Written by Sabina Ibarra
‘Interstellar’ is a film that reaches into the expanse of the universe but also the deepest parts of what the mind can conceive. Christopher Nolan enlisted Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain to be the audience’s in to a motion picture that strives to explore the universe and humanity’s place in it. All award winning performers, the cast dove into their roles to bring a film that’s not to be forgotten.
The Cast of Christopher Nolan’s latest motion picture endeavor ‘Interstellar’ sat down to talk to press about the challenges and joys of being a part of a film that explores the reaches humanity can go. They shared their memories of what the space program meant to them, how it affected their performances and their hopes as to what the film could inspire in the future of space travel.
Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, can you talk a little bit about the challenges of the space suit? Did it change the physicality and your ability to convey emotions?
Matthew McConaughey: The suit was actually only 40 lbs.
Anne Hathaway: Only 40 pounds?
McConaughey: A real space suit is close to a 100. So they did a lot of work on making it as light as possible, so it was easy to maneuver in. When you got into a sprint you couldn’t jump as high. Once you get the suit on, a lot of it as far as what you could express directly, was from the neck up and sometimes through the mask. For me, it was part of the story that made sense. Usually I was in a cockpit but it was physically more challenging in Iceland, in a spacesuit on a glacier–with the elements absolutely.
Hathaway: I don’t think it hindered it. The first time I put it on, I made up my mind it was my favorite costume I ever worn. Thanks to [Nolan] I’ve gotten to wear some pretty spectacular ones, but this one–it was the closest I felt to being a kid at Halloween. If you could stretch Halloween out over several months–I love that feeling. 40lbs is a lot for me, so it also helped that I had to make up my mind that I have to love it, because that helped me really move forward.
This is a film with strong female characters, as a father of a daughter, and someone who has to go off and film movies how did that affect your approach for the character of Cooper?
McConaughey: My family comes with me. It’s something that I thought about, because Cooper is chasing a dream that was taken from him, and he is sitting there on a farm, when that dream is reintroduced to him, and that question of “what if I did have to go off?” There will be a time where I will have to go off for a months at a time and leave the family. That is much more minor situation than we have with Cooper in Interstellar. Let’s bring it back to family. Chris has a daughter. It was apparent to me early on that this movie wasn’t about family, this was about parents and children. That’s obviously where the aorta of the film emotionally sits. Even if you’re not parents, you have parents, and you’ve been in those situations where there’s a certain kind of goodbye. Nothing extreme as this, but I think that’s where everyone lynches into – the common denominator that everyone can understand.
Matthew has winning an Academy Award had any effect on your career or your life?
McConaughey: Has it changed? This is something Chris [Nolan] and I talked about every early on in our approach. We talked about being obsessed, and that the job that you’re doing could be doing could be the last one. Or at least approach it like it is the only one. And that is a great reminder. So I would say, probably with respect with what’s happened over the last couple of years, I have more obsession over what I am doing at this moment. It could be the last one… I hope it’s not, but it could be.
To the cast, did any of you come to this film much like your characters as presented in the film? How did working on the themes about space exploration change your perspective on the critical nature of NASA’s programs?
McConaughey: It was something I didn’t consider as much in the vernacular of thinking as we evolve. Is the new frontier out there, and if it is why? I just didn’t consider it that much. One of the things I got from this film is that–mankind, our expectations have to be greater than ourselves. The further out there we go, the more we learn it’s about you and me, right here. So it is much more of a tangible idea–obtainable thought. I’m in no way an expert on it. I could have conversations about it now that I couldn’t have year before this film. I’ve got a much more four dimensional outlook as far as where we’re going and which way to look to where the new frontier is.
Jessica Chastain: I remember when I was a kid, my first real confrontation with space travel was when the Challenger exploded. I remember how traumatic that was for me. I remember watching on the news and all the children in our class were watching and I was very young. So I never imagined that it was something I wanted to do. But I think we as human beings need to conquer our fears and reach beyond our grasps, and I think it’s very important that we don’t become complacent and stagnant. The wonderful thing about being an actress is that I get–not necessarily in this–but I get to act those explorations beyond what I myself am physically capable of.
Hathaway: Picking up with what something Jess just said, one of my first experiences with the space program, was with the memorial built for the Challenger. When I was in seventh grade, my class spent the entire school year preparing to ‘launch’ a space ship all together. We had our different jobs that we had to learn how to do, and we learned the math that you needed, we learned the practical skills that you needed and I thought that was really cool. I think if you could take a tragedy and find the gold in it and turn it into something positive, then that’s great. I hope that the suspension of the space [shuttle] program is just that, a suspension, and that it’s not the final say in the matter, because I think we need it.
Matthew what’s the key for you in your exploration of a character?
McConaughey: It’s one of those things when I got to play Cooper. I read, put a proverbial tack in it, and go, “That better work.” I live a private life with my family, play Cooper with his family It’s all about relaxing. Relaxing and receiving. One of the things I didn’t see was the footage beforehand, and I didn’t want to, and I didn’t rehearse, we were going to shoot the first one up. And so then it was about relaxing and receiving. And not planning out. It’s kind of convenient and easy for an actor to go “I really have to do a lot,” and then to say “no I don’t have to do anything, you’re not bound to do anything.”
‘Interstellar’ opens in theaters on November 7, 2014.