velden concluded.
However, the statement did very little in calming nerves, as seen in the comments on the post made on Tilly Norwood’s X page. With so much outrage in the industry, it is highly unlikely that Tilly Norwood will make an appearance in a major Hollywood film any time soon. Even if Eline Van der Velden’s alleged interest in the AI from Hollywood is real, the studios involved are unlikely to ever admit their partnership publicly.
However, the industry has been embracing AI for years now as the technology serves multiple purposes, such as the de-aging of Harrison Ford for Indiana Jones 5. The technology has also been used to bring back cultural icons such as Dean James into modern films. The full-scale replacement of human actors with AI is, however, a step widely frowned upon by both actors and movie aficionados, as seen in the reaction to the Tilly Norwood news.
