'Just Put 100 Tilly Norwoods In There': Kevin O'Leary Says Movie 'Wasted Millions' on Human Extras

Filmmaking is the intersection of art and commerce. But sometimes, the commerce people get a little out of hand.

Kevin O'Leary, the investor and Shark Tank star who is somehow making his feature film debut in A24's Marty Supreme, has some notes for his director, Josh Safdie.

The note? You should have used AI.

Let's dive in.

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"Mr. Wonderful" Wants Us To Use AI

I have to admit, I was shocked to see Kevin O'Leary in the trailer for Marty Supreme. He's not an actor; he's a businessman, but I was also intrigued by why Josh Safdie cast him, and it didn't change my excitement to see the movie.

Well, O'Leary is sort of doing his own press tour now, and while he was on a recent The Hill’s World of Travel podcast, O'Leary claimed the highly anticipated, $70 million-plus A24 film "wasted millions of dollars" by hiring human background actors.

"Almost every scene had as many as 150 extras," O'Leary said. "Now, those people have to stay awake for 18 hours, be completely dressed in the background... and yet, it costs millions of dollars to do that."

His business-brained solution was just AI.

He continued, “Why couldn’t you simply put AI agents in their place? Because they’re not the main actors. They’re only in the story visually. [You could] save millions of dollars, so more movies could be made. The same director, instead of spending $90 million or whatever he spent, could’ve spent $35 million and made two movies.”

O’Leary went on to say, “I’d argue for the sake of the art, you should allow it in certain cases. An extra is a really good use case because you can’t tell the difference. You just put a hundred Norwell Tillys [sic] in there and you’re good.”

The 'Tilly Norwood' of it All

Look, O'Leary actually called her "Tilly Norwell" and "Norwell Tilly," but in his rant we know he meant Tilly Norwood, the 100% AI-generated "actress" who appeared back in September, sparking an industry-wide firestorm when reports surfaced that major talent agencies were looking to sign "it."

But they didn't, because that report was probably BS.

O'Leary, however, is a fan of her, or at least of the idea of AI.

O'Leary's comments signal that the debate over AI is shifting from a theoretical idea to a practical, budgetary one.

And I am not surprised that a commerce guy can't get his mind around how different it looks on camera to have 100 real people versus a bunch of fake faces. Especially within a period film that lives and dies in authenticity. Adding too much CGI could kill these scenes or rip us out of the movie.

But again, all he understands is money, so he can't fathom that.

For studio heads and investors like "Mr. Wonderful," replacing 150 extras with digital assets isn't a question of art; it's a line item on a budget.

And for filmmakers, this is the new battleground.

Summing It All Up

O'Leary's comments are particularly ironic given that he's promoting Marty Supreme, an A24 film—a studio built on championing unique, human-centric voices.

And bringing a sense of humanity to storytelling that makes their movies very popular.

But I do think his words should be a bat signal to filmmakers that these fights are coming, and we should be willing to make sacrifices to make sure the realism always wins out.

Let me know what you think in the comments.