Emily Blunt, SAG Slam 'AI Actress' Tilly Norwood After Claims It's Seeking Representation

While speaking with Variety on Monday, the Oscar nominee reacted to the news that Norwood has allegedly been receiving attention from talent agencies, which creator Eline Van der Velden claimed over the weekend. Per Variety, Blunt immediately joined many of her fellow real actors in criticizing the shocking idea.

"Does it disappoint me? I don't know how to quite answer it, other than to say how terrifying this is," Blunt said, before reacting to a photo of Norwood. "No, are you serious? That's an AI? Good Lord, we're screwed. That is really, really scary, Come on, agencies, don't do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection."

Van der Velden announced Norwood at the Zurich Summit, part of the Zurich Film Festival, over the weekend. According to Variety, Norwood is the first self-proclaimed "AI actress" to debut from the new AI talent studio Xicoia, which builds upon Van der Velden's AI production studio Particle6. She launched Xicoia at the festival, per Deadline.

While speaking with Broadcast International in July, Van der Velden said of Norwood, "We want Tilly to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, that’s the aim of what we're doing."During her interview with Variety on Monday, Blunt pointed out that Norwood appeared to look like a combination of popular actresses, to which the outlet noted that the studio wants her to "be the next Scarlett Johansson."

"But we have Scarlett Johansson," Blunt replied.

Blunt is the latest celebrity to speak out against Norwood as Hollywood appears to overwhelmingly condemn the use of artificial intelligence in film and television.

After multiple outlets reported the news that agencies are allegedly circling Norwood, actors took to social media, not holding back in expressing their dissent. Many stars reacted in the comments section of Deadline's Instagram post about the story.

"Shame on whoever is trying to normalize this. Horrific and terrifying," Eiza Gonzalez commented.

"The F--K is this s--t be SO fr right now," Ariel Winter said, while Nicholas Chavez wrote, "Not an actress actually nice try."

"And what about the hundreds of living young women whose faces were composited together to make her? You couldn't hire any of them?" Mara Wilson asked.

"she was a nightmare to work with!!!!" Lukas Gage joked, adding in another comment, "she couldnt hit her mark and she was late!"

"Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$$. How gross, read the room," Melissa Barrera wrote on her Instagram Stories alongside Deadline's post.

See more reactions in the photos, below.

Van der Velden subsequently addressed the backlash in a lengthy statement, which she shared on both her profile, and Norwood's Instagram account.

"To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood, she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work – a piece of art. Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity," Van der Velden began.

"I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool, a new paintbrush. Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories. I’m an actor myself, and nothing – certainly not an AI character – can take away the craft or joy of human performance," she continued.

Van der Velden went on to say that "creating" Norwood has been an "act of imagination and craftsmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance." She said she believes that AI characters "should be judged as part of their genre, on their own merits, rather than compared directly with human actors." She concluded her post by expressing her hope that "we can welcome AI as part of the wider artistic family."

See Van der Velden's full statement, below.

Meanwhile, following Van der Velden's post, SAG-AFTRA issued a statement on Tuesday on the "A.I.-generated 'actor' that is reportedly seeking representation," calling Norwood a "synthetic performer" and referring to Norwood as an "it."

"SAG-AFTRA believes creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics," the union began. "To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers -- without permission or compensation."

"It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience," the statement continued. "It doesn’t solve any ‘problem’ -- it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”

"Additionally, signatory producers should be aware that they may not use synthetic performers without complying with our contractual obligations, which require notice and bargaining whenever a synthetic performer is going to be used," SAG concluded.