ComingSoon spoke with The Astronaut star Gabriel Luna about the newly released sci-fi movie. Luna discussed working with his talented co-stars Kate Mara and Laurence Fishburne, as well as the film’s “beautiful” ending. The film is now playing in theaters.
“When astronaut Sam Walker (Kate Mara) crash lands back to Earth, she’s discovered alive in a punctured capsule off the Atlantic coast. General William Harris (Laurence Fishburne) places her in quarantine under strict NASA surveillance for rehabilitation and testing. But as disturbing events escalate, she begins to fear that something extraterrestrial has followed her home,” says the synopsis.
Gabriel, I was really impressed by how you portrayed the worries and stress of being a husband to an astronaut, which I never really considered, but there is a very complicated family dynamic there and an absence a regular absence to deal with. What aspects did you kind of draw from for that portrayal?
Gabriel Luna: I think my focus was to just show, first of all, it’s all rooted in love. How resentful he is of her absence and the fact that he’d be pining for her and longing, and then also just the weight and the burden of his responsibilities.
The fact that they had adopted this child with the plan and the hope that it might solidify their marriage and strengthen their marriage. [But] in fact it has become an experience that they both have two entirely different angles, and are experiencing it in completely different ways. And so I think the focus there was just to try to kind of put yourself in that place where you’re secondary to so much. Rightfully so, because she’s fulfilling a lifelong dream, one that only a handful of people on Earth get to ever even touch, you know?
So I wanted to be sure you see him with these troubles. But at the same time, he’s just trying to… I think in his mind, it’s almost because they’re certainly moving towards perhaps being apart. And I think that that is not out of anger or being resentful of what she’s done. I think ultimately it’s to free her and hopefully free himself and to try to experience life in a much more suitable, I guess, a suitable way.
But I think once they’re back together, it’s something that really was built with Kate on set ’cause we were just always around each other. Also, just being a massive admirer of her work, and she’s just wonderfully intelligent and beautiful and a great person.
So, you know, I think, I think that there’s those people who are just kind of chemically and just aligned and spiritually aligned. I think once they’re in each other’s presence and in each other’s radiance again, you quickly see why these people are together and why they fight for each other and why they are better together. I was just really excited to kinda explore all that.
And it’s kind of a beautiful ending. I love it. I don’t wanna ruin the ending for folks, but also… It’s kind of tragic, and how you see them at their closest, but you also see them at their most distant.
Yeah. I love hearing you kind of break down character motivations. You’re clearly someone who really cares about the craft, and what you just explained really ties into the ending well. So I think people, after they see the film, will really enjoy you speaking about that.
You don’t have a ton of scenes together, but you do get to act alongside Lawrence Fishburne, who is one of our onscreen legends. He has such gravitas onscreen. So, how was that experience of working with him on set?
Gabriel Luna: Oh man. Yeah, we have a few scenes together on screen, but we did get the chance to really spend a lot of time with each other in the pubs in Dublin. And that was really where I was able to just download game from a master, you know.
A few pints in [he’d] start to kind of rally everyone around us into the conversation. But he’s just so… he was amazing and he’s just somebody that I’ve always loved and then, you know, we get to be in this film together and I have my friends at the premiere saying, “Dude, you just punched out Morpheus.” And I was like, “Yeah, well, sometimes that’s what happens.”
But he’s just an absolute legend. Beautiful kind of elder statesman energy on the set, but also really supportive of us and giving us every opportunity to shine and hold down our corner of the mat there with this telling of the story.
But yeah, dude, we had a great time. We ended up one night, we were drinking for like four hours, and then, everyone would come up to the table, and then he’d just kindly say, “You know, I’m talking with my castmate, my friend here, Gabe.” But by the time we had really gotten to our in-depth conversation, it felt like we got everything out at that point. It’s just like, “Yeah, sure, come on in.” We’d meet like jockeys, like cool Irish jockeys and other folks just kind of people who worked at the university, and it was really, really fun, man. Met a lot of people.
He truly is a sweet man, and he knows what he means to people. He is a leader. Born on the same day as Arnold Schwarzenegger, just 10 years apart. So we called Arnold and had a fun little FaceTime call with each other.
Thanks to Gabriel Luna for taking the time to talk about The Astronaut.
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