<\/p>\n
Kevin Hart is almost impossible to avoid.<\/p>\n
The stand-up comic turned actor has spent the past decade as one of Hollywood\u2019s most bankable and visible stars, headlining megahits like the \u201cJumanji\u201d films alongside a steady output of comedies and animated features, while still selling out arena tours and releasing hit Netflix comedy specials. Off-screen, his face turns up everywhere: pitching banking apps, tequila and energy drinks. <\/p>\n
For a long time, that kind of omnipresence<\/a> carried real security in Hollywood.<\/p>\n In the era of artificial intelligence, though, that guarantee has begun to erode. A quick Google search for \u201cKevin Hart AI\u201d turns up unofficial versions of his voice, available with a few clicks.<\/p>\n A series on how the AI revolution is reshaping the creative foundations of Hollywood \u2014 from storytelling and performance to production, labor and power.<\/p>\n That helps explain why, one evening last month on the Fox lot, the head of Hart\u2019s entertainment company, Hartbeat, was on an industry panel talking not about box office or release strategies but AI. Jeff Clanagan painted a picture of a landscape in which movie stardom is no longer protected by traditional channels, as attention splinters across platforms and audiences fragment. In that environment, AI can be both a risk and a lever.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most valuable resource right now is attention,\u201d Clanagan told the audience of 150 studio executives, filmmakers, investors and technologists gathered at Hollywood X, an invitation-only event focused on responsible adoption of AI. \u201cYou\u2019re competing for it everywhere \u2014 everybody is always on a second screen. That fragmentation is where the disruption is.\u201d<\/p>\n Hollywood was built on the idea that a small number of stars could reliably command attention and turn it into leverage. As AI and algorithm-driven platforms reshape how attention is created and distributed, even the most recognizable names are newly exposed \u2014 not only to dilution but to the prospect of being replaced altogether.<\/p>\n Jeff Clanagan, right, president and chief distribution officer of Kevin Hart\u2019s entertainment company, Hartbeat, speaking on a panel at last month\u2019s Hollywood X event.<\/p>\n (Randall Michelson)<\/p>\n In parts of Asia, synthetic performers are no longer hypothetical. In Japan, the anime-style virtual pop star Hatsune Miku has sold out concerts and headlined festivals. In China, AI hosts run shopping streams on the video platform Douyin. And in the U.S., Lil Miquela, a computer-generated influencer<\/a> created by the Los Angeles startup Brud, has amassed millions of followers and appeared in major fashion campaigns, including a Calvin Klein ad with Bella Hadid.<\/p>\n For studios, brands and producers, the appeal isn\u2019t hard to see. A virtual performer doesn\u2019t call in sick, miss a shoot or carry off-screen baggage. There\u2019s no aging out of roles, no scheduling crunch. They don\u2019t need trailers, negotiate contracts or arrive with riders, entourages and expense accounts in tow.<\/p>\n The old mythology was that a star might be discovered at Schwab\u2019s lunch counter or in an audition room. Hollywood has always chased the \u201cit factor.\u201d What happens when the performer is, quite literally, an it?<\/p>\n That question came into sharp focus this fall with the appearance of Tilly Norwood, a photorealistic, AI-generated character that took the guise of a rising British actress, styled to read mid-20s and approachable \u2014 exactly the kind of star Hollywood is always looking for.<\/p>\n It landed in an industry already on edge. Hollywood was still reeling <\/a>from strikes, layoffs and a prolonged contraction, with anxiety about AI simmering just below the surface. The response was immediate and visceral<\/a>. <\/p>\n SAG-AFTRA warned that projects like Tilly risked relying on what the union called \u201cstolen performances,\u201d arguing that AI-generated actors draw on the work of real performers without consent or compensation, concerns that were central to the union\u2019s 2023 strike<\/a>. On a Variety podcast, Emily Blunt was shown an image of Tilly and paused. \u201cNo \u2014 are you serious? That\u2019s an AI?\u201d she said. \u201cGood Lord, we\u2019re screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n Even some of Hollywood\u2019s most tech-forward figures have drawn a line. On the press tour for his latest film, \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d James Cameron \u2014 the director who once warned of Skynet in \u201cThe Terminator\u201d \u2014 called the idea of AI replacing actors \u201chorrifying,\u201d arguing that human performance would become increasingly \u201csacred.