Irresistible Studios Bring Football Legend Lily Parr Back to Life with Three UK

Women’s footballing hero Lily Parr has been brought to life using AI in a new film from Three UK. Directed by Melody Maker through Irresistible Studios, the online film forms part of its #WeSeeYou network, celebrating iconic women in sport whose stories have gone unheard.

Karen Carney, sports journalist who formerly played for Chelsea, conducts the conversation with Lily, who passed away in the ‘70s before ever having been interviewed about her unique experiences as a trailblazer of the women’s game. They discuss her inspirational story – how she first got into the factory ladies team at 14, how she continued to play through a 50-year restriction on women’s football, how she scored over 900 goals – and her ongoing legacy today.

Great care was put into the creation of Lily, through a diligent research, casting, and vocal coaching process. Working with the National Football Museum, Irresistible Studios visited its archives in Preston to achieve a thorough understanding of Lily’s life before attempting to retell her story. An actress was cast to resemble the revolutionary sportswoman as closely as possible, further achieving her likeness through a hair and wardrobe look that felt classically Lily. The actress was then paired with a voice coach to perfect her Scouse accent ahead of the shoot. Three UK also created a Lily chat bot – based on the historical research of British professor and author in women's football history, Jean Williams – to faithfully craft the answers that the real footballer might have given. 

With a background in post production, director Melody Maker was able to utilise her expertise throughout the highly technical shoot.  Pivotal in the AI creation of Lily Parr was Territory Studios, who transposed pictures of Lily onto the actress’ face. Despite the limited number of aged images, its team was able to leverage AI to refine them and pull out her features in greater detail.

Director Melody Maker comments, "Dragged a footballing legend out of the 1920s like some kind of AI séance. Lily Parr – 900 goals fuelled by a strict diet of woodbines and bitter. My hero! Absolute pleasure to direct this surreal chat between two footballing icons a century apart."