Raquel Laguna/ SUCOPRESS. Liz W. Garcia directs Emma Roberts and Tom Hopper in SPACE CADET. In this interview, Liz talks about working with the cast on set and about the message of the film. The writer and director envisioned the film as a classic comedy with a touch of romance and a timely message about the importance of chasing your dreams. Fun, aspirational, and eminently relatable, this fish-WAY-out-of-water tale centers on Florida bartender and self-confessed party girl Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, one of the least likely people to be admitted into NASA’s infamously competitive Astronaut Candidate (AsCan) training program. It is a story that will strike a chord with anyone who ever held a dream, lost a dream, or just wondered what amazing possibilities life still has in store if they’re willing to take the risk to find out. The story also celebrates inroads women have been making and will continue to make in science and engineering, with Rex and other female characters pursuing technology-based careers. SPACE CADET premieres globally July 4th, 2024, on Prime Video.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Why did you want to tell this story?
00:04I wanted to tell the story of somebody pursuing a dream
00:10when everyone else is saying they can't do it.
00:13But I wanted to send this message that
00:18you can bet on yourself and you might be right.
00:23Why do you think people are so fascinated about space?
00:28And now that the space tourism is a reality,
00:32would you go on a space trip?
00:36I don't even like going on a regular airplane.
00:39So, no.
00:43No, I make movies so that I can pretend to have adventures
00:50but not have to actually do it.
00:54I think we're all fascinated by space for different reasons.
00:59And I think it comes down to the central mystery of our existence.
01:06We don't know why we're here.
01:09Or we all have different ideas about why we're here.
01:12And we're curious and we want to get out there and see what's going on.
01:19And it's such a wonderful part of life
01:22that we can just be living our little lives
01:24and then look up and really think about the fact
01:26that there's so much we don't know.
01:30I think that the people who make their living exploring space are,
01:35yes, they're scientists, but they're also incredibly creative.
01:40They have to imagine what might be out there
01:43and have these hypotheses and then have the guts to go pursue it.
01:47So, for me, I think I can imagine a bit of that
01:53because I also have a creative career and a vivid imagination.
01:57So, it was fun to write about those people.
02:00How did you manage to have this amazing cast?
02:04Emma Rovers, Tom, Sebastian Yatra.
02:08How was working with all of them?
02:10It was so, so great.
02:12Everyone was so funny and wonderful.
02:14And I have to say, it was particularly striking with Sebastian
02:17because he's such a huge star all over the world,
02:21but he is just normal when you're around him.
02:24He doesn't travel around with some huge entourage.
02:27He doesn't have weird demands.
02:29He's not difficult.
02:30He's very, very kind and personable,
02:34and you kind of can't believe it.
02:37But, no, I was just really, really lucky.
02:40I think the world is just full of incredibly talented actors,
02:44and I got to pick a few of them, and I was so lucky.
02:49What kind of research did you do
02:52before writing and directing this film?
02:56So much research because I didn't know anything about anything.
03:00So, I was not only researching what goes on at NASA
03:05and how they test these astronauts,
03:07but I also then had to research, well,
03:10what would the professors say in the classroom?
03:15Or how would, you know, there's the one scene
03:17where Emma and Tom are flirting with each other,
03:21but they're talking about astrophysics.
03:25So, there was a lot of research involved.