In the upcoming sci-fi thriller Mercy, Rebecca Ferguson plays an inscrutable AI judge. We speak with the Swedish actor and former Vogue Scandinavia cover star about her relationship with technology and working opposite the “fiercely intelligent” Chris Pratt
Rebecca Ferguson isn’t particularly keen on AI. “I’m scared of it,” she says. “It’s not a topic I have felt eager to understand – ignorance is bliss.” It’s a perspective that gives her latest role a tinge of delicious irony. In dystopian thriller Mercy, which hits Swedish cinemas January 23rd, the Swedish actor plays Maddox, an AI judge presiding over a murder trial in a near-future Los Angeles. The twist? The fellow who faces the so-called Mercy Court is Detective Raymond (Chris Pratt), the policeman who arrested the first criminal sentenced to death by the very system that now decides his fate.
Ferguson is, aptly, coming at me through a screen. Beneath a structured blazer she wears a fading yellow graphic T-shirt. When I ask her what it says she admits she “doesn’t know”. Upon closer inspection, she reads the phrase out loud seemingly for the very first time: “HBO is Hot Stuff”.