The cast of Ridley Scott‘s latest film, The Martian, had much to discuss at their recent press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival. The space adventure, which got a warm response following its world premiere, stars Matt Damon as a stranded astronaut who is assisted by scientists in order to travel back to earth. Damon himself described the film as being “really optimistic and hopeful.” Other costars including, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Michael Peña, Jeff Daniels, Mackenzie Davis, Kate Mara and Donald Glover all had equally pleasant things to say about the experience and what attracted them to the project.
As they discussed the choreography that was needed to produce the zero gravity scenes — with Damon even doing a demonstration — Chastain raved, “I had so much fun!” Mara also commented that she “would never make it as an astronaut,” but enjoyed the zero gravity shots as well. “It feels very much like a dance and there is choreography to it. But, once you do it, you really do feel like a little kid. Ridley — and maybe he was just faking it really well — he seemed just as excited as we did when were doing the scenes floating through the air.”
Aside from the fun that went into the production of the film, the cast also believed that The Martian served a bigger overall purpose. “It’s a reason to put this out there for us,” Damon commented. “It’s a really optimistic and hopeful movie and sometimes our job is to put something like that out during really tough times.” Check out the press conference (beginning around the 14-minute mark) as well as some clips and a mission training video from the film below.
The Martian opens on October 2nd.