NCIS Season 22 guest star Rebecca De Mornay has one hidden role you’ve never seen

After NCIS Season 22 Episode 20, you’re probably Googling Rebecca De Mornay to see where you recognize her from. But you’ve likely not seen her hidden role, which started something huge.

In last night’s episode of NCIS (May 5), the team investigated the Nexus cartel and mob boss Carla Marino, uncovering a high-stakes plot involving stolen nuclear material. Joining them for the adventure is guest star Rebecca De Mornay, who plays the big bad Marino herself.

She made her debut as a series villain back in Season 22 Episode 6, described as “the matriarch of the biggest organized crime family in the Midwest.” She runs Kansas City in the binge-worthy TV show, with crimes including (but not limited to) gun running, racketeering, and drugs.

Across her career, De Mornay is best known for roles in classic movies like Risky Business, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and Wedding Crashers. But there’s one pretty pivotal role the NCIS guest star “had” that you’ve never seen.

Karl Pilkington cast Rebecca De Mornay in fantasy Black Mirror film before it happened

Of course, I’m talking about Karl Pilkington’s infamous fan casting on Season 2 Episode 1 of The Ricky Gervais Show. Airing back in 2011, Pilkington was asked to pitch a film by industry executives, resulting in a concept later seen in 2017 Black Mirror episode ‘Black Museum.’

HBO

Here’s where Rebecca De Mornay comes in. Recounting his conversation to Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Pilkington claims he chose De Mornay and “Clive Warren” – aka the incorrectly named Clive Owen – as his lead cast. While the pair ridiculed him for “a bloke who doesn’t exist and a woman who hasn’t been in a film for 20 years,” De Mornay is a key part in what was to come.

Pilkington’s story revolves around a husband and wife torn apart when the wife (De Mornay) was hit by a car. Falling into a coma, Owen’s character is told the only way she’ll survive is if half of her brain is inserted into half of his. It’s ridiculous, but Owen accepts, prompting Pilkington’s dramatic two-parter to take place in one person’s head.

Cut to 2017, and the second story featured in ‘Black Museum’ is basically the same plot. Nish (Letitia Wright) is presented with a toy monkey by Rolo (Douglas Hodge), the museum’s manager. He tells her its backstory, explaining he once convinced Jack (Aldis Hodge) to transfer his comatose wife Carrie’s (Alexandra Roach) consciousness into part of his brain, so she could experience his physical sensations and communicate with him.

Sound familiar? Of course, the story takes a different turn from Pilkington’s, resulting in Carrie’s consciousness ending up in a toy monkey after Jack struggles to cope with the dynamics. However, that didn’t stop fans noticing the links to the De Mornay Version.

“Charlie Brooker tried to blag he wasn’t the exec Karl met with and never pinched the ideas but clearly did, both in the same series of Black Mirror too,” one fan posted on Reddit. A second agreed, “Karl really did genuinely predict quite a lot of stuff. I was cleaning my kitchen the other day, and thinking about him saying that we’ve invented everything we need and now it’s all just nonsense.”

NCIS Season 22 is now available to stream on CBS. For more, check out new TV shows streaming this month, the best TV shows of the year so far, and anticipated 2025 releases you cannot miss.