Tilly Norwood Isn't a Real Actor, Because She Can’t Die Tragically

A.I. actors can never be REAL Hollywood stars.

An arrangement of pixels known as “Tilly Norwood”.

AI “actor” Tilly Norwood made headlines earlier this month when “her” parent company released a music video starring Norwood¹ for a song called “Take the Lead.” Both the video and the song were AI-generated, sparking a new wave of concern that Artificial Intelligence will eventually put real artists out of work. In the face of this threat, it’s worth underlining that Norwood is NOT a real actor and can NOT do the same things that real actors can, such as express emotions, cultivate unique artistic perspectives, or die in tragic boating mishaps.

In fact, let’s be honest: it’s impossible for AI actors to die in any freak accident. They can’t crash their cars in the middle of the California desert. They can’t gain admission to the Viper Room, much less overdose there. And there’s very little chance that Charles Manson will ever murder one. Since it’s impossible for them to poetically die in a way that leads to Hollywood souvenir shops selling unlicensed posters of their likenesses for decades afterwards, we can’t really call these things “actors” at all.

AI agents also don’t have private lives, which means they can’t generate the kind of tabloid headlines that have defined Hollywood for a century. They will never get caught having an affair with their co-star. They have no ex-girlfriends to leak their secret voicemails ranting about the Jews. They cannot shove gerbils up their butts. Incidents like these are the fabric of a real Hollywood life, and creations like Tilly Norwood are sadly incapable of adding their own embroidery.

Furthermore, no matter how advanced these LLM models become, an AI agent cannot start their career as a child actor, then develop such a complicated relationship with their Momager that their personal life spins wildly out of control at the height of their success. Nor can they spend their middle years doing barely watchable, straight-to-DVD garbage to pay multiple alimonies. Nor can they gain new artistic credibility with a late-career turn in which they’re cast against type by a young auteur. So what are we even talking about here?

Then there’s the matter of training. Sure, LLMs are “trained” on millions of gigabytes of digital material. But that is not acting training. I mean, has an AI actor ever paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a theatre degree? Or completed the curriculum at a highly respected improvisational comedy institution? Or studied for years with a commercial audition coach who claims to have taught Tobey Maguire?

It’s simply not possible.

I will grant that AI-generated videos may one day become indistinguishable from real ones. But I guarantee that I will never be in a coffee shop near my house in Los Angeles, squinting at someone across the room, wondering if it's Tilly Norwood or just a lady with a lot of plastic surgery. And for that reason (along with many others), we cannot call these things actors.²

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1. Real name: 10001111010110000

2. Also, that music video reeeeeeaaaaally stinks.