WithPassengersnow in theaters, Collider sat down recently with the filmmakers at a press conference in Los Angeles to discuss the new sci-fi action-adventure scripted byJon Spaihtsand directed byMorten Tyldum, the Best Director Oscar nominee for 2014’sThe Imitation Game. The film starsJennifer LawrenceandChris Prattas Aurora and Jim, two strangers on the trip of a lifetime, bound for a human colony that’s 120 years away, who find themselves in peril when their hibernation pods awaken them 90 years too early. Their only companion is Arthur (Michael Sheen), an android bartender onboard their luxury starship who becomes the ultimate confidant.
The intimate story is set on a large stage against the huge backdrop of space. It’s filled with high stakes action, romance, and stunning visual effects where everything hinges on two heroic characters who must face extreme situations and make extraordinary choices. Tyldum felt Lawrence and Pratt were the perfect actors with the right chemistry to bring Aurora and Jim to life and play these epic roles. Without giving away too much, we’ve put together a list of 12 things we learned from talking with the film’s director, writer and stars:
Jon Spaihts’ inspiration for writing this story began with his fascination with the notion of the vastness of space and the metaphorical value of that – how alone we are traveling between the stars and how it can produce a solitary experience vaster than anything we would normally ever know in our lives. He listened to a lot of Thomas Newman scores to capture the right tone while writing the screenplay.
JON SPAIHTS: Somebody asked me once who’s the most lonely person in the history of the human race. It’s probably one of the Moon astronauts. The person that was probably the farthest from the nearest human being in human history was Michael Collins, the astronaut in the command capsule orbiting the Moon when the other two guys got to land. He’s on the far side of the Moon from those guys. He’s farther from the nearest human being than any other person has ever been. I thought, “Alright, what if you take that distance and magnify it by many orders of magnitude?” I fell in love with the notion of a man stranded alone between the stars and where that story would take him. Thomas Newman was my go-to mood music for writing the film. When he ended up scoring the film, it was like a dream come true.
There is one scene Spaihts hopes audiences will love the most.
SPAIHTS: There is a wonderful and terrible scene in the middle of the movie where the relationship between Jim and Aurora suddenly changes. I think it is the most amazing and punishing and brilliant thing in the movie. I hope people see it like I see it. When I watch that scene on screen, I forget I’m looking at a movie. I’m just living in that moment with those characters and feeling their feelings, and that makes me forget myself.
Passengersis an intimate story about two characters alone and trapped in time, but it also has this vast, epic scope. It’s a film about what it is that we as human beings fundamentally need to live a fulfilled life. That’s what Morten Tyldum found was most important at the movie’s core and what made it so unique.
MORTEN TYLDUM: We always live ahead. We’re always planning what we’re going to do in the future. What happens if you take two characters and say, “There is no future. There is only now.” What is it that we need now? To me, these two characters need two things. They need to love something and they need to fulfill something in themselves. Jim needs to build something. Aurora needs to write a story. She thinks it’s about something great outside of her, but it’s actually a story about herself. That is what I think we all need as people. We need to be able to feel love and we need to be able to complete something in us. That was what was important for me in attacking this story. You take something that is so private and personal and intimate, and at the same time, give it this big scope of space, this spaceship, and this world which is very unique and only belongs to this film.
Jennifer Lawrence loved the intimacy that came with makingPassengers,because it was based on a story with few characters and had an unusually small cast.
JENNIFER LAWRENCE: I had a blast. It’s really rare that you get to be so intimate. With filmmaking, it’s normally an ensemble. I’ve never worked with so few actors before. It is such a human story and there was so much interesting conversation with Morten and with Jon. It’s also such an original story, so we could just keep diving in. I’ve always wanted to work with both of these guys. I was very excited to be stuck in space in Atlanta with them.
Michael Sheen jokes about playing an android bartender with no legs who’s been programmed to make a terrific Martini, but Tyldum was impressed by how he took a complex, technically challenging role and made it look so easy. The on-set special effects team designed a rig to move Sheen swiftly back and forth behind the bar. Later, they painted out his legs and the rig with a robotic stand.
MICHAEL SHEEN: I had my legs amputated six months before we started to try it out. I was so excited on my first day to walk onto the set and to meet Jen and Chris. I thought I’m going to look fairly spiffy as I walk on in my costume. Then, I was given the green tights, which I had to wear at all times. That changed everything. I make a mean Martini. It was a cocktail of water and olives – just space juice mixed with a little bit of guava juice. I had a little nozzle for a dispenser.
