You notice Tilly Norwood’s eyes before anything else. Wide, hazel, and coquettish, they recall countless CW ingenues from years gone by. There’s her hair, a wavy brown curtain that looks well kept but unfussy. And then, there’s the rest of her: slender build, full lips, button nose. It’s no wonder this aspiring actress dominated Hollywood headlines last year. She is, as her creator has put it in so many interviews, a classic "English rose."
Yes, her creator. Tilly is not a human, but a digital asset that has recently stoked fear that an AI performer could enter the same talent pipeline as real people. Furor over the AI actress erupted last year, when Eline Van der Velden, the person who made Tilly, said that multiple talent agencies had reached out for meetings. The claim spread fast across Hollywood as a sign that the gatekeeping machinery might be ready to make room for something nonhuman. (Van der Velden, for her part, has declined to name the agencies; WME and Gersh, two of the industry’s biggest players, have both said they would not represent Tilly.) Actress Melissa Barrera urged anyone repped by an agent who’d consider signing AI to "drop their a$$." Emily Blunt warned that the technology threatens "human connection." James Cameron called the prospect of replacing real actors with AI actors "horrifying."
