Toni Collette posted a row of screaming emojis. Mara Wilson wrote: “Shame on these people.” Ralph Inseon commented, succinctly: “Fuck off”. A taste of the righteously hostile reaction to the “unveiling” at Zurich Film Festival of a fully-AI actress, Tilly Norwood (don’t start me on the name, we’ll be here all week).
But while those of us who aren’t dead inside would fight tooth and nail for a real-life actress over a smiling empty vessel draped in digital skin, I can’t help but think it’s what Hollywood itself desires. And you know what: maybe even deserves.
According to the Victor Frankenstein behind Tilly, producer and actress (yes, really) Eline Van der Velden, her dead-eyed doll has been “chased” by talent agents and even signed to a traditional agency. Let’s be clear about what she’s suggesting: that the guys who broker deals for human actresses, go to war with movie studios over what they’re worth, are bang up for signing a soul-free facsimile.
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This bright, shining, please-god-burn-it-down future Van der Velden pitched – while launching her own AI talent agency Xicoia (*eyes to camera*) to “create, manage and monetise hyper-real digital stars” – was one in which she argued Tilly would be “the next Scarlett Johansson”.
But following a backlash, she appeared to have a change of heart, declaring that Tilly “is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work, a piece of art”.
It’s quite a fanciful description for an android actress built, according to Broadcast International, “via endless prompts, each of which are designed to ensure she appeals to the right demographics to support her on-screen career.” Which, if you allow me to translate tech word-salad, means “Hell yeah, we made her for the libidos and red lines of men.”
I mean, just look at her! Young (like, are you old enough to drink in America young), white, thin, conventionally attractive, pleasantly vacant. Tilly, babe, shut your ears for a minute because I’m going to be blunt: this girl is a studio exec’s wet dream. So, it may not ultimately matter what Van der Velden intends, only what she has now unleashed into the world.
I for one, could hear the penny drop in Tinseltown. Within the studio system – that Van der Velden says is already working with AI on the quiet – that has exploited actual women for, well, ever. Underpaid them, coerced them, sought to create and control them.
Just think about it. Consent? Not an issue. Sued for harassment? Never again. Complaints about unequal pay? So over! No calls for intimacy coordinators, demands for better roles, agitation for a fair industry. Tilly – and those who come after – will do only, and exactly, what they’re told, while being eternally hot, youthful, cheap and devoid of agency. She’s the perfect woman! Or to be more precise, the perfect actress.
How can it feel like anything other than the endgame of the film industry’s lifetime march of misogyny? The decades spent trying to smooth the edges off actresses, make them safe and sanitised, cute and controversy-free. Train them to look pretty and say nothing. The ultimate ambition: a conveyor belt of good girls, tits perky and tongues still.
Unique? Nuanced? Textured? Flawed? Come on now, we’re not going to start pretending that many of the decision makers in Hollywood, or film fans while we’re at it (the ones who call themselves “cinephiles” on Tinder and MarvelMoviesAreForMen69 on Reddit), are gagging for these qualities in actresses, are we? I could go all day and all night and right through the alphabet, baby.
Exhibit A: Olivia Wilde – oh, but she’s a whore, right? (dared to direct, went out with an actor). Exhibit B: Blake Lively – sorry, a total bitch! (alleged sexual harassment, wasn’t “kind” to an interviewer). Exhibit C: Brie Larson – a man-hating feminist (starred in a Marvel movie, called for diversity in film criticism). Exhibit D: Kate Beckinsale – a “c***” (complained about a drunk male co-star). Exhibit E: Rachel Zegler – woke and ungrateful (a Latina actress who played Snow White and spoke about Gaza).
We have long, long seen actresses with independent thought, a smidge of difference, strong opinions, firm boundaries, a big voice, a sense of equity, imperfections, or even just an unmarketable quirk, steam-rolled by execs, the publicity machine, unsupportive co-stars, narcissistic directors, or all of the above. That’s before toxic “fans” review-bomb their films – posting negative ratings en masse – and swarm social media with insults, bigotry and threats (of rape, naturally).
The women who survive and yes, thrive, are the exceptions, not the rule. Never not fighting their corner, back to the wall. Judging: what can I say, how can I say it, what will it cost me, should I just smile?
Because the great myth after #MeToo is that Hollywood ended its exploitation of women. Now, what AI actresses offer is an escape hatch – hey, let’s do away with them all together! – from even trying. And the cherry on top? It’s an erasure only possible via more exploitation. The theft of their faces, their bodies, the flashes of their bared souls burned onto film.
Yet the biggest loss, if we step through this graveyard of women’s uniquely human talents into the future, won’t be to them. But to the rest of us. From those in Tinseltown, to a small-town multiplex, to right there on your settee.
As Victor Frankenstein, the real monster, was warned: “When falsehood can look so like truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?”
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