For most of Hollywood\u2019s history, the word \u201cactor\u201d has required little explanation. Actors search for emotional truth in imaginary lives. They collaborate with directors and scene partners, endure 4 a.m. call times and, if everything goes right, thank their agents while collecting awards.<\/p>\n
Tilly Norwood has done none of those things. That\u2019s because Tilly exists only as code and pixels.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s announcement that Tilly \u2014 the AI-generated character that debuted last year amid fierce backlash from actors and unions<\/a> \u2014 would star in an upcoming feature called \u201cMisaligned\u201d sparked a debate not only about AI\u2019s impact on Hollywood jobs but about something even more basic: What, exactly, is Tilly? Some objected to referring to the digital character as \u201cshe\u201d or \u201cher.\u201d Others rejected the idea that Tilly could be described as an actor at all.<\/p>\n The debate quickly spilled into readers\u2019 comments on The Times\u2019 coverage of the project.<\/a> One commenter urged journalists to \u201cstop writing about this thing like it\u2019s a person.\u201d Another asked, \u201cHow is this not just an animated film?\u201d A third objected: \u201cShe is NOT an AI Actor, she is an AI Software Program.\u201d But not everyone recoiled. \u201cI\u2019ll buy a ticket,\u201d one reader wrote. \u201cShe\u2019s very pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n Taken together, the reactions exposed just how unsettled the language around AI has become. Nobody has ever confused Woody from \u201cToy Story\u201d with Tom Hanks or Elsa from \u201cFrozen\u201d with Idina Menzel, or suggested the characters themselves deserved acting awards. The Tilly concept is testing whether those assumptions still hold. If audiences laugh and cry at what they see on screen, who deserves the credit \u2014 the AI, the filmmakers behind it or both? And where, exactly, does the performance come from?<\/p>\n Speaking by video call Thursday from the London headquarters of Particle6 \u2014 the AI entertainment startup that invented Tilly \u2014 Eline van der Velden<\/a>, who got her start as an actor before moving into filmmaking and AI, says she understands why many actors reacted so strongly.<\/p>\n \u201cI totally understand the fear,\u201d she says. \u201cI had the same fear when AI first came out. I didn\u2019t invent the technology. I didn\u2019t wish it was here. But it is. My way of dealing with it is to get on board.\u201d<\/p>\n Set in a surreal digital world its creators call the \u201cTillyverse\u201d and described as a coming-of-age dramedy, the planned feature follows Tilly, an AI entity with no lived experience of its own that gradually develops desires, ambitions and even shame as it becomes increasingly human.<\/p>\n AI-generated Tilly Norwood was created with a wide variety of scenarios in mind: rom-coms, dramas and indies. This image is AI-generated.<\/p>\n (Particle6)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Van der Velden compares Tilly to a character like Cinderella. Just as audiences naturally refer to the Disney princess as \u201cshe,\u201d she argues it feels natural to think of Tilly the same way. She doesn\u2019t consider the pronouns important.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople can call her whatever they want,\u201d she says with a shrug. \u201cI take no offense to them calling her an \u2018it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The label she cares more about is actor. Van der Velden envisions Tilly not as a single fictional character but as a performer who could appear in anything from a costume drama to a monster movie to a music video.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason I called her an actor was because I don\u2019t want to be limited to one character,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve just created my own little Barbie doll and I want to play around with her.\u201d<\/p>\n Van der Velden says creating a Tilly performance is a collaborative process that combines acting, AI prompting and traditional filmmaking. Van der Velden and other actors help develop the character\u2019s backstory, voice and emotional life and, in some cases, contribute performance and motion-capture work. The creative team then reviews and refines multiple AI-generated versions of a scene before deciding which expressions and line readings best serve the story.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where the critical human eye comes in,\u201d Van der Velden says. \u201cThe choice-making is important. That\u2019s the creativity right there.\u201d<\/p>\n Eline van der Velden, creator of the AI Tilly Norwood, is a former actor turned filmmaker and tech strategist.<\/p>\n (Particle6)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Even its creators don\u2019t always know what Tilly will do next. Van der Velden says that reviewing different AI-generated versions of a scene can sometimes feel like discovering an unexpectedly inspired take from a human actor. \u201cI\u2019m going to give you a blooper reel one day,\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cHonestly, she does the wackiest s\u2014.\u201d<\/p>\n Van der Velden disputes the idea that Tilly is meant to replace actors. \u201cI\u2019m not interested in Tilly taking a role that could be played by a real actor in a real film,\u201d she says. Rather, the project has actually created new jobs, including for actors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve sextupled our workforce,\u201d she says of Particle6, which now has more than 30 employees. Van der Velden says the company is also collaborating with Hollywood directors and producers who have asked not to be identified publicly, fearing backlash. \u201cWe\u2019ve created jobs for filmmakers, including actors who are amazing at developing character and backstory \u2014 how this person would think, how they would say a line,\u201d she says. \u201cThose skills still come into play. That\u2019s the biggest misconception.\u201d<\/p>\n Critics, including the leadership of SAG-AFTRA, counter that the displacement is already at hand in subtler ways, with background roles and commercials increasingly filled by digital doubles rather than human performers. For the actors union, the objection runs deeper than any single role or AI-generated advertisement. It\u2019s about what counts as a performance at all.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be clear: Tilly Norwood is not a person,\u201d SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin and National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland co-wrote in an October message to members. \u201cIt\u2019s a synthetic construct generated by software.\u201d They argued that such systems are built on the work of countless professional performers without their permission, credit or compensation, and that audiences ultimately connect not with algorithms but with artists because \u201cperformance has always been a mirror of our shared humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n Actor Justine Bateman takes an even harder line. Best known for playing Mallory Keaton on \u201cFamily Ties,\u201d Bateman later became a filmmaker, earned a computer science degree from UCLA and founded CREDO 23, a film festival dedicated to showcasing and certifying movies made without AI. <\/p>\n To Bateman, no amount of convincing mimicry changes the fact that an AI figure has never actually experienced the emotions it\u2019s portraying.<\/p>\n Actor and filmmaker Justine Bateman, a staunch opponent of AI adoption in Hollywood, believes any human role should be played by a human actor.<\/p>\n (Jay L. Clendenin \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/b44b5a6\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x4000+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffb%2F39%2Fc5abe5124ecb81e52a6cab33af62%2Feline-van-der-velden.png)
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