Tilly Norwood, Hollywood’s hottest new star, is bubbly, attractive, incredibly talented, sure to capture your heart, and… completely fake. Ms. Norwood has caused a lot of controversy and commotion throughout Hollywood. There will be a high demand to get her in movies for various reasons. An AI actor/actress can work without complaining for hours on end without any breaks. Ms. Norwood will always have time to work, no matter if it’s midnight, four in the morning, or eleven at night. She doesn’t need rest. She will be able to take on any role, regardless of age, appearance, or stunts.
Whoever is working with her at the time will have complete control over her. They can change her appearance from hair to facial features, how she delivers her lines, and any actions and gestures. This is considered to be what Eline van der Velden (Tilly’s creator) is, a “new paintbrush” when it comes to creativity. She will bring a new genre of storytelling to our screens so well that the audience won’t even care if the “actress” on their screen has a pulse.
While there are some positives to Ms. Norwood, the negatives outweigh them. When looking for actors/actresses, you see who can display emotion best. How can you expect a computer to display human emotion? There is not enough programming in the world to accurately portray emotions such as love and heartbreak. The audience won’t be able to connect to Tilly’s characters on the level they are able to with actors who can show their emotions so clearly through tone, facial expressions, gestures, delivery, etc.
People in the acting department pour themselves into their work. They give their everything for years for only about 2% to make it successfully. Ms. Norwood already has agencies lining up for her. She has put in no work towards this because she physically can’t. If you watch videos of Tilly acting, if you can even call it that, it’s disturbing and has a very creepy vibe to it. It provides an uncomfortable feeling to any viewers. The worst of all the negatives is that human art is devolving. If we bring AI actors into the acting world, we are losing our creativity as a whole. Acting is a unique way to express yourself in ways that the audience will connect with and will be moved by these performances. If we have computers on our screens, they have no one to connect with. You cannot connect with a computer in the same way you can with a human. Would you rather see raw, human emotion performing for you, or a pre-programmed computer that is gone with the click of removing a tab?
Hopefully, movie studios and audiences will say no thanks to AI actors and actresses. Tilly Norwood? How ’bout Tilly No-way!
