It’s safe to say that director James Cameron would never cast Tilly Norwood in a movie.
In a recent interview with CBS Sunday Morning, the “Terminator” director explained that when he was developing the first “Avatar” movie in 2005, even before generative AI was invented, some Hollywood insiders considered using computer graphics in place of actors.
He said, “For years there was a sense of, ‘Oh, they’re doing something weird with computers and replacing actors,’ but when you actually dig deep and realize what we’re doing, it becomes a celebration of the actor-director moment.”
Prime Minister David Cameron said the idea that generative AI could replace performers was “scary” now that it was making inroads into the industry.
“Now, on the other side of the spectrum, we have generative AI that can craft characters,” Cameron added. “They can build an actor. They can create a performance from scratch using text prompts. It’s like, no. That’s scary to me. It’s the opposite. That’s exactly what we’re not doing.”
In September, comedian and producer Elaine van der Velden introduced AI performer Tilly Norwood to the world at the Zurich Summit, boasting that her team had already received interest from multiple talent agencies. The presentation sparked an immediate backlash from industry leaders.
In a conversation with Variety, Van der Velden said that despite the overwhelming backlash, AI’s presence in filmmaking will only continue to grow.
“I think it’s going to be slow progress,” she said. “Next year, we’re going to see a lot of effects that are done with AI. There’s going to be some establishing shots, there’s going to be some second unit shots that are going to be done with AI, and then we’re going to slowly move on to fully AI movies. And I don’t think they’ll know the difference between people paying for an AI movie or not. Good storytelling is going to be the reason people pay for it or not.”
