Chris Pratt Wanted Oprah Or An AI Actor To Play Rebecca Ferguson’s Role In New Sci-Fi Thriller

1 week ago 19

Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) looking stoic while sitting in front of two flags in Mercy

Published Jan 25, 2026, 3:06 PM EST

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025.

Rebecca Ferguson plays an AI judge in the new science-fiction thriller film Mercy, but Chris Pratt originally wanted the part to go to Oprah Winfrey or an AI actor.

Mercy features Pratt in the role of Detective Chris Raven, who finds himself on trial for killing his wife, Nicole Raven (Annabelle Wallis). The Mercy Court dictates that individuals on trial must prove their innocence to an AI judge in 90 minutes or less, or be executed. Chris spends most of the movie strapped to a chair and interacting with the AI Judge Maddox (Ferguson) as he tries to prove that someone else was responsible for his wife's death.

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Pratt shares that before Ferguson was cast, he pitched Judge Maddox being played by either an AI actor or Oprah. The latter idea appealed to him because of the humor, but he quickly realized that neither option would work well. Check out his comments below:

I remember talking about the various people who could play these characters, and early on, I was like, "Should we have it be an AI, where the judge is actually AI, and we create an AI?" And everyone was like, "No, I don't think so." I was like, "Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea at all." So it was actually never a possibility any more than anything is a possibility when you're zeroing in on what the outcome is going to be and what the choices are that you're going to make. It's a collaborative effort.

It's dumb, it's going to be dumb. It did not make sense, and I'm glad we didn't do it. But one of my pitches early on was like, "What if [my character] could pick the judge, and I could pick Oprah, or I could pick anyone I want." Because ultimately it's just a face on a [screen]. And I thought that would be funny to have Oprah do it. It's like when you watch the deleted scenes, and you're like, "Yeah, there's a good reason to delete that scene."

Mercy finished filming in May 2024, and while the concept of AI actors was already contentious and one of the issues fought for during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, it has escalated much further since then. This is largely due to the Tilly Norwood controversy, in which the production company Particle 6 is trying to get studios interested in buying their "actor" produced by generative AI.

While Pratt was initially open to having Judge Maddox be played by actual AI, his stance appears to have changed drastically since those discussions. He told Variety during the New York premiere of Mercy that "I heard this Tilly Norwood thing, I think that’s all bull***. I’ve never seen her in a movie. I don’t know who this b**** is. It’s all fake until it’s something.” He also told AP that "AI is man-made, you know, so it cannot be God" and "It's inherently flawed, and it always will be, because it's made by the brokenness of man."

As for the humorous idea of Oprah portraying Judge Maddox, it likely would have changed the tone of the film, as Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson's science-fiction thriller takes a dramatic approach and offers little in the way of comedy. From Parks & Rec to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, much of Pratt's experience is in comedic projects, which can be attributed to the reasoning behind his suggestion.

Chris choosing Oprah as the face of Judge Maddox also would have raised questions about Mercy's dystopian world. The movie does feature some familiar things, including Instagram and Ring doorbell cameras, but the futuristic setting is largely distinct from the real world. This would have been more difficult to maintain if Chris had chosen a prominent celebrity like Oprah, and it wouldn't have just been a cameo as he spends nearly the entire film interacting with the judge.

In terms of the critical response, Mercy's reviews have been negative, resulting in a 20% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score is much more favorable at 81%, though.