AI generated actress Tilly Norwood faces backlash from actors and SAG-AFTRA

An artificial actress created by an AI talent studio drew sharp criticism from performers and a major actors union after her public unveiling over the weekend at the Zurich Film Festival. The character, billed as Tilly Norwood and produced by Xicoia, a spinout of Eline Van der Velden’s production company Particle6, has already appeared in a short online sketch and, Van der Velden told a festival panel, attracted interest from talent agents who she said may announce representation in the coming months.

Van der Velden described Tilly as an experiment in new creative tools, saying the project was meant to expand storytelling possibilities by lowering budget constraints and offering consistency across digital environments. She has previously framed the initiative as ambitious, saying the aim was for Tilly to reach the prominence of established stars. The character’s likeness was created with AI techniques that combine features from multiple sources, and the studio has promoted the figure as part of a new genre of AI-generated performers.

The debut prompted immediate backlash from several actors. Emily Blunt, who learned of the project during a recent interview ahead of a Los Angeles...