Two decades ago, the idea of an AI actress taking over Hollywood existed only in movies.
Al Pacino’s 2002 film S1m0ne imagined a struggling director who builds a virtual superstar that becomes more famous than real actors. At the time, it seemed like a satire, an exaggerated warning, not a prophecy.
But in 2025, fiction has caught up with reality.
Enter Tilly Norwood, an actress who doesn’t exist in the physical world, yet has managed to trigger panic, fascination, outrage, and debate throughout Hollywood. She’s not a human actor, but a fully AI-generated performer, designed, trained, and shaped by Dutch creator Eline van der Velden, a former actor herself.
And Hollywood is freaking out.
The Shockwave: Hollywood Reacts to an Artificial Actress
When the news broke that talent agencies were trying to sign Tilly, actors responded instantly and emotionally. Whoopi Goldberg jokingly dismissed the idea but hinted at fear:
“Bring it on, because you can always tell them from us.”
Emily Blunt sounded more alarmed: “Good Lord, we’re screwed.”
For many actors, Tilly represented not just a digital experiment, but a threat, someone (or something) that might take roles, reduce budgets, or devalue the craft of performance. But to Van der Velden, the outrage came out of nowhere. “No, not at all,” she said when asked if she expected backlash.
“I created her to resonate internationally. To become a global superstar.” She insists Tilly was never meant to replace anyone. But the panic showed just how sensitive the industry is about AI’s growing influence.
Building Tilly Norwood: 2,000 Iterations and a Vision of the Future
Tilly wasn’t created overnight. Van der Velden and her team spent months going through over 2,000 iterations to perfect Tilly’s appearance, personality, and emotional expression.
The real challenge came when they tried to teach the AI how to act. She revealed early tests where Tilly attempted facial expressions and emotional scenes. They were stiff, unnatural, almost robotic.Van der Velden laughed as she recalled those first attempts:
“We didn’t think the acting was very good at all. Not up to my standards.”
But that was the point to explore how far generative AI could push creativity. As she refined Tilly, the project shifted from a simple character experiment to a full-on AI-first entertainment universe.
“The Next Scarlett Johansson” Or Something Entirely New?
In a July interview with Broadcast International, Van der Velden made a statement that instantly went viral:“We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.”
Hollywood interpreted that as: She wants AI to replace actresses. But van der Velden says people misread her completely.
“The Scarlett Johansson of the AI genre. She is not meant to take real acting jobs. She belongs in her own lane.”
Still, studios began reaching out, asking for Tilly to appear in real films next to human actors.
Her answer every time? “No.” She wants Tilly to evolve in a separate playground, not in competition with humans, but as a new creative medium.
Where AI Is Already Taking Over?
While Hollywood debates the ethics, studios are already quietly slipping AI into production: Amazon’s “House of David” used AI-generated scenes. Brands are using AI models for marketing campaigns. Over the summer, an AI model appeared in Vogue for the first time ever.
Budgets are ballooning, and executives are desperate for faster, cheaper production tools.
For them, AI is not a threat; it’s a solution. Kevin Reilly, a veteran Hollywood executive and now CEO of AI production company Kartel.ai, calls AI revolutionary:
“This is the most transformative thing that’s happened in the history of man.”
To demonstrate its power, his team created a full commercial concept starring multiple AI-generated versions of the interviewer placed in impossible locations like oceans, volcanoes, and the Alps.
With just an iPhone recording and a few prompts, Reilly says AI can instantly animate characters, build worlds, and create motion scenes. For businesses, it’s more opportunity than disaster.
SAG-AFTRA: “AI Is a Tsunami”
Not everyone shares the optimism. Sean Astin, actor and president of SAG-AFTRA, says artificial intelligence has the entire union on high alert. “The onslaught of AI is overwhelming. It’s a tsunami.” To him, Tilly is not an actress, but a digital avatar. However, the bigger issue is the misuse of real actors’ faces and likenesses.
“Companies scraping the internet to ingest people’s images — they’re not allowed to do that.”
Protecting performers’ digital identities was one of the biggest battles during the 2023 strike, and Astin says that fight is far from over.The union’s stance is simple: AI can be a tool, but never a replacement.
Building the Tilly-Verse: A New Era of AI Entertainment
Despite the backlash, Van der Velden is expanding aggressively. Her studio Xicoia, built under Particle6, is assembling a global creative team to shape the future of AI-first entertainment. They’re currently hiring nine new roles, including:
- Junior comedy writer
- Social media manager for Tilly’s 66,000+ followers
- Visual storyteller
- Marketing strategist
- Senior AI production “wizard”
- Two AI editors
- A “chaos coordinator” (yes, that’s really the job title)
The goal is to grow an entire Tilly-verse of digital characters, AI narratives, fan interactions, and experimental entertainment formats all powered by generative AI. Van der Velden says Tilly’s next major phase begins in 2026, when the AI actress will start appearing on screen and directly communicating with fans.
“People say AI takes jobs. But we are creating new ones. This is just the beginning.”
Applications are open worldwide.
The Backlash Got Serious — Even the Police Were Involved
Van der Velden admits the controversy around Tilly took a toll. Criticism grew so intense that she had to contact the police for safety concerns. She says she understands why Hollywood feels threatened, but insists her intentions have been misunderstood.
“I sympathize deeply with actors. They think AI is coming for their jobs. That’s not our plan with Tilly at all.”
Still, the controversy exposed a bigger truth: The entertainment industry is standing at the edge of a technological shift, and nobody knows exactly what comes next.
Is AI the Future of Entertainment or the Enemy?
With Tilly Norwood at the center of heated debates, Hollywood faces a major question:
Is AI a creative partner, a new genre, or a dangerous threat to traditional acting? For some, like Kevin Reilly, AI is a powerful new frontier. For others, like Sean Astin, it’s a wave that must be controlled before it crushes human talent.
And for van der Velden? It’s simply a new way to tell stories, build characters, and imagine worlds that never existed before. What’s certain is this: Tilly Norwood is more than an AI experiment. She is a symbol of the entertainment industry’s future, fears, and possibilities.
The story of AI in Hollywood is only just beginning.
