One of our contributors recently attended the virtual screening and panel event hosted by LACMA. The following are the notes they took at the event. They have shared their notes with us anonymously. Many thanks to you!
Notes From The Panel
On Thursday, May 21, I attended the virtual screening hosted by the LACMA and Slipstream of the first two episodes of Star City and the conversation with the showrunners, Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert and some of the cast, Adam, Ruby Ashbourne-Serkis, Solly McLeod, and Josef Davies. No spoilers for anything in the first two episodes that’s not in the trailers; they’ll be out later this week. It’s been a few years since Adam’s done an event like this, so it was great to listen to him.
- Adam has a very cute black cat mug! He also had Annora Spence’s Walking the Pig framed behind him.
- At the beginning of the conversation when Hunter Ingram was introducing everyone and their characters, he didn’t say the characters’ last names because he didn’t want to mispronounce them and embarrass himself. Adam was very pleased that Ingram pronounced “Nagaitis” correctly.
- When asked what made them want to explore the Soviet side of their alternative history Space Race, Matt and Ben talked about how they had done a lot of research on the Soviet side while writing For All Mankind, and they were intrigued by all the intense secrecy of the Soviet program and the missions the cosmonauts went on, as well as the opportunity to go back to the early technology with paper, manual switches, and slide rules.
- They also talked about how they wanted this to feel like a completely different show, not a spin-off, and taking it in a different direction. They were very interested in delving into stories that aren’t as well known and haven’t been depicted or dramatized.
- Ben Nedivi said that the espionage in Star City isn’t the “James Bond” version of spying, it’s the more grounded, gritty, bureaucratic spying (what I call the “Sandbaggers” type of spying).
- Adam got a question about the similarities between Star City and Chernobyl and if Chernobyl had prepared him to play Valya. Adam didn’t see any similarities between Chernobyl and Star City, and that Chernobyl wasn’t on his mind when he auditioned for Star City. He pointed out that there were fifteen years in the timeline between Star City and Chernobyl. He didn’t know much about the Soviet Space program and what drew him to the project was the story about the people. He mentioned the predicaments were the similar with so much secrecy, but Valya is a state asset (“a human tool”) who can’t be sacrificed unlike Vasily Ignatenko. In a lot of ways, what Valya goes through is more oppressive because he’s always being watched.
- Adam also recommended Adam Curtis’s documentary Hypernormalization and talked about how at the time of Chernobyl, no one was really believing the ideology anymore and everyone was just agreeing to lie to each other. For Star City, Adam said there still was that dedication to the State and the Cold War. There’s also a different outlook since it is an alternative history.
- Adam apologized that he has a tendency to go on (No, Adam, we love to hear you talk!)
- Matt also credited Adam when they were working on authentically capturing the Russian mindset and Adam brought up a Russian proverb, which he paraphrased as “Only fools laugh (or smile) for no reason” (“Laughter without reason is a sign of a fool.”), and it helped Matt and Ben understand how the Russian people carry themselves. Also that the people at the hotel weren’t mad at Matt all the time.
- Ingram had a question for Ruby about how she depicted the different aspects of Tanya, her role as Valya’s wife as well as her desires for freedom and self-expression. Ruby discussed how she and Adam talked about this in detail, that if Star City represents Soviet society in a microcosm, Tanya represents art and freedom of expression, little rebellions against the control of the State, especially music, which is very important to Tanya.
- Ruby also discussed how Tanya had made a choice to give up her dreams for Valya’s sake, but she is very isolated and lonely because she has no one (except Sasha!)
- Adam put his fingers in his ears at that part. Valya’s not supposed to know about Tanya and Sasha!
- Solly was then asked about Sasha and how Sasha’s very much a wildcard, but there’s also the potential for growth and maturity, and what attracted Solly about playing Sasha. Solly said Solly’s little rebellions are more overt as he’s trying to express himself and push back with some of his pranks. But it comes from a sense of insecurity and desire for change and that his bravado is a mask (“He’s not that much of a dickhead!”).
- Ingram asked Adam and Solly if they had a chance to jump out of a plane. Adam started to say, “We both went really fast…” then trailed off. Solly jumped in, “What were you going to say?” Adam replied, “I took off without a landing there. I got nothing,” and mimed gun to the head.
- A little more seriously, Solly mentioned he had jumped out of a plane a few years before. He would do it again, but it was terrifying.
