Hollywood is reacting to the introduction of AI-generated actress, Tilly Norwood.
In addition to Emily Blunt, Whoopi Goldberg, Sophie Turner, Toni Collette, Mara Wilson, and Lukas Gage, Melissa Barrera, and Kiersey Clemons slammed the use of AI in film.
"It's a little bit of an unfair advantage. But you know what? Bring it on," Whoopi said on a recent episode of The View. "Because you can always tell them from us."
Turner took a shot at Norwood in the comment section of an Instagram post, writing "Wow…. No thanks," per People, while Blunt told Variety, “Does it disappoint me? I don’t know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is.”
On IG, per Deadline, Collette responded with a handful of screaming emojis, while 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?”
“She was a nightmare to work with!!!! She couldn’t hit her mark and she was late!” Gage quipped, while Clemons remarked, “Out the agents. I want names.”
Barrera took to her IG Story to repost Deadline’s article about Tilly Norwood and wrote, “Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their ass. How gross, read the room.”
SAG-AFTRA also had some choice words for Norwood and her creator, Eline Van der Velden.
“SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics," the organization said in a statement.
“To be clear, 'Tilly Norwood' is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performer—without permission or compensation."
Van der Velden later issued her own statement.
"Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories. I’m an actor myself, and nothing—certainly not an AI character—can take away the craft or joy of human performance," Van Der Velden wrote, in part.
"Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftsmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance. It takes time, skill and iteration to bring such a character to life," she added. "She represents experimentation, not substitution. Much of my work has always been about holding up a mirror to society through satire and this is no different."
