Chris Pratt recently told Entertainment Weekly that he proposed having an AI “actor” play the role of an overbearing AI judge in his new sci-fi thriller Mercy. However, this idea was quickly rejected by the producers and Rebecca Ferguson was cast in the role.
“I remember we were talking about different people who could play these characters, and in the early stages we were like, ‘Should it be an AI where the judge is actually an AI? And are we going to create an AI?’ And everyone was like, ‘No, I don’t think so,'” Pratt said. “I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t think that’s a good idea at all.'”
“So when you’re focused on what the outcome is going to be and what choices you’re going to make, there really wasn’t a chance, just like nothing was possible. This is a collaborative effort,” he added.
Pratt then recalled another wild proposal he made early in the planning stages of “Mercy.”
“But one of my pitches early on was, ‘What if[my character]could choose the judge, and I could choose Oprah, or I could choose whoever I wanted, because at the end of the day, it’s just a face on the (screen).'” And I thought it would be funny to have Oprah do it. ”
In Amazon MGM’s “Mercy,” Pratt plays Chris Raven, a futuristic police officer on trial for the murder of his wife (Annabelle Wallis). Mr Ferguson’s AI judge gave him 90 minutes to prove his innocence or be summarily executed.
Themes surrounding the oppressive nature of AI made this emerging technology the focus of the “Mercy” press tour. At the film’s New York premiere, Pratt told Variety that he believes he will never be replaced by AI. He called the panic surrounding synthetic AI performers like Tilly Norwood “complete bullshit.”
“I don’t think there’s going to be an AI to replace me,” Pratt said. “I heard about Tilly Norwood and I think it’s all bullshit. I’ve never seen her in a movie. I don’t know who this woman is. It’s all fake until it’s something.”
