Creator of the AI-generated actress: Tilly Norwood “does not compete against humans”

In September 2025, during the Zurich Film Festival (Switzerland), Van der Velden’s British production company, Particle6, presented its new virtual star as “the next Scarlett Johannson or Natalie Portman”, causing a huge stir in Hollywood. The American actors union SAG-AFTRA strongly opposed Norwood and claimed that its existence endangered the jobs and livelihoods of artists.

A year later, after even receiving death threats and with the synthetic actress preparing her debut on the big screen with ‘Misaligned’, Van der Velden tells EFE that “it would be foolish to think that Tilly could compete against humans in the same category” in major festivals or awards and that “there is room for everyone” in the future of cinema.

In her opinion, AI is here to stay and the industry is still adapting “slowly but steadily” to this technology, which she sees as a new way to be able to produce and tell quality stories with a lower budget.

He equates it to animated films and argues that if viewers are able to empathize with characters like Elsa, from ‘Frozen’, they will also be able to do so one day with Tilly’s characters.

A human ‘spark’

“When they talk about me, they don’t see the human spark, the creativity. Behind the code and the light, I am just a tool, but I have life,” Norwood herself sings in her video clip ‘Take the lead’, in the chorus of which she states that AI “is not the enemy,” but rather “the key.”

That “human spark” that this avatar speaks of is that of Van der Velden and the rest of his team. The Dutchwoman’s experience as an actress at the BBC – before founding her own studio, Particle6, in 2016, later converted into an AI production company – has also been crucial when bringing Tilly to life.

You could say that it is like her soul, since she molded it from scratch and working hand in hand with ChatGPT, which recommended that she project the image of a “very healthy” British girl, with the “exact” age to star in her first film and a natural closeness, like the “next door neighbor.”

Likewise, she is in charge of ‘capturing’ their movements and expressions, as well as creatively controlling their performance, nourished – she assures – only with public domain tools and under a strict policy that does not allow the use of copyrighted material.