Trending 1st October 2025 by Aicha Chalouche

Tilly Norwood: The ‘Rising Star’ We Should Be Worried About

A concerning 'update' in the film industry

Tilly Norwood – a young woman making her debut as an actress, dubbed the next Natalie Portman, and the apparent future of the film industry. Very high praise indeed, so why is she sparking so much controversy? Well, it’s probably because she’s not actually real.

Tilly Norwood is the first born child of the AI talent studio Xicoia, who seem very confident that this new AI actress is a preview into what the film industry will look like in the near future. 

Although Norwood was only officially unveiled to the public this weekend at the Zurich Summit, she’s already amassed over thirty thousand followers on Instagram, and earlier this summer she landed her ‘first role’ in a YouTube comedy sketch called AI Commissioner.

The day it was released, she ‘shared’ a post on her Facebook account with the caption, “I may be AI generated, but I’m feeling very real emotions right now.”

According to Xicoia, a number of talent agencies are already very eager to work with and represent the AI actress. However, not everyone agrees that AI should have a spot in the hall of fame.

Xicoia and their new creation are facing fierce backlash from famous actors, as well as other creatives who either stand to lose their jobs to AI, or believe that using AI instead of real human talent is incredibly disrespectful (and lazy) to the creative industry.

Actress Emily Blunt, who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Oppenheimer, described Tilly as “terrifying”, and urged agencies to “stop taking away our human connection.” On her Instagram story, Scream actress Melissa Barrera wrote: “Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$.”

Mara Wilson, the star of the iconic film Matilda, also made a valid point against the creation, asking, “And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn’t hire any of them?”

In response to the backlash, Norwood’s creator, Eline van der Velden, claimed that this AI actress is not intended to replace human talent, but should instead be seen as a creative “piece of art.”

@lorenazoe13 When actors are being replaced by AI #actor #ai #actress #parody #hollywood ♬ original sound – Lorena Jusino

But is this OK? Or should we be more concerned? For some working in the film industry, AI-generated actors and actresses could be seen as a good thing. They’re more cost efficient (maybe), and a lot more obedient than a real human actor. You programme it to do something, and it does it. No slip ups, no bloopers, no unwanted creative input, no publicity disasters. A producer and PR manager’s dream… on paper anyway.

But for the vast majority of actors, writers, and audiences, the idea that the film industry is about to become flooded with AI is not good news. Making it as an actor is extremely difficult as it is. AI generated talent will only make it even harder for these smaller or up-and-coming actors to get their foot in the door. It also means that we’re missing out on real talent that has been honed for years, and getting what is essentially computer slop instead. 

Audiences want to feel human connection in the media they consume. We probably all know that weird uncanny feeling we get while watching an AI video. Watching these ‘people’ move around and talk, knowing that what we’re looking at isn’t actually a human with real emotions and experiences, and just a bunch of code coming together on the screen.

The last place we want to get that feeling is when we’re watching a film on the big screen. Audiences appreciate acting more when they know how much effort and talent goes into it, rather than a careless way of producing media.

 

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A post shared by Tilly Norwood (@tillynorwood)

In a comment under a LinkedIn post, Van der Velden wrote: “Audiences? They care about the story – not whether the star has a pulse.” But that’s not true.

The reason that we as humans create art is to try and express what it means to be a human. That’s why we paint, we dance, we write songs about heartbreak and emotions that we’re not sure how to deal with. We write entire stories based on things we’ve all experienced or dreamed of experiencing, and sometimes we turn them into movies and shows so we can share our ideas with the world. 

There are many, many things that a computer can do, and many ways that a computer can outsmart or outshine human ability. But when it comes to art, film and writing, these are the most human things we can do. So let’s leave it to the pros: the humans.