While Tilly Norwood may be working with Hollywood directors, consumers remain unconvinced an AI “actor” will ever deliver human-caliber performances.
That’s according to a study from the National Research Group in collaboration with TheWrap. The survey found that 56% of people said they would never be as good as human actors, while on the flip side, 7% of respondents said AI actors were already there. NRG will be diving into these results and more at its “AI and the Future of Entertainment” conference on Tuesday.
The results underscore the challenges and opportunities that stem from generative AI that broke out with tons of hype a few years ago, but has over the last year started to take form in Hollywood in a real way. In 2026, look for the AI wars to intensify.
“For Hollywood, 2025 felt like the moment when AI stopped being hypothetically disruptive and started becoming operationally transformative,” the study said.
The debate over how AI will be used in Hollywood will continue to rage. The issue of synthetic actors came to the forefront thanks to the Tilly Norwood controversy, in which its creator, Eline Van der Velden, suggested that talent agencies were in talks to sign the AI actress, eliciting a wave of backlash.
Van de Velden told TheWrap that she didn’t intend for Norwood to replace any human actors, but teased that Norwood was part of projects with Hollywood directors looking to experiment with the technology. She teased we would see some of those projects in the coming months.
While some dismiss Norwood as a publicity stunt, the issue itself is a legitimate one, with synthetic actors a key element in the ongoing labor discussions between SAG-AFTRA and the studios. The union can’t stop studios from employing AI actors, and is instead proposing that they pay a fee every time one is used, removing some of the cost-benefit.
“The idea of fully synthetic actors — or AI being used to replicate the voices of
deceased celebrities — remains unsettling to most Americans. Likewise, almost three in five believe it would be unacceptable for a studio to put out a
movie where the script was written from scratch by an AI,” the study said.
Beyond synthetic actors or writers, consumers have a more nuanced view of AI, the study noted. Americans don’t tend to be dogmatically for or against the technology, with many recognizing the opportunities while sharing concerns for its potential misuse or ability to kill human jobs.
That’s illustrated by NRG’s results on AI’s influence on a person’s interest level on a piece of content. While music albums and podcasts fared the worst when it comes to whether people would be turned off if they were created by AI, in all of the content, the largest segment tended to say it wouldn’t have an impact at all.
But AI use in Hollywood is inevitable, even if it isn’t as extreme as fully AI-created films or shows. Instead, there’s been a large, if quieter movement to use AI to help with back-end work like editing, color correction and dubbing.
That’s why Netflix is spending as much as $600 million to buy Ben Affleck’s InterPositive startup, which uses AI to power tools for post-production tasks like edits, lighting enhancements or background swaps. The technology allows a company like Netflix to present itself as a responsible home for AI use in a town where the topic remains a sensitive subject.
“Heading into 2026, studios that communicate clearly about how they’re using AI— and why — will have an advantage,” the study said.
What to watch out for
The NRG study points to three storylines to follow in 2026:
- OpenAI’s “Critterz,” the first feature-length animated movie using the company’s generative AI tools. This goes beyond the social clips found in Sora2 and will provide a sense of whether AI can power an entire production. It reportedly has a budget of less than $30 million — significantly less than the budget of a Pixar project or even a modestly budgeted film like Sony Pictures Animation’s “Goat.”
- Disney set a precedent with its $1 billion investment and partnership with OpenAI to lend some of its characters to Sora. Will this create a model for future IP and rights legal frameworks?
- Tilly Norwood may have hogged a lot of the attention, but there are already a raft of AI-generated influencers like Lil Miquela, which has 3.3 million TikTok followers and 2.3 million Instagram followers. Expect to see virtual influencers get more work, with smaller FAST services an early test bed before they arrive on major broadcast, cable or SVOD platforms.
