Sean Astin on AI actor Tilly Norwood: SAG-AFTRA will safeguard performers’ rights

Los Angeles, Oct 3 (PTI) Sean Astin, the newly-elected president of the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), has said the union is prepared to tackle AI challenges while ensuring agreements with talent agents protect performers’ rights, fair pay, and control over their work.

His remarks come after the SAG-AFTRA condemned the emergence of AI actor Tilly Norwood, calling it a computer-generated character trained on performers’ work without consent and lacking any real-life experience or emotion.

"I appreciate that this story has captured the imagination of people, but it’s not the first shoe to drop. We had a 118-day strike, fighting very hard to put AI provisions and protections in place.

“The teams at SAG-AFTRA have been in this fight for longer than people might realise. As technology continues to advance at light speed, we’re going to meet the challenge,” Astin told entertainment news outlet Variety.

AI was a major bargaining point during the Hollywood actors’ strike in 2023, when SAG-AFTRA went on strike for nearly four months.

One of the central issues was AI — ensuring studios can’t replicate actors’ likeness, voices, or performances without proper consent and compensation.

The “Stranger Things” and “The Goonies” actor said performers depend on their agents’ judgment, underscoring the importance of SAG-AFTRA’s talks with the Association of Talent Agents (ATA).

“Our agreement with the ATA is important, and we look forward to a healthy, constructive conversation with agencies to make sure that we continue to help each other. We performers rely on our agent’s judgment and their good work and their sincerity, and they rely on our talent and our marketability,” he said.

“The real issue at play is how our work is exhibited and what kinds of permissions and compensations we get for its use,” he added.

Astin also added that while AI relies on human performers, the actors have a leverage as the audience wants to see them on screen.

“With regard to AI, we have an extraordinary amount of leverage, because the audience wants to see real human performers in movies, TV shows, animation, video games, audio books and in all the other ways that we represent our members,” Astin concluded. PTI SMR SMR RB