CS Video: The Martian’s Jessica Chastain and a Real-Life NASA Astronaut

Interview with The Martian’s Jessica Chastain and a real-life NASA astronaut

There’s been a wave of films about outer space exploration and travel in the past couple of years, and Ridley Scott’s The Martian will be joining them this Friday, October 2, adapted from the noel by Andy Weir.

While much of the focus is rightfully being put on Matt Damon, who plays Mark Watney, an astronaut and botanist stranded on the red planet, he has a great supporting cast, including the one and only Jessica Chastain who plays Commander Melissa Lewis, who is in charge of the mission to Mars that goes wrong. Her crew is on the spaceship Hermes on the long journey back to Earth when they discover that Watney is still alive and she has to make the tough decision whether to return, putting their own survival in jeopardy.

Chastain is always a fun interview, but when ComingSoon.net attended the junket for The Martian at the Toronto International Film Festival a few weeks back, Chastain was paired with actual NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson who crewed the Space Shuttle Endeavour and spent time on the International Space Station. Dyson was assigned the role of getting Chastain up to speed on what it’s like to lead a mission into space, and it was a surprisingly fun interview, mainly because (as I said) Chastain always makes her interviews fun.

At the end, we decided to slip in a little question about the chances of her playing Carol Danvers aka Marvel’s Captain Marvel being that the character is also an astronaut and Chastain looked quite comfortable in her NASA uniform. She quickly found a way to skirt the subject, so the next day, when we interviewed Emily Blunt for Sicario (an interview you can watch here), we gave her a chance to make her own appeal to play the character (because she’s also quite a badass in that film.) 

The Martian opens nationwide on Friday, October 2 with previews on Thursday night. Check out our previous interviews with Matt Damon and Ridley Scott and we have more to come! (If you can’t get enough of Jessica Chastain–and honestly, could there ever be too much Jessica Chastain?–we’ll have more with her in a couple o weeks talking about Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak.)

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Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) finds himself stranded and alone on Mars, in THE MARTIAN.

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Annie Montrose (Kristin Wiig), NASA’s media relations director, and NASA’s Director of Mars missions, Dr. Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), do everything they can to bring home an astronaut stranded on Mars, in THE MARTIAN.

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Matt Damon portrays an astronaut who draws upon his ingenuity to subsist on a hostile planet.

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Matt Damon portrays an astronaut who must draw upon his ingenuity to survive on a hostile planet.

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Matt Damon portrays the titular hero in THE MARTIAN.

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(from left) Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Sebastian Stan, Kate Mara, and Aksel Hennie portray the crewmembers of the fateful mission to Mars.

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Matt Damon portrays an astronaut who faces seemingly insurmountable odds as he tries to find a way to subsist on a hostile planet.

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Kristen Wiig portrays a NASA employee who must deal with the ramifications of an astronaut stranded on Mars.

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Jeff Daniels is a NASA administrator who closely monitors the fate of an astronaut stranded on Mars.

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