{"id":7992196,"date":"2026-04-02T14:24:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7992196"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:44:02","slug":"project-hail-mary-ship-ai-voice-actress-priya-kansara-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/creative-content\/movies\/project-hail-mary-ship-ai-voice-actress-priya-kansara-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Project Hail Mary’ Voice Actress Priya Kansara Explains ‘Unintelligent Artificial Intelligence’ Behind the Ship’s Computer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

You may not have seen Priya Kansara in “Project Hail Mary,”<\/a> but you definitely heard her voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actress stars as Mary, the spaceship’s titular onboard computer, opposite James Ortiz as Rocky and a live-action Ryan Gosling in Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s hit sci-fi adventure. Amid real-life worries concerning AI, she praised the directors for hiring a human actor to bring the ship to life, as opposed to going the artificial route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It feels like a scary time for artists as a whole, especially with the rise in use of AI and robotics and the fact that we’ve seen so many jobs be replaced. As an actor, as an artist, I really believe that nothing and no one else can do our jobs,” Kansara told TheWrap. “So the fact that Chris and Phil and the rest of the team prioritized having artists on board and prioritized collaboration, creativity, the story, rather than what would save them a buck or what would be easier was really special. I feel lucky to get to work with people like that, because they understand it, they get it.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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“In terms of how I researched and prepped for the role, something that was really interesting was how Phil and Chris wanted to attack it. There was so much improv to it, but also with the types of responses that they wanted, we kind of wanted it to feel like unintelligent artificial intelligence,” she added. “We didn’t want Mary to be the latest technology. It almost feels as if the Hail Mary ship was built very quickly and they decided that there needs to be this automated voice system on board, so they got somebody in the sound recording studio and got them to record this stuff really last minute, so they didn’t have options for everything. It was also important that she wasn’t overly rehearsed, she wasn’t too empathetic, she wasn’t too knowledgeable, either. So that was really fun to then make her a bit not smart.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actress also explained the unique process<\/a> of performing the role on-set in order to play off Gosling’s Ryland Grace, saying it “makes all the difference.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When I first got the script — which is incredible, Drew [Goddard] is an incredible screenplay writer, he did an amazing job — Mary was not called Mary, she was just a computer. Of course, the role is incredibly technical, so when I came on set, the role really expanded, because Phil and Chris and Ryan all play with improv so much. There are literally 40-minute takes somewhere on the cutting room floor,” Kansara recalled. “So Mary evolved as the process went on, and her relationship with Grace also evolved. It helped to build that world. It helped for Ryan as well. For the first third of the film, he’s in the spaceship alone and it was important that he had people to play off him and something to keep him on his toes as well. It was really fun. Basically, I just got to annoy him all day, which was amazing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“James is incredibly talented and was also such an incredible scene partner. It was really fun to have an extra person in the scene, which sounds crazy, but for so long it felt like just me and Ryan, and then it was me, Ryan and James. So that was exciting to be like, ‘Oh my God, there’s more people,'” she continued. “We felt that isolation greatly, and it just made for even funnier, even more ridiculous scenarios that played out whilst we were doing all of that. Those are definitely some of my favorite scenes, because Rocky is also just the most adorable character ever.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by Priya Kansara (@priyakansara)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n