A computer-generated actress named Tilly Norwood will be signed by an agency “in the coming months,” a claim made at the Zurich Summit by her creator, the Dutch actress, comedian and digital producer Eline Van der Velden.
Van Der Velden made it seem like Hollywood agencies have been circling her AI project for months in an interview at the Zurich Film Festival industry event on Saturday, according to Deadline.
“We were in a lot of boardrooms around February time, and everyone was like, ‘No, this is nothing. It’s not going to happen.’ Then, by May, people were like, ‘We need to do something with you guys,’” she said. “When we first launched Tilly, people were like, ‘What’s that?’ and now we’re going to be announcing which agency is going to be representing her in the next few months.”
Van der Velden did not name any agencies, or specify whether they were among Hollywood’s major talent stables. The former actor, with a small handful of Dutch TV credits which she produced, wrote, directed and starred in, recently launched Xicoia, an “AI talent studio.”
In July, the studio debuted “AI Commissioner,” a two-minute, all-AI sketch produced by Particle6 that features Norwood at the end (see it in the video above). The script, actors, voice modeling and background are all obviously AI-generated.
A public Instagram account for Norwood has just over 1,400 followers. The character’s facebook account boasts 16 friends; her last post was July 30, with 10 likes and four comments.
“I may be AI generated, but I’m feeling very real emotions right now. I am so excited for what’s coming next!,” “she” wrote. The account says Norwood “lives” in London and is “from” Waterloo, Portsmouth.
Van der Velden told Broadcast International she hopes Norwood will be “the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.” Van der Velden says audiences will ultimately determine whether AI talent succeeds. “Audiences care about the story — not whether the star has a pulse,” she wrote on Linkedin.
So far, the social media reactions have not been kind: “This is so gross. Especially when so many actors and writers lost their livelihood during the strike last year,” user Diedalongtimeago wrote on reddit.
“In the Heights” and “Scream” actress Melissa Berrera was equally enthusiastic, writing on Instagram: “Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$. How gross, read the room.”
AI talent may be here whether we like it or not – the internet’s biggest digital “influencer” of the moment, Lu do Magalo, has more than 8 million followers on Instagram.
