This AI actress doesn’t exist but Hollywood already wants to represent her
Tilly Norwood’s rollout feels like a stunt meant to normalize the quiet push of generative AI into Hollywood.
At first glance, Tilly Norwood looks like just another young actress trying to break through the noise of the entertainment industry. She has the look, the presence, and even the beginnings of a career pitch that could belong to a rising star.
But Tilly doesn’t exist. She is the creation of Eline Van der Velden, founder and CEO of AI production company Particle6 and its new talent studio, Xicoia. Last week at the Zurich Film Festival, Van der Velden revealed that several Hollywood talent agencies had already shown interest in representing Tilly. She didn’t name names, but the hint alone was enough to send entertainment media into a frenzy.
Van der Velden says Tilly is only the first of many avatars Xicoia plans to release. Her stated goal is to make Tilly the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman. It’s the kind of soundbite designed to spark debate, not because anyone believes an AI can headline a Marvel film, but because it raises a question Hollywood still isn’t ready to answer. What happens when AI characters start being treated like actors?
A stunt disguised as a career
So far, Tilly’s biggest role is in a short film called AI Commissioner, a satire produced by Particle6 that pokes fun at how TV shows get made. Yet Van der Velden talks about her with the same enthusiasm one might reserve for a breakout star. It’s classic startup theater—hype the potential, flood the narrative, and make people forget the technology is still awkward at best.
Calling Tilly an actress is misleading. She cannot think, make choices, or interpret a script. She is a digital avatar powered by models trained on real humans whose likeness and labor are rarely acknowledged. Treating that as a real career doesn’t just stretch the truth. It reframes the conversation in ways that make the impossible sound inevitable.
Emmanuel Umahi
And that is the real play here. The rollout of Tilly Norwood isn’t just about one fictional actor, but about normalizing AI talent as legitimate labor. Today, it is a quirky film festival stunt. Tomorrow, it could be a bargaining chip in contract negotiations or a cost-cutting tool for studios.
Hollywood has seen this pattern before. Streaming was once treated as an experiment before it became the default. De-aging started as a novelty before becoming a routine effect. If stories like Tilly’s keep getting traction, even ironically, the idea of AI actors belonging in Hollywood won’t sound so far-fetched anymore.
And that may be Tilly’s real role after all, not as a performer, but as a wedge in the industry’s next big shift.
