The Astronaut stars Kate Mara and Gabriel Luna talk about their time creating the duo's new crazy sci-fi movie.
Mara plays Captain Sam Walker, an astronaut who starts to believe she unintentionally brought an extraterrestrial entity back to Earth.
On the red carpet at SXSW, The Direct spoke with several talent and filmmakers responsible for bringing The Astronaut to life, including Kate Mara, Gabriel Luna (Mark Walker), Jess Varley (director and writer), Brad Fuller (producer), Cameron Fuller (producer), and Eric B. Fleischman (producer).
Kate Mara on Crafting Her Character's Performance
"I Was Always Excited When I Saw That There Were Other People In the Scene With Me..."
- The Direct: "Your character is someone who fears that they brought something back to Earth. Where did you start in building the foundation of that performance, and how it, you know, grows and evolves as the film goes on?"
Kate Mara: Well, it takes a lot of imagination for most of the movie. I am on my own, having to just sort of use my own imagination and really, what Jess [Varley], our director, writer, has already given us in the script and stuff.
So, a lot of it was already there. But, yeah, it just sort of takes a little extra work because I don't have anybody in a lot of scenes with me. I was always so excited when there were other humans in the scenes with me. Laurence Fishburne plays my dad, and [Gabriel Luna] plays my husband.
I was always excited when I saw that there were other people in the scene with me, because it was rare.
Gabriel Luna on the Film's Unique Filming Experience
"I'm Starting to Kind of Gracefully Age Into [These] Father Roles..."
- The Direct: "When crafting this film, in your performance, what would you say is the most unique experience that it gave you compared to anything else you've done before?"
Gabriel Luna: Well, first of all, the experience of being in Dublin and in the Wicklow Mountains and just the entire culture of the Irish people, the music. There's music at every turn, in every boat, out on the street, everywhere.
It's just a very musical town, like [they have a] great voice [as a] people as well. It's really remarkable to be able to kind of touch down with that, go out to Connemara in the west and Galway and all those places.
As far as the character himself, Mark, this character, I'm starting to kind of gracefully age into [these] father roles, which is fantastic, and that was really one of the elements that really drew me to the story, was this idea of not only being a father, but being a father to an adopted child. Lawrence Fishburn adopted Kate Mara's [Sam Walker], and so I really love the multi-tiered aspect about that.
The Astronaut Filmmakers On Crafting Their Sci-Fi Twisy Narrative
The Filmmakers Talk About Crafting This New Sci-Fi Movie
- The Direct: "When crafting this movie, were there any particular pitfalls, like when it comes to sci-fi films that you wanted to avoid that are just done so often you're like, I'm doing something different?"
Jess Varley: I really tried to keep everything in sort of an organic space so that it wouldn't feel too unrealistic for the audience to go there. So I tried to take inspiration from bioluminescent sea creatures and have the alien sounds be kind of inspiration come from whale sounds, and just try to root everything, even the palette, just in sort of earthly colors, so that it wouldn't be such a far leap for audiences to kind of get on board with something like that.
The Direct: "What sets it apart from every other sci-fi film out there?"
Brad Fuller: Let's be honest, there's not a lot that sets any sci-fi—I mean, you hope that it's the journey that you go on with the character, right?... I just think that we made a movie at a certain price point. That was the right price point for the movie, and that's gratifying.
I've been lucky enough to make movies that are ridiculously expensive, and we made 'The Purge' for $2 million, and for me, it's almost more gratifying when you make a movie for less that satisfies on par with the other movies that are out there. And that's what I hope happens here.
Cameron Fuller: I mean, but I also will say, the concept alone is something that's really sticky and it's really catchy, and I think we're drawn to that as a company.
When you get something that you can kind of pitch in one sentence, and you're like, wait, what? And then there's a twist at the end of that we didn't see coming. And I think in this movie you'll definitely get that.
- What was the biggest surprise challenge you faced while putting this movie together?
Eric B. Fleischman: We wanted to make sure that the film was authentic. So getting NASA on board was an interesting challenge, and talking to the right people and getting to interview astronauts and the people who deal with the rehab facilities, which this film sort of talks about, was interesting.
And at the same time, shooting this film in the fall in Ireland, which was freezing cold and rainy, and people get sick. And there's, you just get sick the entire time. Jess, the director, had bronchitis the entire movie. So yeah, there was health in that.
The full red-carpet interviews can be viewed here:
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