$500K or AI Wood: How to make money from artificial intelligence in Hollywood

An AI actress with 10 seconds of screen time has sparked a high-profile debate in Hollywood about the limits of technology. When will the Star Factory move from Los Angeles to data centers and how will it affect investment in the film industry?

How many aspiring actors does it take to cause all of Hollywood to worry? This fall, one - British-born Tilly Norwood - was enough. Her career so far has been limited to a 10-second role in a two-minute commercial sketch. But several major agencies, according to Deadline, have expressed interest in representing her in the industry.

And her live-action colleagues definitely didn't like it. Statement to the creators of Norwood made the American union of film actors and TV and radio artists SAG-AFTRA. Tilly's appearance was displeased with Whoopi Goldberg and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark from "Game of Thrones").

Natasha Lyonne called for a boycott of agencies working with the young actress. Dozens of well-known industry participants expressed their opinion, most often negative.

Why such a reaction to a debutante who doesn't even have 100,000 followers on Instagram? Tilly Norwood is not a human, but an AI actress. Tilly's creator, Particle 6's head of production, Elin Van der Velden, is a former actress herself, with a degree in physics and another company, the AI talent studio Xicoia. To her brainchild, Van der Velden, she predicts a big career. Already in the coming months, she says in an interview with Broadcast International, a major talent studio could sign Norwood to a contract. Will this be the beginning of a new direction for the AI industry and herald the end for the old actor's movie?

We say feature film, we mean Hollywood. We say Hollywood, we mean Hollywood actors. "For me, a movie about a man stranded on a desert island without Tom Hanks is not a movie. With another actor, it [the movie "Outcast" - Oninvest note] would have grossed $40 million. With Tom Hanks, it grossed $200 million. You can't replace that kind of star power," Pandemonium Films CEO Bill Mikanic told Variety. He, like many other Hollywood producers, regularly emphasizes the importance of stars to the film industry.

AI technology providers offer producers cheaper production costs. But they advertise the products through comparisons to stars. "We want Norwood to be the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman, That's our goal," Tilly's creator Elin Van der Velden tells Broadcast International.

In Hollywood, such an idea is frowned upon. "We already have Scarlett Johansson," Van der Velden responds to Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt on the Variety Awards Circuit podcast. "I'm not surprised that the first major 'AI actress' is a young girl that they can completely control," comments actress Chelsea Edmundson on Norwood's appearance. "To be blunt, Norwood is not an actress," states the SAG-AFTRA union. - She is a character created by a computer program. With no life experience, no emotion, trained on the examples of countless professional actors - without authorization or compensation."

"Tilly is not a threat," Hollywood actor Sean Astin, president of SAG-AFTRA, the largest actor's union, and performer of the role of Sam in the Lord of the Rings saga, wrote in response to Oninvest's inquiry.

The creators of the digital artists deny the theft allegations. "We live actors learn exactly the same way from other actors, including Hollywood actors," Aeon Movies studio founder and actor by training Ayrus Rohan tells Oninvest. - And when we mold our acting image, we mold it from the components that surround us from our childhood. And exactly the same thing artificial intelligence does. The unions will say it's unethical because it's stolen. But then you can say that about any actor and any musician."

Why might the movie industry even need AI actors? "First and foremost, it's a financial issue," says Rohan. His company offers clients full-cycle video production with AI tools and plans to show the public a full-fledged AI actress. - We understand that when artificial intelligence replaces a middle manager with a $4,000 salary, that's great, it's profitable. And when you can replace a person with a $500,000 fee, it's even more profitable."

$500k is the elitist level of the industry. Only 14% of SAG-AFTRA actors earned more than $26,500 a year, the union reported during the 2023 strike. $80k was earned by 7% of actors. After 118 days of strike action, actors working in the frame sought a 15% increase in fees over the next 3 years. In a big-budget movie, the minimum pay is now $4326 per week or $1246 per day. The average Hollywood movie shoot lasts 106 days, producer Stephen Follows calculated a few years ago, which gives actors on camera about $65,000 in union-guaranteed minimum pay.

A typical Hollywood blockbuster spends 10% of its budget on actors' salaries, Vanity Fair magazine estimated. Most of this amount goes to the stars. But even for them, the total cost can be less than, for example, the production of special effects. Aeon Movies offers clients a minute of video production for $8,000 to $10,000, according to company executives. Are such costs worth replacing ordinary actors?

Cheap human actors are now increasingly acting as the bearer of a generated "expensive" AI face. It is more expensive to plausibly generate a whole person than to replace only the Musk and body part. This is actively used in advertising. But big brands still prefer to work with live people in their entirety, says Oninvest casting director Aneta Argandevols.

"I don't believe AI artists are the future," she says. - I know this. In advertising, it's already the present. But movies and game material - you can't do without talent and soulful substance there. Artificial intelligence won't win it back!

How much soulful substance does the industry need? Ratings of the highest-budget actors in Hollywood usually mention 20-30 names. The AI industry can try to replace them too - at least at the expense of mass appeal.

Rohan believes that the production of AI actors can be put on stream.

There will still be no quick replacement for Leonardo DiCaprio and Johansson, says Aeon Movies Chief Strategy Officer Igor Sulkis: "It won't be 3 - 5 years, this industry has a radically different inertia." In addition, he notes, the star exists not only in his work, but also in his "social life, subpoenas and scandals" - which will also need to be created and replaced.

The creators of Tilly Norwood are already thinking about it. In a statement given to Oninvest, Xicoia Studios said that the company plans to create more than 40 unique AI actors - who will interact with each other.

While AI influencers have failed to gain a serious audience alongside real people, stars are turning to Xicoia and Aeon Movies to create their digital avatars, the companies claim. No specific names are mentioned there, citing signed NDAs.

Online doppelgangers can sign up for dozens of advertising campaigns and work for actors in parallel projects. If the doppelgangers perform poorly - will it affect the star status of their originals? Not necessarily at all.

Research papers by film economics researcher Julian Hoffmann and media economics researcher Yang Jen-Yuan argue that box office returns are helped by actors who have previously collected box office, not by drama award winners. One reason could be that the real star of the industry knows how to pick the projects and technologies that will bring them money. Are AI characters capable of doing that?

Not yet, and the main money in the market is made by suppliers of technologies for their creation and monetization. US-based Unity Technologies acquired Weta Digital studio and offers tools for creating realistic digital characters; its shares rose more than 52% YTD 2025 to October 24 on the back of positive reporting. AI industry leader NVIDIA, has hit all-time highs in the market, and is developing generative platforms for 3D avatars. Japan's Anycolor Inc. which has become a billion-dollar virtual Youtuber company, strengthened its position amid strong demand and stable profitability - the stock is up 134% YTD to Oct. 24, 2025. And while no one is sure about the prospects of Tilly Norwood's Hollywood career except her creators, the industry she came from already looks like an interesting business with a proven market valuation.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor