At The Zurich Film Festival, CEO of Particle6, Eline Van der Velden, debuted Hollywood’s newest scandalous starlet. Her big eyes, long brown hair, and airbrushed complexion prove to be more artificial than even the most plastic A-list star: Tilly Norwood is completely AI generated, and she is Particle6’s talent studio Xicoia’s first client.
Less than a year after ChatGPT’s arrival, joint strikes between Hollywood unions such as the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) emphasized a need for writer and actor protections from AI developments in the film industry. AI was identified as an existential threat to film professions, with fair compensation being requested for actors and writers when their likeness or work is used to train AI. But the threat of AI wasn’t truly settled in the strike, becoming more and more clear as AI inclusion continues to infiltrate the film industry.
SAG-AFTRA stated “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.” Union affiliated actors additionally expressed their outrage towards Tilly, with Emily Blunt voicing concern on a Variety Podcast: “Good Lord, we’re screwed. That is really, really scary, come on, agencies, don’t do that… Please stop taking away our human connection.” Ralph Ineson responded to Tilly less despairingly with a blunt “Fuck off.” Van der Velden stated that Tilly is “not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work.” But is Tilly really a creative endeavour when AI is an inherently derivative medium? Despite it being an unprecedented technological advancement, SAG-AFTRA is correct in its assessment of generative AI as a mimetic tool, incapable of producing anything truly original. At its root, AI is a regurgitation of past human creativity, a perversion of artistry. If Tilly delivers an Oscar worthy performance, it is because a myriad of real life actors before her delivered Oscar worthy performances.
There is also a financial conclusion to be considered: studios don’t need to pay AI like they need to pay actors. The New Hollywood movement is over, and so are big studios’ impulse to honor directorial artistry. Instead, box office economics is the present movement in Hollywood, with studios measuring artistic quality on the films’ ability to bring in profit. Despite the consumer surplus of Marvel movies and Disney/Pixar sequels, support for indie films and production companies are growing, providing optimism for aspiring auteurs in the film industry. Sean Baker’s Anora sweeping the 2025 Oscars despite its smaller budget and indie origins is evidence of this. But with the appearance of Tilly from an indie production house, the embracement of independent film and artistry could be streamlined into something that feeds into Hollywood’s aspirations of profit maximization.
So, Hollywood faces a fork in the road, and has to pick a direction. Will they embrace fringe studios like Particle6 who will serve to exacerbate the bastardisation of art for the sake of profit or will they invest in low budget, small production companies composed of real life auteurs and talents? Time will tell if the new A-list star is plucked from obscurity from humble means and with raw talent, or imposed upon us artificially like Tilly Norwood. If we pick the latter, we may be costing ourselves the very humanity that drives true artistic expression, and that is worth more than any check to any actor.
