Tilly Norwood, Hollywood’s new emerging technological sensation, has quickly become a focal point of widespread media attention. According to actor and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (“SAG-AFTRA”) President, Sean Astin, Norwood isn’t a human actor, but rather a synthetic creation made with artificial intelligence (“AI”).[1] The “brunette with the Margot Robbie smile” has, so far, made only brief public appearances, limited exclusively to social media platforms.[2]
In July 2025, a short teaser video launched Norwood’s special debut, showcasing a 20-second clip of a realistic digital character, a made-up young woman in her twenties who doesn’t resemble any real celebrity.[3] Behind this polished facade is a London-based production studio, Particle6, founded by Dutch actor-producer Eline Van der Velden.[4] Following Norwood’s reveal, Van der Velden told Broadcast International that her company was in discussions with talent agencies about signing Tilly Norwood, calling the AI “the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman,” subsequently announcing the impending launch of a “new AI talent studio.”[5] For many voices in the industry, such as SAG-AFTRA, these statements signaled not just a marketing tactic, but a threatening core shift in how fame might begin to be manufactured at the hands of artificiality.
To assuage concerns received from Norwood’s introduction, Van der Velden has attempted to frame Tilly as a creative experiment, rather than a concrete replacement.[6] On Instagram, she wrote that Norwood isn’t meant to replace a real person, but another form of art, a new tool, like a “new paintbrush.”[7] She says, like other artworks before her, Norwood is meant to spark conversation, highlighting how powerful the creative mind can be.[8] Continuing on, Van der Velden underscores that just as animation, puppets, and CGI have provided creators with a new avenue to tell their stories without replacing live actors, AI is simply another way to reimagine and create.[9] In an attempt to resonate with the worrisome critics, she notes that “[she is] an actor [herself], and nothing – certainly not an AI character – can take away the craft or joy of human performance.”[10] Her comments highlight an ongoing effort to humanize AI creation by framing it within familiar artistic traditions in order to ease the technology into societal norms. By comparing it to established creative tools, she positions AI not as a threat to artistry, but as an unavoidable progression of it.
However, her commentary was not successful in softening collective industry outrage. SAG-AFTRA emphasized that “creativity is, and should remain, human-centered.”[11] The organization further states that “[it] is opposed to the replacement of human performers without complying with our contractual obligations”[12] Here, the message seems clear: unions are drawing a firm line between innovation and improper exploitation. They are making it undeniably transparent that embracing new technology without surrendering to regulation will create an ethical and economic dilemma rooted in the demise of human artistry and integrity.
Sean Astin, the Stranger Things actor and newly elected SAG-AFTRA leader, emphasized to Variety that while Norwood has recently captured the public’s attention, the entertainment industry has long discussed AI usage.[13] SAG-AFTRA held a 118-day strike, “fighting very hard to put AI provisions and protections in place.”[14] The real concern, Astin notes, lies in how a performer’s work is displayed in terms of payment and permission.[15] As AI gains more ground in the industry, Astin says that unions retain “an extraordinary amount of leverage,” since audiences continue to favor genuine, human performances, giving actors a unique amount of influence across every medium.[16]
A testament to its reach and effect on culture, the condemnation of Norwood has expanded beyond the U.S. Notably, Equity, a British acting union, has joined the criticism being directed toward the technology that created Tilly Norwood.[17] Equity’s Shannon Sailing made it clear to BBC Radio that Norwood is not an actress nor is she a performer; she, or it, is solely an AI tool.[18] However, this technology draws from the work of countless human performers, raising serious concerns about the origin of those materials and whether consent was given for it to be used in training models.[19]At this point in time, so much data has been collectively used in society, making it difficult to ascertain the original source of the media, adding a threat of exploitation and abuse that should be worrisome to most creatives in the industry.[20] Notably, these conversations raise an ethical and legal alarm: when creative labor is absorbed into machine learning systems without consent, it erodes both artistic ownership and trust in technology.
Oscar winner Ariana DeBose soulfully captures the philosophical heart of the dispute as she highlights that for over a century, the motion picture industry has been driven by the artistry and dedication of real, lived human experiences.[21] Conversely, synthetic performers are merely products of technology that can only attempt to mirror the material it’s trained on, lacking true creativity and echoing the theft of human expression.[22] Her statement tugs at the underlying, emotional meaning of the AI performer debate. She contrasts the “real lived human experiences” that have powered Hollywood for over a century with the robotic nature of AI creations.[23] Instead of seeing this debate as progress versus resistance, she aims to demonstrate that it’s truly about human authenticity versus imitation. Her point is that true art comes from human feeling, memory, and experience, all intimate circumstances that no algorithms could ever truly replicate. Even still, now, the conversation over what constitutes “true art” remains up for debate.
Now, the question of who owns an AI performer like Norwood is ambiguous. The studio may hold the copyright to the audiovisual output, the coder could own rights to the underlying algorithm, but the AI itself, lacking legal humanhood, cannot own anything. If a producer uses a synthetic performer trained in real actors’ work, legal issues involving improper appropriation and infringement could easily arise. Unions could argue for notice or compensation to the human performers whose likeness or voices were used. Actors may sue under the right of publicity if their identifiable image or vocal traits appear in the training data without their consent. Under current legal frameworks, courts would likely analyze such disputes through existing frameworks of copyright, contracts, and right of publicity laws, relying on key precedents from each claim. However, as technology evolves, so should the law, pushing courts to reevaluate the meaning of authorship standards, thus ultimately reshaping the architectures that govern creative identity. Should there be a uniform transparency rule implemented in the industry requiring studios to disclose when a performer is synthetic? Ultimately, the rise of AI acting raises a deeper cultural question: does it take away from “human touch” in storytelling, or does it simply extend cinema’s inevitable evolution?
[1] Chloe Veltman, Could ‘the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman’ be an AI avatar?, NPR (Oct. 1, 2025), https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5558119/tily-norwood-ai-hollywood.
[2] Id.
[3] Steve Gorman et al., Hollywood performers union condemns AI-generated ‘actress’ Tilly Norwood, Reuters (Oct. 1, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/hollywood-performers-union-condemns-ai-generated-actress-tilly-norwood-2025-10-01/.
[4] Veltman, supra note 1.
[5] Id.
[6] Gorman, supra note 4.
[7] Alex Ritman, Tilly Norwood Slammed by U.K. Actors’ Union Equity as an ‘AI Tool’ That’s ‘Made Up of Performers’ Work’: ‘We Are Concerned About Where’ It Came From,Variety (Oct. 2, 2025), https://variety.com/2025/film/global/tilly-norwood-slammed-equity-ai-tool-concerned-origin-1236537042/.
[8] Gorman, supra note 4.
[9] Ritman, supra note 8.
[10] Id.
[11]SAG-AFTRA Statement on Synthetic Performer, SAG-AFTRA (Sep. 30, 2025), https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-statement-synthetic-performer.
[12] Id.
[13] Matt Donnelly, SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin Says Union Will Address AI Actress Tilly Norwood With Agents and Continue Fight for AI Compensation, Variety (Oct. 1, 2025),
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
[16] Id.
[17] Ritman, supra note 8.
[18] Id.
[19] Id.
[20] Id.
[21] Veltman, supra note 1.
[22] Id.
[23] Id.