\u201d<\/p>\n Yves Bergquist, an AI researcher who directs the AI in Media Project at the USC Entertainment Technology Center \u2014 a think tank supported by major studios and technology companies \u2014 expects AI to continue to encroach on territory once reserved solely for humans. <\/p>\n \u201cWill we see AI movie stars?\u201d Bergquist asks. \u201cProbably.\u201d But he draws a line between what the technology can generate and what audiences are willing to invest in emotionally. <\/p>\n \u201cPrince writing his songs is a great story,\u201d he says. \u201cPushing a button and making music is not. Very soon \u2014 it\u2019s already starting \u2014 we\u2019re going to have this us-versus-them mentality. These are the machines and we\u2019re the humans. And we\u2019re not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n The actress that didn\u2019t exist<\/p>\n \u201cAre you allowed to speak to me from L.A.?\u201d Eline van der Velden, the creator of Tilly Norwood, asks with a quick, nervous laugh on a video call from London \u2014 a nod to how radioactive the subject of synthetic performers has become.<\/p>\n The question isn\u2019t entirely a joke. Three months ago, when Van der Velden presented her latest project at an industry conference in Zurich, it touched off one of Hollywood\u2019s most heated debates yet over AI and performance, one that still hasn\u2019t fully cooled.<\/p>\n Van der Velden, 39, came up as an actor before pivoting into production, eventually landing in London, where she founded Particle6, a digital production company known for short-form video work for broadcasters and major platforms. She was in Zurich to introduce its newest offshoot, Xicoia, an AI studio designed to build and manage original synthetic characters for entertainment, advertising and social media. \u201cIt\u2019s not a talent agency \u2014 we\u2019re making characters,\u201d she says. \u201cSo it\u2019s really like a Marvel universe studio in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n Eline van der Velden, creator of the AI-constructed Tilly Norwood.<\/p>\n (Particle6)<\/p>\n Tilly Norwood was meant to be the first and most visible example of that approach. Conceived as a recurring character with an unfolding story arc, Tilly was built to exist across short-form videos and scripted scenarios. As part of the Zurich presentation, Van der Velden screened a short satirical video titled \u201cAI Commissioner,\u201d introducing Tilly as a \u201c100% AI-generated\u201d actress \u2014 smiling on a red carpet and breaking down on a talk-show couch.<\/p>\n Other short videos featuring Tilly had already circulated online, including a montage placing her in familiar movie genres and a parody riffing on Sydney Sweeney\u2019s controversial American Eagle jeans ad (\u201cMy genes are binary\u201d). The \u201cAI Commissioner\u201d video itself had been posted on YouTube months earlier. By then, photorealistic synthetic characters were no longer novel and similar experiments were spreading online.<\/p>\n In Hollywood, it triggered an immediate backlash. Press accounts out of Zurich, amplified by Van der Velden\u2019s remark that Tilly might soon be signed to an agent, collided with an industry already on edge about AI. Van der Velden was stunned at the intensity of the outcry: \u201cTilly was meant to be for entertainment,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not to be taken too seriously. I think people have taken her way too seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Across the industry, working actors, already facing shrinking opportunities, recoiled at the idea of a fabricated performer potentially taking real jobs. Some called for a boycott of any agents who might take on Norwood. Speaking to The Times<\/a>, SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin demanded that the real-life actors used for AI modeling be compensated. \u201cThey need to know that it\u2019s happening,\u201d he said. \u201cThey need to give permission for it and they need to be bargained with.\u201d<\/p>\n As the coverage ricocheted far beyond the trades and went global, the reaction escalated just as quickly. Asked when she knew Tilly had struck a nerve, Van der Velden answers matter-of-factly: \u201cWhen I got the death threats. That\u2019s when I was like, oh \u2014 this has taken a very different turn.\u201d<\/p>\n Van der Velden understands why the idea of a synthetic performer unsettled people, especially in a business already raw from layoffs, strikes and contraction. \u201cTilly is showing what we can do with the tech at this moment in time and that is frightening,\u201d she says. But she argues that much of the backlash rests on fears that, in her view, haven\u2019t yet materialized \u2014 at least not in the way people imagine them.<\/p>\n Tilly Norwood, an AI construct created by Particle6.