Controversial AI ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood lands her first starring role, and critics are not happy

Tilly Norwood, an AI generated ‘actor,’ is set to star in a new comedy. John Vennavally-Rao on the controversy the move has stirred up in the film industry.

TORONTO - Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated “actress” who became one of Hollywood’s most divisive figures last fall, is finally getting a starring role in a full-length feature film thanks to the British company that created her.

Movie critic Richard Crouse thinks it’s a lousy development.

“Oh, I hate this idea,” said Crouse. “I hate the idea that we are taking a non-human actor and giving that non-human actor a role that could have been played by a human.”

Crouse called the project “a grand experiment,” noting that a handful of AI-generated films have already screened at festivals to a chilly reception. “They have been met with not a great reaction so far,” he said. “We have really yet to see whether or not the public will fully embrace an entire movie made with AI.”

‘She’s not real’

The studio that came up with Norwood, Particle6, first attracted attention last September, when company founder Eline Van der Velden claimed talent agencies were interested in representing the computer-generated character. That triggered condemnation from the acting union SAG-AFTRA and stars including Emily Blunt and Whoopi Goldberg.

Particle6 says the upcoming movie with no release date will be a comedy-drama called “Misaligned” about an AI that develops human desires.

Crouse suspects the film announcement is a bit of a stunt to get publicity.

“She has virtually no social media interaction simply because she’s not real. And I think a lot of people, particularly Gen Zers, when they are looking at their entertainment these days, authenticity is really important to them.”

That is why he thinks AI films will struggle at the box office. “I don’t think we’re going to see people lining up to see AI movies because they don’t feel real,” he said. “Their eyes don’t look real.”

Not the only synthetic star

Norwood isn’t the only computer-generated performer headed to screens. Val Kilmer, who died last year, is set to be recreated with AI in an upcoming film — something Crouse says shouldn’t be confused with acting.

“It’s not a Val Kilmer performance, it’s a mirage of Val Kilmer,” he said. “It is a performance generated by a computer that will have studied other Val Kilmer performances and give you the absolutely most superficial reimagination of what he might have done were he still alive.”

He points to the AI narration of “The Odyssey” audiobook in Michael Caine’s voice as another example. “We’re not getting a Michael Caine performance, we’re getting a sound-alike, we’re getting an imitator, Crouse said. “What will be a pale imitation, and so I don’t think people will respond to it well.”

‘What it doesn’t have is a soul’

Particle6 says “Misaligned” will be a hybrid production, pairing traditional directors, writers and editors with AI specialists. The company claims dozens of film and TV creatives have been retrained to work alongside AI on the project. Van der Velden has said in the past that Norwood is not there to replace human talent.

“AI can support premium narrative filmmaking, but only with substantial amounts of human craft, skill, judgement and time,” Van der Velden said in a statement. “That’s not a limitation of the technology. That’s the point.”

Crouse remains unconvinced that audiences will embrace even a human-AI collaboration.

“There are short films that have already been released online that are complete AI, and people say ‘look it only took three days to make this,’ and it’s got elaborate chase scenes,” he said. “But what it doesn’t have is a soul. It feels like something that was made by a robot.”

If anything, he says, the trend is moving the other way. Two of this summer’s biggest hits, “Obsession” and “Backrooms”, were made with old-school practical effects and no AI.

“They tell very human stories about real, primal stuff that audiences can relate to, and they feel authentic,” Crouse said. “Gen Zers and all other age groups were able to turn those movies into big hits — and they were all made without the use of AI.”

SAG-AFTRA has said it does not consider Norwood an actor at all, arguing the character has “no life experience to draw from, no emotion.” The union says AI performers rely on “stolen performances” that jeopardize livelihoods and devalue human artistry.

For now, “Misaligned” has no cast beyond its synthetic star, no release date and, if Crouse is right, no audience waiting for it.