- Matt also came in with a historical note that the reason the Soviets used parachutists for the early missions was because the capsules couldn’t land. When Gagarin’s capsule was returning to Earth, he had to eject before the capsule hit the ground (Adam was shaking his head in belief while Matt was explaining this). Ben added that the Soviets didn’t want anyone to know that the capsules couldn’t land, so they transported Gagarin sans parachute to where the capsule was to get the pictures.
- Ingram next asked Josef a question about being a part of the technological/engineering side and what it was like working with Rhys Ifans (the Chief Designer). Josef replied that Sergei is excited to work with anyone because he’s on his own so much. He talked about the isolation Sergei experiences, which he compared to Pink Floyd’s “Another brick in the wall,” and then how excited Sergei was at the opportunity to work closely with the Chief Designer.
- Josef was also asked what it was like to work with Ifans (he’s amazing and trusting of his fellow actors). Josef talked about how as the series went on, he began to mirror him and now he can do a Welsh accent after listening to him so long.
- Matt and Ben were asked about the duality in the show and the combination of fear and triumph. They talked about how fascinated they were about layers, how multiple things can exist at the same time, the ways the characters change over the show, and the way they balance fear and hope. Matt talked about what drew them to the story was the people who accomplished incredible achievements and their resilience
- Ingram also commented that in his conversations with historians that the Space Race gave a lot of people hope
- Ingram also made a funny comment, unless everyone present on the talk has aged very well, no one remembers living alongside the Soviet Union in the 1970s, which led into a question about how the production design helped prepare them for their roles.
- Ruby immediately did a shout-out to Stephanie Gredig (makeup and hair) and Nicole Fischnaller (costumes) who worked hard to make everything seemed real. She commented that they had an aesthetic of “ugly-beautiful” (explains the dark hair). Ruby also talked about the set design of Valya and Tanya’s flat (“I spent a bit of time in your flat,” Solly added) and the attention to detail showing how Tanya has worked to decorate their flat and inject color, beauty, and individuality into their space.
- Adam added that with the sameness of Soviet flats how the colors or wallpaper on the wall was their small rebellion. He also praised the props master for the smaller items like keys and watches.
- Adam also commented about how the reproduction of the spaceships help too because you can’t fake the feeling of being up in capsules in the inhumane environments hoping the capsule holds together.
- He mentioned the lack of fear, calling almost psychopathic (“The lack of fear is a little concerning to me now,” he said). He joked that now he realizes that he was playing a psychopath. Solly added that there’s also the idea that if you didn’t do it, that the consequences of refusal could be worse, and that the cosmonauts had no choice, which Adam agreed.
- Solly also said that the production design helped put him in the environment and emphasize the humanity of his character
- Ben commented that one of the scariest things about reading about the period was that anything could be normalized. He also emphasized that one of the most important parts of doing a period piece is not projecting modern judgements on the past and the characters.
- Ben also praised the production crew for getting so many of the period details right.
- Finally, without spoiling too much, Ingram talked with the cast about what lay in store for their characters. He started with Josef, who discussed how Sergei’s character will grow into the person who’s seen in For All Mankind and recognizing his own potential, as well as how much pressure he’s under.
- Ingram also asked about how the Sasha-Valya-Tanya triangle and how they’ll move forward. Adam joked, “I can’t do that again with these people.”
- Ruby said how a story like that could have easily gone the cliched route, but the script, plus working with Adam, Solly, and Nick Murphy the director made it more nuanced. For Tanya, her affair is a survival thing, even though she knows this might ultimately destroy her marriage. But Tanya deeply loves Valya.
- Solly also mentioned that everyone has their own motivations, it’s not a case of “Oh let’s throw in some tea!” Which makes it much nicer to play knowing what people’s reasoning for doing things are.
- Adam lamented that they’re still pretty censored because the question of Tanya’s affair is very interesting. The reason why he did Star City was because the story and the characters were so well-written and it wasn’t cliché.
- Josef added how everyone had to overcome their own obstacles.
- Adam joked about the lunar base being dropped on Earth. Spoilers Adam! Adam was really changing up the alternative history
- Finally, from Matt and Ben about what people should expect, Ben reiterated that television is at its best when it has great characters and that the show has beautifully complex characters (Adam was nodding along), and he’s looking forward to people seeing their journey. Matt added also putting them through incredible pressure, that they had a mantra in the writer’s room, as dangerous as it is in space, it’s more dangerous on the ground (Adam also nodded along).