<\/p>\n (Particle6)<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a bad reputation around AI,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople try to swing all sorts of things at it, like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s taking my job.\u2019 Well, I don\u2019t know of anyone whose acting job has actually been taken by AI. And Tilly certainly hasn\u2019t taken anyone\u2019s job.\u201d<\/p>\n Union representatives argue that displacement is already occurring through subtler mechanisms: background roles increasingly filled by digital doubles, commercials replacing actors with synthetic performers and projects that never get greenlighted because AI offers a cheaper alternative. The impact shows up not in pink slips but in opportunities that vanish before auditions are ever held.<\/p>\n Even as the controversy grew, Van der Velden says she began hearing something else privately. Producers and executives reached out, curious about what Tilly could do, with several asking about placing the character in traditional film or television projects \u2014 offers she says she declined. \u201cThat\u2019s not what Tilly was made for,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Van der Velden insists the character was never intended to replace actors, framing Tilly instead as part of a different creative lineage, closer to animation. \u201cI was an actor myself \u2014 I absolutely love actors,\u201d she says. \u201cI love pointing a camera at a real actress. Please don\u2019t stop casting actors. That\u2019s not the aim of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n With a background in musical theater and physics, Van der Velden spent her early career in Los Angeles acting, improvising at Upright Citizens Brigade and making YouTube sketches. An alter ego she created, Miss Holland \u2014 designed to make fun of rigid beauty standards \u2014 won an online comedy award and helped launch her career in the U.K., where she founded Particle6.<\/p>\n Tilly began as an exercise: Could Van der Velden design a virtual character who felt instantly familiar, the kind of approachable young woman audiences would naturally be drawn to? \u201cIt\u2019s like building a Barbie doll,\u201d she says, noting at one point she considered making Tilly half robot. \u201cI had fun making her. It was a creative itch.\u201d<\/p>\n She pushes back on the idea that synthetic characters are simply stitched together from parts of real people. \u201cPeople think you take this actress\u2019 eyes and nose and that actress\u2019 mouth,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s not how it works at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Over six months, a team of about 15 people at Particle6 worked on developing Tilly, generating more than 2,000 visual versions and testing nearly 200 names before selecting Tilly Norwood, one that fit what Van der Velden calls the \u201cEnglish rose\u201d aesthetic they were looking for and wasn\u2019t already taken. \u201cIt\u2019s very human-led,\u201d Van der Velden says, likening AI tools to a calculator for creatives. \u201cYou need taste. You need judgment. You still have to call the shots.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as the technology advances, the uncanny valley remains a stubborn barrier. Van der Velden says Tilly has improved over the past six months, but only through sustained human steering. \u201cIt takes a lot of work to get it right,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n That labor, she says, is what separates an emerging form of storytelling worth taking seriously from AI slop. \u201cI\u2019ve seen some genuinely amazing work coming out of AI filmmaking,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a different art form but a real one.\u201d<\/p>\n She sees Tilly less as a provocation than as a reflection. \u201cShe represents this moment of fear in our industry as a piece of art. But I would say to people: Don\u2019t be fearful. We can\u2019t wish AI away. It\u2019s here. The question is, how do we use it positively?\u201d<\/p>\n Her focus now is on what she calls Tilly\u2019s \u201cinside\u201d \u2014 the personality, memory and backstory that give the character continuity over time. That interior life is being built with Particle6\u2019s proprietary system, DeepFame, software designed to give the character memory and behavioral consistency from one appearance to the next.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople ask me things like what her favorite food is,\u201d Van der Velden says. \u201cI\u2019m not going to answer for Tilly. She has a voice of her own. I\u2019d rather you ask her yourself \u2014 very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Hollywood fights back<\/p>\n While Van der Velden wishes the industry were less afraid of what AI might become, Alexandra Shannon is helping Hollywood arm itself for what\u2019s already here.