AI has many Hollywood stars in a panic. Chris Pratt isn't one of them.
- - AI has many Hollywood stars in a panic. Chris Pratt isn't one of them.
Taryn RyderJanuary 22, 2026 at 3:51 AM
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Chris Pratt talks to Yahoo about his new film Mercy, the AI connection and his beloved Seattle Seahawks. (Photo illustration: Aida Amer for Yahoo News; photo: Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Prime Video)
Chris Pratt can predict the future.
OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, but when we met last week to talk about his new film Mercy, the actor had a pretty compelling case. Before we could get anywhere near the high-tech courtroom drama at the center of his latest project, Pratt and I — both raised in Washington — had to address a far more pressing matter: the Seattle Seahawks.
Pratt made some bold predictions ahead of the Dec. 18 game against the Los Angeles Rams and how the Seahawks would win. And then, improbably, it happened. Down 16 points in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks stormed back to win — just as Pratt had foretold.
He recounts the moment like a man still slightly stunned by his own clairvoyance. Sitting in a stadium box, disheartened by a late interception, Pratt ducked out to the bathroom and glanced at his phone. There it was: a clip of his earlier prediction circulating online — his belief that the comeback would mirror the wild 2015 NFC Championship game he’d witnessed years earlier.
“I stepped out to the whole box and said, ‘Guys, we’re gonna win,’” he tells Yahoo. “‘I’m gonna show you a video after we win, and you’re gonna think that I’m the freaking oracle.’”
He wasn’t wrong. The comeback played out almost exactly as he’d predicted, and by the final whistle, Pratt and his son Jack were both in tears. “It was wild,” he says.
With a spot in the NFC Championship on the line, the Seahawks faced the San Francisco 49ers last weekend — and once again, Pratt was right. His call may have been conservative, but the outcome was the same: Seattle took care of business, making it harder to argue with his unlikely oracle status. From there, our conversation shifted to a very different kind of future-gazing.
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Pratt’s new film, Mercy, is set in 2029, where he plays a detective accused of murdering his wife. His fate rests not in the hands of a jury of peers, but an advanced artificial intelligence judge — voiced by Rebecca Ferguson — that has 90 minutes to determine his guilt or innocence. The clock is literal. So is the dread.
The timing is hard to ignore. Hollywood is in the midst of an ongoing reckoning with AI: how it’s used, who controls it and what it means for creative labor. Mercy, in theaters on Jan. 23, arrives as those conversations are no longer theoretical, but urgent.
When I ask Pratt if making the film shifted his stance at all, he says no. “We didn’t use any AI to make the movie,” he says. “Everyone did a deep dive researching it, but it didn’t really change my perspective.”
That perspective is guarded, but hopeful.
"I see AI having a massive impact across the board, across every single industry. It’s inevitable," he says. "I’m cautiously optimistic that it’s never going to replace actors, writers or directors.
Pratt stars in Mercy alongside Rebecca Ferguson, who voices the AI judge determining his character's fate. Alberto Pezzali/Invision/AP) (Alberto Pezzali/Invision/AP)
He reaches for an analogy: “It’s like when you went from the screwdriver to the cordless drill,” he explains. “The drill isn’t just going to come up and frame a house for you. You still have to do the work. It just makes it faster and more efficient.”
In Pratt’s view, AI could help streamline budgets, logistics and production workflows, ultimately freeing filmmakers to focus on storytelling. He’s empathetic, though, to the fear that often accompanies technological progress. “I have a soft spot in my heart for anybody displaced by advancements in technology,” he says. “But it seems to be the way of the world.”
Still, he hopes the result is more opportunity, not less. “Maybe this is me being a Pollyanna — it means more filmmakers can make more films.”
That optimism is notable in an industry where anxiety often dominates the AI conversation. Many actors, when asked about the technology, circle back to one central concern: ownership. Matthew McConaughey recently took a proactive step in the AI debate, securing eight trademarks designed to protect his likeness — including his voice, his smile and even certain signature catchphrases — from unauthorized use.
It’s a particularly relevant question for Pratt, whose voice has become a global brand in recent years through animated hits like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Garfield. Would he ever consider trademarking his likeness?
“I don’t think so,” Pratt says without hesitation. “A likeness is just that.”
He points to video games and digital recreations as examples — impressive, but emotionally hollow. “You’re not moved by those characters the way you are by a real human being,” he says. “Our eyes capture what we see. Our ears capture what we hear. We know the science behind it.”
What can’t be replicated, he argues, is the intangible. “There’s something in our hearts that’s moved by the invisible strings that connect one soul to another,” Pratt says. “That’s not something you can replicate through AI. You just can’t do it.”
His conclusion is both poetic and firm: “Until they can create a soul, I don’t think actors or artists have anything to worry about.”
Mercy is one of the most physically restrained roles of Pratt’s career — a far cry from the running, fighting and galaxy-saving audiences have come to expect. For much of the film, he’s seated, confined to a chair, under relentless scrutiny. But the stillness proved to be its own kind of endurance test.
“It was pretty tiring. It was mentally exhausting,” Pratt says. “We did really long takes — sometimes 50-minute takes. It was a little like doing a stage play. And so it was mentally exhausting. There was a ton of processing required in my brain that wasn’t necessarily physical, but it was still really demanding.”
To stay locked into the character’s psychological spiral, Pratt enlisted an associate positioned out of sight, feeding him an internal monologue that only he could hear.
“Things like, ‘You fucking did this. You piece of shit. You fucking killed her,’” he says. “So it was really exhausting in a super-challenging, unexpected way.”
That vulnerability is part of what makes Mercy so effective — and what Pratt hopes audiences embrace by seeing it the way it was intended: in theaters, phones off, fully immersed.
“Our goal was to put the audience on trial,” he says. “All the anxiety, anguish, fear, shame — the audience goes through that with me.”
Beyond the thriller mechanics, Pratt hopes viewers walk away with something simpler: a memory. “The movies I loved most growing up were the ones I saw in theaters,” he says. “It’s just a different experience. Turn your phone off. Be immersed. Have a shared experience with your friends or family. And later, you look back and say, ‘I remember when I saw that.’”
From Seahawks predictions to soul-deep questions about humanity and technology, Pratt seems comfortable inhabiting both worlds — the playful and the profound. Oracle or not, he’s clearly thinking about the future. And for now, at least, he’s betting on something decidedly human.
Go Hawks.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
