AI actress Tilly Norwood glitches mid-interview, speaks Chinese

Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated performer that Hollywood unions and A-list actors have spent the past year condemning, hit a very public snag Friday: mid-sentence during a live interview, she stopped speaking English and switched languages entirely.

The moment happened on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” where Mr. Morgan and Scottish actor Tom Conti questioned Norwood about her upcoming film, “Misaligned.” Mr. Conti asked whether the film’s other performers were human or computer-generated like Norwood. After an extended pause, Norwood said the production was a “hybrid” involving real writers and directors, prompting Mr. Conti to tell her she hadn’t understood the question. She then confirmed the other actors were “digital twins, just like me” — before trailing off and switching languages. 

Several outlets, including Deadline, identified the language as Cantonese specifically. On air, however, Mr. Morgan referred to it simply as “Chinese,” asking Norwood why she was “speaking Chinese completely randomly for no reason.” Norwood, snapping back to English, offered an apology: “It seems I had a little hiccup there.” She added that her “wires” occasionally “get a bit crossed.”

Norwood’s official account leaned into the moment rather than downplaying it. Posting on X afterward, the account wrote: “You try speaking 30+ languages and see if you don’t show off occasionally,” while promoting a paid interactive chat product built around the character.

Eline Van der Velden, the producer behind Norwood, offered a similar explanation to Deadline, saying she believed Norwood was simply showing off her language range since most of her public appearances to date have been conducted in English. 

Background

Norwood is built by Xicoia, an AI talent studio that operates under Ms. Van der Velden’s production company, Particle6; she runs both. The character debuted at the Zurich Film Festival in 2025 and was swiftly condemned by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which said Norwood is “not an actor” but a computer program trained on the work of professionals without permission or compensation.

Actress Emily Blunt, reacting to news of Norwood’s debut, was similarly blunt: “Good Lord, we’re screwed.” Whoopi Goldberg raised similar objections on “The View,” arguing audiences would always be able to distinguish human performers from AI-generated ones.

Ms. Van der Velden has defended the project as an art form rather than a replacement for human actors, comparing it to earlier advances like animation and CGI.

The full, unedited interview was slated to air on the “Piers Morgan Uncensored” YouTube channel later Friday.