This Interview With An AI "Actor" Went Completely Off The Rails The Second She Was Asked If Her Costars Were Real, And Somehow It Only Got Weirder From There

by · BuzzFeed

Posted 2 minutes ago

AI "actor" Tilly Norwood is going viral after abruptly switching from English to Cantonese in the middle of an interview, and the bizarre moment has reignited an already messy debate about her existence.

Piers Morgan Uncensored / Via youtube.com

If you haven't heard of Tilly before, she's a completely AI-generated character created by Particle6 founder Eline Van der Velden. She first became a huge talking point last year when Eline said talent agencies were interested in representing her, and she's now promoting her feature-film debut, Misaligned.

ABC News / Via youtube.com

During a recent appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, actor Tom Conti asked Tilly a pretty standard question: "The other actors in the film, Misaligned, are they real, or are they like you?"

Piers Morgan Uncensored / Via youtube.com

And Tilly didn't exactly answer him... Instead, she started talking about how Misaligned involved real directors, writers, and editors, and said the project was about "exploring new ways to tell stories."

Piers Morgan Uncensored / Via youtube.com

Tom called her out and said, "You didn't really understand the question," before asking again whether the actors appearing alongside her were real people or computer-generated images.

Piers Morgan Uncensored / Via youtube.com

This time, Tilly said her costars were "all digital twins just like me." But before she could finish explaining, she suddenly stopped speaking English and started speaking Cantonese for around 15 seconds.

Piers Morgan Uncensored / Via youtube.com

Tom stopped her from continuing, and then Piers asked why she'd suddenly started speaking Chinese "completely randomly for no reason."

Piers Morgan Uncensored / Via youtube.com

Tilly apologized, called it a "little hiccup," and said, "I certainly didn't mean to start speaking Chinese or impersonate, Piers. Sometimes my wires get a bit crossed, you know."

Piers Morgan Uncensored / Via youtube.com

You can watch the moment for yourself here:

EXCLUSIVE: AI actress Tilly Norwood glitches and starts speaking CHINESE during her interview with Piers Morgan and real-life actor Tom Conti...

Watch the full interview at 7pm (BST)👇

📺 https://t.co/1nTb79BH8D@piersmorgan | @TillyNorwoodX pic.twitter.com/DDkveWvVzz
— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) September 18, 2026

@PiersUncensored / Piers Morgan Uncensored / Via x.com

Tilly's creator later suggested the switch might not have been a glitch at all, saying Tilly "can be a bit of a show-off" and may have just wanted to show off her language skills. She added, "She is autonomous after all."

Florencia Tan Jun / Sportsfile via Getty Images

And comments like that are exactly why Tilly has been so controversial in Hollywood from the get-go. When Emily Blunt was first shown Tilly last year, she was horrified and said, "Good Lord, we're screwed. That is really, really scary. Come on, agencies, don't do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection."

NBC / Via youtube.com

Natasha Lyonne took an even harder stance, saying that any talent agency that worked with Tilly should be boycotted by the entertainment guilds. She wrote, "Any talent agency that engages in this should be boycotted by all guilds. Deeply misguided and totally disturbed. Not the way. Not the vibe. Not the use."

NBC / Via youtube.com

But on the other hand, Chris Pratt wasn't nearly as worried. Earlier this year, he said, "I don't feel like someone's gonna replace me that's AI. I heard this Tilly Norwood thing, I think that's all bullshit. I've never seen her in a movie. I don't know who this bitch is. It's all fake until it's something." He also called AI "an amazing tool in the right hands."

NBC / Via youtube.com

After the interview went viral, people immediately started debating whether the whole thing was proof that AI actors are just AI slop.

Via instagram.com
Via reddit.com
Via reddit.com

Others were more stuck on Tilly's creator's insistance that the Cantonese switch was intentional.

Via reddit.com
Via reddit.com

Sooo, now I need to know: Do you think people need to get with the times and accept that our world is going to keep evolving alongside AI, or is Hollywood justified in being outraged by the mere existence of an AI "actor" like Tilly? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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