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AI “Actor” Tilly Norwood Set to Lead Feature Film After SAG-AFTRA Backlash

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The controversy surrounding Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated “actor” criticized by Hollywood performers and SAG-AFTRA, is now moving from debate to production.

Particle6 Productions announced Monday that its digital creation will star in a feature-length comedy-drama titled “Misaligned,” a film set inside what the company calls the “Tillyverse” or “a surreal digital world located somewhere up in the Cloud.”

The project will follow “a coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos,” placing the synthetic performer at the center of a narrative that appears to lean directly into the real-world unease surrounding AI’s growing role in entertainment.

In the film, Tilly is portrayed as an AI entity without a physical body, a childhood or lived memories of her own, instead drawing from access to other people’s experiences. The story becomes more chaotic when a rogue bot from the dark web pushes her to break free of her guardrails and begin forming desires, impulses and ambitions that make her appear increasingly human.

“The film will absolutely be funny, chaotic and self-aware — very Tilly,” said Eline Van der Velden, the comedian, writer and founder behind Particle6 Productions.

“But underneath it, there’s something deeper about identity, performance, and our very human fears around AI. And yes, art will most definitely be imitating life.”

The character has drawn sharp criticism from actors and industry observers since its introduction as an AI “actor,” with concerns that synthetic performers could replace working artists or be built using the labor of real actors without their proper consent.

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That backlash intensified in late 2025 after Van der Velden suggested that Norwood was close to signing with a talent agency.

Norwood has since become one of the most visible computer-generated symbols of the entertainment industry’s fight over AI, with her creators also leaning into the controversy through provocative social media posts.

Those concerns were amplified by SAG-AFTRA, which condemned the studio for “using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”

The union also rejected the idea that Norwood should be considered a performer in the same sense as a human actor. SAG-AFTRA said Tilly Norwood is “not an actor,” but “a character generated by a computer program.”

“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.”

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Despite the backlash, Particle6 is positioning Misaligned not as a replacement for traditional filmmaking, but as a hybrid production. The company said the film will involve traditional film and television professionals, including directors, writers and editors, working with AI specialists.

Particle6 also said AI training and mentorship will be built into the production process. The project is currently in early development, with major creative collaborators still being attached.

“Our work this year has proven something we suspected all along,” Van der Velden said in a statement.

“AI can support premium narrative filmmaking, but only with substantial amounts of human craft, skill, judgement and time. That’s not a limitation of the technology. That’s the point.”

Van der Velden also said that filmmakers who can carry traditional storytelling experience into emerging AI tools will be best positioned for the next decade, adding that Misaligned is where Particle6 plans to test that approach at feature-film scale.

The film will also be produced as part of Particle6’s broader slate of AI-related film, television, co-production and service work, alongside projects from its campaign and brand division.

The announcement places Misaligned at the center of one of Hollywood’s most heated debates over whether AI can serve as a creative tool without undermining the people whose work makes film and television possible. By casting Tilly Norwood in a story about identity, performance and anxiety over artificial intelligence, Particle6 appears to be using the backlash itself as part of the film’s premise.

SAG AFTRA

Video Game Actors’ Union Calls For Strike Against ‘League Of Legends’ Sound Company 

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The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are calling for a strike against “League of Legends” due to the sound company Formosa Interactive’s attempt to get around the ongoing video game strike by hiring non-union actors to work on an unrelated video game title. 

According to the Associated Press, SAG-AFTRA said Formosa tried to cancel the unnamed video game shortly after the strike began. The union also stated when Formosa learned it could not cancel the game, the company “secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for ‘non-union’ talent only.” 

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SAG-AFTRA responded to this action by unanimously voting to file an unfair labor practice charge against the company along with the National Labor Relations Board to call for a strike against “League of Legends” as a part of the charge. 

“It’s bad enough that Formosa and other companies are refusing to agree to the fair AI terms that have been agreed to by the film, television, streaming, and music industries, as well as more than 90 other game developers,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s national executive director. 

“To commit illegal unfair labor practices is beyond the pale and won’t be tolerated by SAG-AFTRA members.”

“League of Legends” is one of Formosa’s most-well known projects, as it provides voiceover services for the game. SAG-AFTRA is accusing Formosa of “interfering with protections that allow performers to form or join a union and prevent those performers from being discriminated against — a move the union called ‘egregious violations of core tenets of labor law,’” AP reported. 

“We believe the strike of ‘League of Legends,’ a game unrelated to the union’s claims, is not appropriate. We stand with developers, publishers, platform holders and talent to support global game development in a way that is safe and ethical for all,” said Paul Lipson, senior vice president of Formosa Group. 

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“This year’s record game industry layoffs, he added, lead to more companies outsourcing work to firms like Formosa, “which raises concerns about potential damage to reputations if these partners act unethically,” said Joost van Dreunen, author of “One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games.”

