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The studio behind controversial ‘AI actor’ Tilly Norwood has released a music video so bad it might single-handedly save Hollywood, writes Kevin E G Perry
Wednesday 11 March 2026 22:05 GMT- Bookmark
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Close popover'AI Actor' Tilly Norwood appears in 'Take The Lead' music video
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It’s been a rough few years for anyone working in Hollywood. Between major film and television productions leaving California, job losses associated with troubling mergers and Los Angeles literally and repeatedly catching fire, good news has been hard to come by.
Hope, however, has now arrived from an unexpected source: “AI actor” Tilly Norwood has released a music video for a crude approximation of a Disney ballad called “Take The Lead,” and it’s so awful it may do more to remind people of the power and importance of human-made art than any protest or petition ever could.
This presumably was not the intention of Norwood, or rather her creator Eline van der Velden, CEO of AI-focused production company Particle 6 and the “AI talent studio” Xicoia. The brunette, hazel-eyed digital starlet caused a furor when first unveiled last year. The fact that the music video has been released in the run-up to this year’s Oscars points to the fact that Norwood’s overlords thought the video might act as a shot across the bows for Hollywood elites and announce the avatar’s arrival as a serious A-lister. “Can't wait to go to the Oscars!” they wrote in the video’s cloying YouTube caption. “Does anyone know if they have free valet parking for my flamingo?”
Needless to say, Norwood won’t be going to the Oscars this year, or any year. In fact, the music video is full of eerily-smoothed approximations of things an AI creation can never do, like wandering down the streets of London and Los Angeles taking selfies with fans or chatting on the sofa on The Graham Norton Show.
The rest of the video comes off like Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” without the personality, while flamingos referred to in the caption are lifeless renderings that succeed only in dragging the whole thing deeper into the uncanny valley. Rather than an impressive demonstration of the possibilities of AI, the video acts as a reminder of all the ways Norwood is and always will be unable to interact with the real world us humans actually live in.
open image in galleryTilly Norwood in the music video for 'Take The Lead' (Particle6/Xicoia)All of that’s before we even discuss the song, which is teeth-grittingly painful to listen to. The video opens with a disclaimer stating that “18 real humans” were involved in the process, from “production designers to costume designers to prompters, editors and an actor.” You’ll notice that they don’t claim any musicians were involved in this monstrosity. Having been forced to listen to the song more than once while writing this piece, it’s hard to believe that any of these “real humans” have “real ears.”
Weirdest of all are the lyrics. The chorus is a clangingly on-the-nose defense of AI, with the avatar singing: “We can scale, we can grow / Be the creators we’ve always known / It’s the next evolution, can't you see? / AI’s not the enemy, it’s the key.” Yet moments later, Norwood is bizarrely lying about being human and possessing a soul: “They say it’s not real, that it’s fake / But I am still human, make no mistake / My soul’s in every move I take.”
Unsurprisingly, the online reaction to the video has been universally negative. “Weird that it keeps saying it’s human when it is literally not human,” said one YouTube commenter, while another pointed out that Norwood’s portrayal can’t even remain consistent for the length of a four-minute music video: “I’ve never seen so many freckles disappear, reappear and move to different places.”
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open image in galleryNorwood is an 'AI actress' created by Xicoia/Particle6 (Xicoia/Particle6)Plenty more were upset about the natural resources guzzled up in the creation of the clip, with one writing: “No flamingos were harmed, but about that drinking water you humans are so crazy about...” and another observing that: “Nerd CEOs really think we want this slop instead of a healthy water supply.” Research from the University of California in 2023 calculated that ChatGPT “drinks” roughly 500ml of water for every 10 to 50 medium-length responses. Terrible music videos presumably require much, much more.
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Just last October, several actors were getting seriously worried about what the dawn of Norwood meant for their careers. Toni Collette, Natasha Lyonne and Whoopi Goldberg all spoke out against the AI creation, while Emily Blunt exclaimed: “Good Lord, we’re screwed.”
Thankfully, on this new evidence, rumors of acting’s demise have been severely exaggerated. The technology will (surely) get better, but to watch “Take The Lead” is to be reminded time and again of the heart that AI performance is lacking.
At the Oscars this Sunday, there will be lots of winners and many more losers, and when they find out who is who, everyone involved will experience the whole gamut of human emotions. Tilly Norwood could never.
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