The world's first AI actress and 'her' creator - The Saturday Story
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tilly Norwood, the world's first 'AI actress' has rocked Hollywood, sparking union protests and denounced by actors such as Whoopi Goldberg, George Clooney and Emily Blunt. For some she's a threat to the artform, for others an inevitability. She'll never forget her lines, turn up late or fall drunk out of a bar. Tilly can appear in multiple films at once and even change her appearance at will. But what does her creator say? Is she the future of cinema? Eline Van der Velden tells her side of the story, from the A-list backlash, to developing Tilly's personality.
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Host: Tom Whipple, science correspondent, The Times.
Producer: Dave Creasey.
Read more: I invented the AI actress Tilly Norwood. She’s no threat to Hollywood
Clips: NBC, CBS, Fox News, Particle6.
Photo: Getty Images.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, it's Manvine. |
| 0:04.0 | Today we have a special Saturday read of a piece in the Times that tells us a lot about how the world is changing, for better or worse. |
| 0:17.0 | And joining us to explain it all is one of our favourite contributors. |
| 0:22.4 | Hi, I'm Tom Whipple. I am a science writer at The Times. I covered the story of Tilly Norwood, |
| 0:31.6 | the AI actress who was outraging Hollywood back when the outrage began. |
| 0:41.0 | I was then asked this week |
| 0:43.2 | to interview the creator of the outrageous Tilly Norwood. |
| 0:48.0 | We wrote about her point of view, |
| 0:50.1 | which is why she doesn't think |
| 0:51.5 | that her actress is going to destroy Hollywood. |
| 0:55.9 | I'm less sure. |
| 1:08.1 | Earlier this year, Tilly Norwood was just another wannabe actress trying to make it in London. |
| 1:17.5 | Her Instagram account had that air so familiar these days of social media perfection as a mask for real-life desperation. |
| 1:28.2 | There were carefully curated shots of her in bijou coffee shops. |
| 1:33.1 | She had a nicely self-deprecating post about her messy, but artfully so, bedroom. |
| 1:41.4 | There were a smattering of likes, little sign, though, of any paid work. |
| 1:47.5 | Then, this autumn, things unexpectedly began to pick up, and in the best way possible, |
| 1:55.4 | with a massive A-list feud. |
| 2:02.4 | I got to get your take on Tilly Norwood. |
| 2:06.1 | Emily Blunt called Norwood really scary. |
| 2:10.2 | I don't know how to quite answer it other than to say how terrifying. |
| 2:20.4 | Natasha Lyon, the Orange is a New Black Star, |
... |
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