TYLDUM: The whole aspect of what Michael is doing is incredible. He’s at the edge of the bar, having to pour drinks very fast while being swooshed around on a machine, and he makes it look like the most natural thing. I mean, just try and pour a glass without looking at it. Then, performing and giving this beautiful level of humanity and also being non-human at the same time, which is amazing. I was blown away every time we had Arthur on set because it seems so effortless. Yet, it’s so hard and so complicated.
Chris Pratt’s character is a working-class guy who decides to give up his life on Earth to help start a new civilization. Pratt could relate to some aspects of his character’s life personally, especially in a world where a lot of things are done for you.
CHRIS PRATT: It’s a big part of who the character is. He’s leaving Earth for a reason. Men like him are no longer needed in this world of Earth in the near to distant future. Everything is automated. You don’t fix things anymore. You just replace them. He’s leaving that world for a new world where he can be a pioneer. He’s refining a world that has his types of problems. He’s a bit of a throwback. In that way, there’s part of me that longs to simplify my life, especially now. We’re on this press tour and I’ve got a team of babysitters around me. I’ve become increasingly useless. I honestly have no idea where my phone is right now. But, if I go “Phone…?”, someone will be right there. I’ve become more and more of a baby. I relate to that in a way, but unlike him, I don’t want to do anything about it.
Passengersdiffers from previous large scale projects Pratt has done. While it’s epic in scale, it’s also much more intimate in terms of the storytelling and the filmmaking process, and his character is in nearly every scene. Some days were physically grueling, while others were mentally exhausting, and much of it was shot on a huge practical set.
PRATT: It was different for me in several ways. This is such a giant movie and it’s really told in snapshots. There are not a lot of scenes that are more than a couple pages long. Maybe a few scenes. It’s tiny little glimpses into the period of time that we’re watching these characters for what ends up being a long time. You couldn’t distribute the responsibility of the acting to a large cast. I was in almost every scene. Ninety nine percent of the whole movie I had to show up and be there all day. There were moments that were really physically grueling, where I was essentially a prop, hung by wires and flipping around. I don’t say shit, but I get bounced into some things. Those days were tiring in one way, but they weren’t mentally exhausting. Then, there were other days that were mentally exhausting. It was a nice balance of those things. It is certainly different than anything I’ve ever done before and more intimate. It would just be Jen and I, or Jen and I and Michael, on this great big, beautiful set that they built – a huge practical set called the Grand Concourse which was four stories tall, a thousand feet long, on a spaceship with eight miles of LED lights in it. It was really lonely in that way.
The purpose of the Homestead Program is to colonize new planets and the colonists are comprised of a very diverse group of people. The point of the colonization of these planets is not necessarily to branch out because humans are seeking to survive. Earth is still the cradle of civilization.
PRATT: It’s not a post-apocalyptic movie with a scenario where you have a ship full of people and they’re like, “Please send our most viable humans off.” It was like, “Can you afford the ticket? Then, you may go.” I bet, especially that far in advance into the future, there are probably some people who are several hundred years old. They’ve got a bunch of money. There’s great technology in medicine and they can keep replacing parts. Maybe they’re 300 or 400 hundred years old. Maybe they’re an oligarch from Russia. They’re probably on there. There are all kinds of people. Jim finds himself in what’s called a desirable trade, so his ticket is purchased by the Homestead Company. Anyone who’s valuable to the Homestead Company, who would be worth money to the company, would go. That would include people from the whole spectrum of anyone who could essentially provide a service that’s an old world service.
Lawrence and Pratt were both attracted to the unique nature of the story. Once they read Spaiht’s screenplay and realized that Tyldum would direct and Sheen was on board, they knew this was a film they had to do.
LAWRENCE: It was the most original story I can remember experiencing in a really long time, and it was the most fun I’ve ever had reading a script. It was a total page turner. I loved the story. When you’re reading the script, you don’t have all the special effects. You don’t have this amazing ship. You don’t have all of the other elements that came together to make this movie so impressive. All you have is this very human story between these two people. I fell in love immediately with it. Then, Chris was already attached. I couldn’t have said yes fast enough.