<\/p>\n As head of strategic development at Creative Artists Agency, one of the industry\u2019s most powerful agencies, Shannon works with actors, filmmakers and estates trying to navigate what generative technology means for their work \u2014 and their identities. <\/p>\n The questions she hears tend to fall into two camps. \u201cFirst is, how do I protect myself \u2014 my likeness, my voice, my work?\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s the flip side: How do I engage with this, but do it safely?\u201d<\/p>\n Those concerns led to the creation of the CAA Vault, a secure repository for approved digital scans of a client\u2019s face and voice. Shannon describes it as a way to capture a likeness once, then allow performers to decide when and where it can be used \u2014 for example, in one shot created for one film. It doesn\u2019t eliminate uncertainty, she says, but it gives talent something they\u2019ve rarely had since AI companies entered the picture: control.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a legitimate way to work with them,\u201d she adds. \u201cAnything outside that isn\u2019t authorized.\u201d<\/p>\n Creative Artists Agency\u2019s headquarters in Century City, where talent representatives are grappling with how to protect clients\u2019 likenesses.<\/p>\n (Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Those risks are no longer abstract. Unauthorized AI-generated images and videos resembling Scarlett Johansson have circulated online. Deepfake ads have falsely enlisted Tom Hanks to promote medical products. AI-generated images have placed Taylor Swift in fabricated scenarios she never endorsed. Once a likeness becomes live and responsive, Shannon says, control can erode quickly.<\/p>\n For all the panic around AI, Shannon rejects the idea that digital likeness will undercut human stars overnight. \u201cIt\u2019s not about all of a sudden you can work with Brad Pitt and you can do it for a fraction of the cost,\u201d Shannon says. \u201cThat is not where we see the market going.\u201d<\/p>\n What CAA is intent on preserving, she says, isn\u2019t just a face or a voice but the accumulated meaning of a career.<\/p>\n \u201cFor an individual artist, their body of work is built over years of creative decisions \u2014 what roles to take, what brands or companies to work with, and just as importantly, what roles not to do, what companies not to support,\u201d she adds. \u201cThat body of work is a fundamental expression of who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n Shannon doesn\u2019t dispute that the tools are improving or that some AI-native personas will find an audience. But she believes their growth will sharpen, not weaken, what distinguishes human performance in the first place. \u201cIn a world where there\u2019s this vast proliferation of AI-generated content, people will continue to crave live, shared, human-centered experiences,\u201d she contends. \u201cI think it\u2019s only going to make those things more valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone is convinced the balance will tilt so neatly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe genie\u2019s out of the bottle,\u201d Christopher Travers says by phone from Atlanta, where he runs Travers Tech, advising companies and individual creators on generative video and digital-identity strategy. \u201cThere are now more than a million characters across all sorts of media, from VTubers to AI-generated performers.\u201d<\/p>\n Travers got his start in generative AI with the backing of Mark Cuban, founding Virtual Humans in 2019, a startup focused on computer-generated performers and digital identities. These days, his journey would have been much easier. \u201cIt costs nearly nothing now,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when cost drops, volume increases. There\u2019s pressure on celebrities to keep up.\u201d<\/p>\n Having watched countless virtual characters come and go, Travers wasn\u2019t particularly impressed with Tilly Norwood herself. What mattered to him was the reaction.<\/p>\n \u201cTilly is maybe 1% of the story,\u201d he says. \u201cThe other 99% is the worry and the fear. What it did was strike a chord. We all needed to have this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n What stardom looks like now<\/p>\n Few people have spent more time inside Hollywood\u2019s old star-making system than mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose films like \u201cBeverly Hills Cop,\u201d \u201cTop Gun\u201d and \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d helped turn actors into global commodities.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n
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