Tilly Norwood has perfect skin, symmetrical features, and zero days off. She also doesn’t exist.
The digital “actress” is the first creation of Particle 6 Productions, a UK-based company blending filmmaking with artificial intelligence. Her creator, physicist-turned-producer Eline van der Velden, says Tilly was built to be the kind of star studios dream about: versatile, tireless, and immune to bad press. “We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman,” van der Velden told Broadcast International. “People are realizing that their creativity doesn’t need to be boxed in by a budget.”
Van der Velden’s team at Xicoia, the AI talent division of Particle 6, has spent months fine-tuning Tilly’s face and performance using ten different AI programs. They’ve released clips showing her crying, laughing, and delivering lines in multiple genres. The result is unnerving—an actress who looks ready for a BAFTA but can be reprogrammed with a prompt.
Meet Tilly Norwood, the AI Star Stirring Up Chaos in Hollywood
Hollywood has taken notice. According to van der Velden, talent agencies have already reached out about representing the synthetic newcomer. Human actors, however, are less enthusiastic. SAG-AFTRA released a statement reminding everyone that “Tilly Norwood is not an actor. It’s a character generated by a computer program trained on the work of countless professional performers—without permission or compensation.”
The union argues that digital replicas don’t create opportunity; they erase it. “It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion,” the group wrote. “Audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”
Van der Velden disagrees. A former actor herself, she sees Tilly as a “new paintbrush,” not a replacement. On LinkedIn, she wrote that audiences care about story, not pulse. “The age of synthetic actors isn’t coming,” she said. “It’s here.”
AI faces and influencers already flood social media feeds, but Tilly feels like a shift—the first attempt to manufacture a star who could compete with the real thing. She doesn’t need contracts, trailers, or sleep. She also doesn’t age. For studio accountants, that’s a fantasy. For the rest of us, it’s a sign that even our favorite actors are becoming optional.
Every generation gets the star it deserves. Ours created one that can’t age, complain, or quit. Tilly was engineered to stay flawless, no matter who burns out around her, and that may be the most seductive performance Hollywood has ever seen.
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