“Even companies with strong reputations, like Riot Games—which is not at fault here—see their risks rise due to their partners’ actions. It forces publishers to ensure all their partners meet ethical standards to protect their brands,” he stated.

Riot Games, the developer of “League of Legends” stated that their company doesn’t have anything to do with SAG-AFTRA’s complaint. 

“We want to be clear: Since becoming a union project five years ago, ‘League of Legends’ has only asked Formosa to engage with union performers in the U.S. and has never once suggested doing otherwise. In addition, we’ve never asked Formosa to cancel a game that we’ve registered,” Riot said in a statement to AP. 

In response, Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh stated that: “League of Legends is a game of champions. Instead of championing the union performers who bring their immense talent and experience to beloved characters, decision-makers at Formosa have chosen to try to evade and abandon them. Such double-dealing is very disappointing from a longtime committed union signatory.”

ai

Video Game Voice And Motion Actors Go On Strike Amid Rise In AI Technology 

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Members of the Screen Actors Guild are now striking against the video game industry after negotiations for a new contract that would govern interactive media and video games fell through. 

Part of these negotiations involved the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within video games. According to reports, the guild first began striking on Friday, July 26th, and now 160,000 SAG-AFTRA actors are prevented from taking on new video game projects. 

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Negotiations initially fell through due to multiple disagreements over worker protections in connection to the use of AI. SAG-AFTRA is responsible for negotiating the terms of the interactive media agreement (IMA) with a committee of video game publishers. 

These publishers include Activision, Take-Two, Insomniac Games, WB Games, and others representing a total of 30 signatory companies, according to reports from The Verge.  

While SAG-AFTRA and the groups were able to make agreements on a number of things, the use of AI in the industry has become a major point of debate, leading to the strike. 

For SAG-AFTRA, their position would be to control AI for both voice and motion performers in relation to digital replicas of an actor’s likeness, or utilizing existing performances as the foundation to create new voices or images without the need of the actual performer. 

According to SAG-AFTRA, there was a lot of disagreement regarding which type of performer should be eligible for AI protections. 

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The Verge reported that SAG-AFTRA chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez said in an interview with Aftermath “the bargaining companies initially wanted to offer protections to voice, not motion performers. So anybody doing a stunt or creature performance, all those folks would have been left unprotected under the employers’ offer.”

“The companies later extended protections to motion performers, but only if the performer is identifiable in the output of the AI digital replica,” Rodriguez said.

“Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me,” said Andi Norris, a member of SAG-AFTRA’s IMA negotiating committee, during a press conference.

 “[The proposal] would leave movement specialists, including stunts, entirely out in the cold, to be replaced … by soulless synthetic performers trained on our actual performances.”

“Our offer is directly responsive to SAG-AFTRA’s concerns and extends meaningful AI protections that include requiring consent and fair compensation to all performers working under the IMA. These terms are among the strongest in the entertainment industry,” wrote Audrey Cooling, a representative working with the video game companies on the bargaining committee in a statement to The Verge.

strike

Entertainment Industry Could Collapse If Writer And Actor Strike Isn’t Settled By September, Says Barry Diller 

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Barry Diller, the chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia Group and former Hollywood studio chief, was recently interviewed by CBS’ ‘Face The Nation’ where he stated that Hollywood executives and top-paid actors should take a 25% pay cut to narrow the gap between their salaries and those on the lower end of the pay scale. 

Diller also discussed that if a deal isn’t settled by September 1st, we could see the industry completely collapse. 

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“There’s no trust. You have the actors union saying, ‘How dare these 10 people who run these companies earn all this money and won’t pay us?’ While, if you look at it on the other side, the top 10 actors get paid more than the top 10 executives. I’m not saying either is right. Actually, everybody’s probably overpaid at the top end,” Diller explained. 

“The one idea I had is to say, as a good-faith measure, both the executives and the most-paid actors should take a 25 percent pay cut to try and narrow the difference between those who get highly paid and those that don’t.”

The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May 2nd while SAG-AFTRA joined this past Friday. 

Diller stated: “What will happen is, if in fact, it doesn’t get settled until Christmas or so, then, next year, there’s not going to be many programs for anybody to watch. 

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So, you’re going to see subscriptions get pulled, which is going to reduce the revenue of all these movie companies, television companies, the result of which is that there will be no programs. And at just the time, strike is settled, that you want to get back up, there won’t be enough money. So this actually will have devastating effects, if it is not settled soon.”

“The truth is, this [Hollywood] is a huge business both domestically and for world export.… These conditions will potentially produce an absolute collapse of an entire industry.”

Diller also believes the fears over AI in the industry aren’t as serious as others may be making it out to be during this time, explaining how he doesn’t see a world where AI can logistically and realistically take the jobs of real writers and actors. 

“Yes, you can ingest all this stuff and spit out something that sounds like Shakespeare, but guess what? It is not original Shakespeare, and writers will get assisted, not replaced. Most of these actual performing crafts, I don’t think are in danger of artificial intelligence,” he explained.