Hollywood is currently embroiled in heated debate over Tilly Norwood, a fully AI-generated actress created by Particle6 and represented by its agency Xicoia. According to Deadline, several major agencies have already expressed interest in signing Norwood, making her one of the first virtual actors to draw such attention.
The news, however, has been met with backlash from actors. In the Heights star Melissa Barrera criticized the move on Instagram, writing: “I hope every actor represented by the managers involved drops them. See how disgusting this really is.” Meanwhile, Matilda actress Mara Wilson asked pointedly: “What about the hundreds of young women whose faces were merged to create her? Couldn’t you hire any of them?”
Other stars reacted with sarcasm or rejection. The White Lotus actor Lukas Gage quipped, “Working with her was a nightmare!!!”, while Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale simply commented, “No.” Actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez, from Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, dismissed Norwood outright: “Not a real actress, nice try.”
Particle6 founder Eline Van der Velden revealed that the agency representing Tilly will be announced in the coming months, noting that while the idea was initially dismissed in early meetings, by May interest had grown rapidly.
The controversy echoes concerns raised during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, which was partly driven by fears of AI replacing human talent. At the time, the union claimed that studios had proposed scanning background actors, paying them for just one day, and then reusing their likeness indefinitely. While AI has been used in recent years to de-age actors, analyze viewer patterns, or even recreate the voices of deceased stars, the idea of replacing living performers continues to be one of Hollywood’s most pressing anxieties.