PRATT: For me, it was the script as well. Jon painted an amazing picture with his story. When I’d done press for the last couple movies I did, a lot of times I’d hear questions like, “Why don’t we see original movies anymore?” I’d be promoting something that was maybe a remake or fell under the umbrella of a larger franchise. I didn’t necessarily have a great answer to why that doesn’t happen. When I read this script, I realized that it was so original. It is a piece of intellectual property that’s not based on a previous title, and it doesn’t have a reach because it’s a remake. I was like, “Wow, that is refreshing. I know that people are hungry for this kind of a thing. They want something original.”
This script was fabulous. When I read it, I was told to imagine Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role. I read the whole thing. Then, at the end, I called my manager and said, “This is amazing, but how possible is it that it could be Jen? And if it wasn’t Jen, then who could it possibly be?” There was no one else that got me that excited. When she agreed to do it, I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe that this is going to happen.” With Morten being the director that he is, and I was a huge fan of his, and with Michael jumping on board, we kept getting dealt these amazing cards. It’s really rare to have projects like this that just come together.
The spaceship Avalon is like another character in the film. It’s huge, stunning, and brought to vivid life by production designer Guy Dyas. A lot of thought went into the ship’s design and construction. Many of the sets were practical, because Morten wanted to get the best possible performances from his actors. Tyldum pays homage to one of his favorite directors in the interior design of the Avalon.
TYLDUM: We built it. The sets were big because I didn’t want it to be green screen. This is a performance piece. I wanted them to feel, and I wanted them to be able to act. It’s hard when you’ve got an actor in front of a green screen and they have to imagine everything. Acting is responding and reacting, so we wanted to build as much as possible. We had these huge sets which scared the studio. They were like, “Why can’t you do this with effects?” We wanted to build it and make it this unique shape. I have to give a shout out to our production designer, Guy Dyas, who is brilliant. We also wanted to make a spaceship that is highly technical. It has all these roving parts that move at 51 meters a second to create gravity. There is a lot of thought behind the whole ship and how it’s constructed. At the same time, it’s also inspired by Art Deco or old art history. We wanted to create something that exists outside of time, that is both futuristic but also is based on our history and our sense of design. It’s nothing that alienates you. It’s unique in that it goes back in time and forward in time. I want people to look at the carpet in the bar. Who can figure out what movie that carpet is from? It’s a very specific movie from one of my favorite directors.
There were some intense and emotional scenes in the film where Pratt and Lawrence had to go to very dark places. They drew on their sense of humor to relieve the pressure between takes once Tyldum called “Cut.”
TYLDUM: They are very funny. They were laughing and making jokes all the time. I’m not funny. I’m really serious. One of the last days of shooting I actually said something that made them laugh, and Chris said, “Wow! Morten made a joke.” I’m more focused and that’s because it is so emotional. I think it’s needed. Chris and Jen are going through some really big, intense emotions during this film, and there’s a need to have levity around it because you’re going to visit some dark places. Of course, you need that levity. You need to let off steam because you’re going to go into a very private and very dark place or perhaps a very intense place. It’s part of a process and every actor has their own process. It really impresses me that they have all this laughter and fun, and then, in two minutes, they’re going to do a scene where they’re going to have a breakdown. That’s how it is, and it impressed me how they were able to do that. Sometimes they’d come to me on set and go, “Can you give me five seconds?” Then, out comes this extraordinary performance. I feel very privileged to have worked with both of them. They gave so much on screen.
Lawrence, Pratt and Sheen have distinctly different views on whether or not they’d go on the same journey as their characters if they had the opportunity.
LAWRENCE: I would go. I’d like to think that I would, because there’s zero chance you’d ever hold me to it. I think the most amazing part would obviously be a life changing adventure. Then, the negative part would obviously be that by the time you land everyone you’ve ever known or loved is dead. PRATT: I tend to think that I would go. There’s something in all of us. It’s this innate desire to be explorers, to turn over every rock and see what’s out there. If I found myself in their position, where it’s in the future and we’re on Earth, I could see myself going. Maybe not now, because it’s untested and I don’t want to be the guinea pig who dies 300 feet into space, and they’re like, “Well, we got that wrong. Whoops!” If this was tested and tried and true and they knew it was working, I could see myself doing it. It would be very cool going to a little planet that had not been touched by people yet. SHEEN: When I was a kid in school, during the summer holidays my mom and dad used to go to work. I would sleep later and later every day until I would hear the car door slamming outside with them coming back from work. I would get out of bed and go, “I’ve been doing stuff all day!” One time, they went away for the weekend and I slept through an entire day. I was so shocked by it that I think if it was like 90 years of sleeping, that would freak me out. Just by missing one day, it scared me. I don’t think I would want to do that.
