Tilly Norwood, the”AI actress” caused a Hollywood uproar on reports that she is being shopped for talent agency representation, does not have a future at WME Group
Agency leadership — president and COO Mark Shapiro and chairmen Christian Muirhead and Richard Weitz — said at TheWrap’s 2025 Grill conference on Tuesday that the company is not interested in representing the AI actress: “If she has a future, it won’t be at WME. We represent humans,” Weitz told TheWrap founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman.
“We are in the human business. We have been the human business. We’re going to continue to always be in the human business,” Weitz continued, speaking on morning panel titled “WME: The Next Chapter.” “We’re not interested in taking the best of our actors and the actors in their community and being put in an AI model. So nope, we’re not going to represent her. We weren’t approached by her and I don’t think that that’s going to be the future for us.”
Muirhead also cited recent comments from SAG-AFTRA, which argued that “the audience is looking for a human connection.” “There is no human connection, there is no light in the eyes,” he said, “and I don’t think that’s the business we are interested in.”
Shapiro called the idea “ridiculous” but added: “There is going to be an AI actor, actress that’s coming at some point. That will happen. But that’s not the business WME is in right now, nor is it a place we think we want to go.”
Dutch actress, comedian and digital producer Eline Van der Velden, who created Norwood, made the bold claim over the weekend at a Zurich summit that the AI actress will be signed by an agency “in the coming months.”
WME wasn’t the only megawatt agency to speak out against Tilly this week. Gersh Agency president Leslie Siebert told Variety in an interview published Tuesday that her creation was “frightening” and that Gersh will not sign her. “That said, it’s going to keep coming up, and we have to figure out how to deal with it in the proper way,” she said. “But it’s not a focus for us today.”
The quick and vocal reaction from critics across the industry puts a spotlight on the underlying concern that Hollywood — and most people — have about AI: that it’s coming for our jobs. The idea of an AI-generated character garnering interest from talent agencies reinforces the notion that no one is safe.
Van der Velden told Broadcast International she hopes Norwood will be “the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman.” She said audiences will ultimately determine whether AI talent succeeds. “Audiences care about the story — not whether the star has a pulse,” she wrote on LinkedIn.
