Hey, John, how are you?
Hey, Scott, very well. How's it going?
I'm very well, thank you very much and very well. It's a Sunday...
I'm sitting down.
There's nothing better than that.
Congratulations on the film.
Thank you.
It's it's really good fun.
Really, really enjoyed it.
I was looking
at some quotes of Roland Emmerich because I'm a huge fan of his movies,
and there's one quote I don't.
I hope this is him where he says I'm only a stupid filmmaker.
Now I was going to ask you,
do you think that's a quote that kind of sells him short?
Because even though he does the big, expensive, explosive movies
that there's always kind of messages in his movies
and he's trying to make a point that's that's worth making.
Yeah, I think so.
It always seems to
me that there's always more going on than than
than, you know, would become readily apparent on first viewing because Roland's
the master of VFX and green screen and all those bells and whistles.
But at the heart of it, there's always something
a message that we hope will stay with people and and we'll
still be on their minds days, maybe weeks after they've seen the movie.
And I think
the reason why Roland's movies appeal to so many people is
there are messages, but they're not necessarily rammed down your throat.
And if you want to just go and watch a big, fun, noisy action
movie with loads of explosions for a bit of escapism, there's that as well.
If you do want to find something deeper, there's so much fertile ground for that.
So he's not he's not a pompous filmmaker.
He's perfectly happy to watch the movie and just have a great deal of fun.
And I think that that's that's really
that's really, really important that you get to appreciate it
on either level, whichever level you choose to appreciate.
Yeah, I really enjoyed the arc of your character, Dr.
Houseman, is we will call him Dr. Houseman.
Did you enjoy when you read the script that you got,
you get the script for
an Emmerich is meaningful, but at the core of it,
your character has a really interesting journey
and he's he's trying to do right by his mum,
and he's trying to do right by lots of things.
People don't listen to him.
Did you enjoy the fact that the arc was so interesting for your character?
Absolutely.
It was the thing that really leapt off the page for me.
Whenever any actor gets a script for the first time, they're always looking
for beats that they can play and what emotions I'm going to get to use.
And and the more I read Casey, the more I discovered,
Oh, I can do absolutely everything with this.
There's a moment in this movie where, you know, there's a lot of heartbreak,
there's anger, there's frustration, there's tenderness and there's humor.
There's heartbreak.
It's just so many facets to this one character,
and you get into getting to take him from a person who's
completely alone in the world and completely isolated.
And and, you know, the sense of frustration to acceptance
and going on this incredible journey that he'd never believed
in a million years he'd ever go on right to his redemption.
It was a very, very complete arc and lots of lots of opportunity in there
to play really nice emotional beats and have a bit of fun as well .
It was a dream of a part.
Yeah, and it's always nice to to go out into space
with some, some friends in this one to get Patrick [Wilson] and Halle [Berry]
That must have been fun given that you guys are in
this little kind of almost family court, the midst
of all the craziness going on outside outside windows, if you like.
Absolutely. That's true.
It became a very intimate acting experience, actually,
because we filmed it in the replica of a real space shuttle cockpit.
And once the door was closed on it,
nobody else could get in because there wasn't room for them.
They were putting boom mics through the window
and we sort of lost contact with the outside world
and in the middle of a pandemic, especially where
when we were in that shuttle together, it was the only time we saw
anybody without a mask on for the whole three months shoot.
So we a real trust and camaraderie developed between our little
our little sub cast within that shuttle.
And I couldn't have hoped to be in that situation with two better people
because even in the middle of quite a difficult set, a circumstances
with COVID, they still managed to make it as fun as it could possibly be.
Yeah, well, it was great fun to watch, so it certainly comes across on the screen.
John, thanks so much for your time. Absolutely stunning.
My pleasure. Thanks very much.