While only a seven year age difference separates Jessica Chastain from Matthew McConaughey in the real world the theory of relativity finds them as a disconnected father and daughter in Christopher Nolan s Interstellar a sweeping space time saga about a last ditch effort to find humans a new home in another galaxy.
It would be spoilery and cerebrally taxing to explain just how and why the 44 year old Dallas Buyers Club actor and the 37 year old Zero Dark Thirty actress simultaneously end up as father and daughter in the film. Yet it can be said the complexity of it all had Chastain feeling isolated from the cast and crew during production.
I didn t realize it at the time Chastain said. As an actor you create an environment where you do your work. I was isolating myself but it wasn t until we were traveling and having discussions recently with Chris (Nolan) and everyone else that I recognized Wait. This never happened on set. I think now that it was probably intentional on Chris part.
The film takes place in the near future after Earth has been ravaged by a blight that has left many food sources extinct. McConaughey s widowed pilot turned farmer Cooper is tasked with leaving behind his young son and daughter (played by Timothee Chalamet and Mackenzie Foy) for a space mission through a wormhole to planets that might be fit for humanity.
If you re a parent or even if you just have a parent everyone has these moments from lesser to extreme levels McConaughey said. It happens all the time whether you re dropping your kids off at school or going on a vacation. This is the most extreme nature of that. This is a father going off for a long time. There s no guaranteed return ticket.
The daughter Murph was envisioned as a boy in the original script by Jonathan Nolan the filmmaker s brother when director Steven Spielberg was first orbiting the project.
It wasn t until Christopher Nolan took control of Interstellar as co writer and director that Murph morphed into a girl and the top secret film was nicknamed Flora s Letter a reference to the director s daughter.
By changing the sex it made it more complex Chastain said. We ve seen many Hollywood stories about a son becoming a man with his father s help. That s almost every journey in cinema. It s rare we see the dynamic between a father and a daughter. If you re supposed to be protected and you re left behind what kind of relationship does that create
Despite stretches of space separating their characters both actors needed to wrap their heads around difficult subjects like physics and cosmology Cooper is a tinkering MacGyver like engineer and Murph grows up to become the NASA protege of the same professor (portrayed by Michael Caine) who convinced her father to get lost in space. (Casey Affleck plays the adult rendition of Cooper s son.)
When I watch the film now I still don t understand everything in it but the main part of this film isn t about science Chastain said. It s about love. You have to feel it. If you go into the movie even though the scope is large with space travel at its core it s a story about a father and a daughter. If you let it wash over you that is enough.
When do we get to see it
Christopher Nolan s space adventure Interstellar opens in about 200 theaters Wednesday but not in Kansas City. Nolan specified that the early screenings must be only in theaters that can show it in 35 mm film or 70 mm IMAX (ours are digital). We ll get the movie starting at 8 p.m. Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment