It takes a lot to be the most controversial figure in Hollywood, especially when Mel Gibson still exists. And yet somehow, in a career yet to even begin, Tilly Norwood has been inundated with scorn.
This is for the simple fact that Tilly Norwood does not exist. Despite looking like an uncanny fusion of Gal Gadot, Ana de Armas and High School Musical-era Vanessa Hudgens, Norwood is the creation of an AI talent studio called Xicoia. And if Xicoia is to be believed, then Norwood represents the dazzling future of the film industry.
Unveiled this weekend at the Zurich film festival, Norwood has been touted as the next Scarlett Johansson, with studios apparently clamouring to work with her and a talent agency lined up to represent her. Sure, it should also be pointed out that her existence alone is enough to fill the pit of your stomach with a sense of untameable dread for the entire future of humanity, but that’s Hollywood for you.
The backlash against Norwood so far has come from actors, whose jobs she stands to replace. Scream’s Melissa Barrera wrote: “Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$,” on her Instagram stories, while Matilda’s Mara Wilson wrote: “And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn’t hire any of them?”. The Fantastic Four’s Ralph Ineson was slightly more direct, posting “Fuck off” on X.
What’s incredible is that Norwood’s acting career thus far only comprises a single AI-generated comedy sketch called AI Commissioner. “I may be AI generated, but I’m feeling very real emotions right now,” Norwood wrote on her Facebook page on the day it was released. “I am so excited for what’s coming next!”
However, your reaction to the sketch may vary. While on a purely technical level, it’s astonishing to see a number of people who almost look human move around on-screen, it’s also pointless and creepy and – most damningly of all – relentlessly unfunny to watch. It’s one thing to watch someone whose perfect teeth keep blurring into a single white block in their mouth, but quite another to see them used to deliver sloppily written, woodenly delivered dialogue. Plus it’s worth pointing out that, in the two months since it was released, AI Commissioner currently only has about 200,000 views. To pick another video that was released at roughly the same time, this makes it 14 times less successful than Macaulay Culkin’s episode of Hot Ones (2.8m views).
However, the threat is real. For everyone currently working in the entertainment industry who sees Norwood and her ilk as a substandard replacement, there are countless others on the outside who lack the resources (or, some might argue, the creativity) to make a name for themselves. This is where AI actors, and writers, and directors, come in. In other words, even if it means that the market will soon be flooded by absolute slop, the betting is that she’s here to stay.
Not to mention that, for some in the Hollywood establishment, Norwood represents the platonic ideal of what an actor should be. Imagine a creation that is completely pliant to the wishes of directors and producers. No ego. No creative input. No huge salary or unattractive ageing to deal with. If it had been Norwood who starred in The Wizard of Oz instead of Judy Garland, then Louis B Mayer wouldn’t have needed to put her on a diet of chicken soup, black coffee, weight loss pills and cigarettes. Isn’t that the dream?
One crumb of consolation is that the people who get to choose whether AI is adopted as a film-making norm are the viewers. As with everything in Hollywood, what will determine Norwood’s career above all else is her financial viability. If, as a species, we decide that we want to pay money to be unsettled by a pretty girl who can’t decide how many teeth she’s supposed to have at any given moment in time, then AI will be with us for generations to come. But we said that 3D was the future of cinema when Avatar first came out a decade and a half ago. It took three bad films to kill that fad dead, so it isn’t impossible to imagine the same happening here.
Still, the good news is that we know who the next Scarlett Johansson is. And if Hollywood is willing to bank on this being the case, then I’d like to alert it to the existence of Mr Bonkybum, who is a smiley face that I’ve just drawn on a sock. He’s the next Tom Hanks, and he’s looking for a big money deal.
