Netflix’s Lost In Space, a reboot of the 1965 sci-fi family show, premieres on April 13. While we have already reviewed the show which promises cinema-grade visual effects and a family-focussed storyline, we got to spend some time with the cast of the Netflix Original series on the sidelines of the Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC).
During our short, but fun tête-à-tête, we spoke to Molly Parker (House of Cards, Deadwood) who plays Maureen Robinson, the matriarch of the Robinson family, Toby Stephens (Die Another Day, Black Sails) who plays the father John Robinson, Taylor Russell (Falling Skies) who dons the role of the strong-willed Judy Robinson, Mina Sundwall (Maggie’s Plan, Freeheld) the middle-child Penny Robinson, and Max Jenkins (Sense8, Betrayal) who plays child prodigy Will Robinson. Here’s an excerpt of that conversation.
Centre: Molly Parker, Left: Toby Stephens and Max Jenkins, Right: Taylor Russell
Digit: Your Character is a powerful matriarch commanding the ship and the family, as opposed to the character June Lockhart played in the original series. How has the Character of Maureen Robinson evolved in the reboot of Lost In Space?
Molly Parker: When I was approached about doing this show, they talked to me about Maureen being this leader and a hero. I hadn’t really watched the original but I have now. I really actually liked what that actress did, but the character is often asking people if she can make sandwiches for them while like some crazy alien stuff is going on. It was the 60s and it was an era of putting out these idealised versions of family, but one of the things that’s appealing to me about the show is that the family to me feels like a family that i recognise and I particularly like that in 30 years into the future where this takes place, not only is Maureen as capable if not more than her husband John in dealing with crisis and taking care of her family, but nobody ever even talks about it. It’s not a point of discussion, because hopefully, 30 years from now, we don’t have to keep talking about whether women are strong. We know that women are strong.
Digit: What inspiration, if any at all, has been taken from the original 1965 Lost In Space series?
Molly Parker: In terms of character, not so much. This reimagining of Maureen Robinson is very different. I really did want to have some good fake eyelashes because she was so glamorous but it wasn’t really appropriate for the show we were making. I do know that the writers really loved the original and tried to write to the spirit of it which is about this normal family in these extraordinary circumstances. Nowadays, I think our idea of a normal family looks more like these people. Clearly, it’s somewhat of a blended family and the parents are estranged and the kids come up against real obstacles. So, it is still about a normal family in unusual circumstances…with a Robot.
Toby Stephens: If it is a family show then the families have to recognise normal families, and normal families are not perfect. Modern families are complicated. We didn’t want to make it a depressing story but they wanted to make it like a real family. Part of their adventure and journey is overcoming their own problems as well as all the exterior problems that are happening on the planet far away in space.
Toby Stephens
Digit: What about the sci-fi genre appeals to you most as an actor and what was the experience like wearing those heavy space suits while shooting?
Toby Stephens: Every job you do is completely different from the last one and it demands different things from you. This one was particularly new to both of us. I think what I enjoyed a lot was that even though you are wearing these space suits and you are in this radical situation, you make these relationships seem as real as possible and the scenes as real as possible. The audience expects you to be this real sci-fi show but yet, at the heart of it, there’s this family that they recognise and care about, which doesn’t always happen in a sci-fi show.
Molly Parker: For me, it's a new experience to do science fiction because I have never done it before. It’s like doing a period piece, because there are these costumes, but the difference is that when you are doing something that is historical, you are always thinking, am I doing this the way it really was, and you are trying to root it in some kind of idea in the past. This, on the other hand, is totally open to interpretation. Anything could happen. Who knows what life is going to be like 30 years into the future. You know I have the broken leg in one of the episodes and I quite quickly heal. It’s the future! I was hung up for a while thinking how could it be better so quickly, but then Judy (Taylor Russell’s character) sprays something on it and suddenly I can walk!
Toby Stephens: No plot problems you see…It’s the future!
Molly Parker: It was much more physically arduous than I had expected though.
Digit: If you were ever stuck on a strange planet, like in the first episode of Lost In Space, and you could make only one phone call, who would you call and why?
Toby Stephens: My wife!
Molly Parker: Well, I would try to call somebody who would get me off that planet! 911 or Elon Musk, perhaps!
From Left to Right: Max Jenkins, Mina Sundwall, Taylor Russell
Digit: What can you tell our readers about Lost In Space and the fact that it is a sci-fi show for family audiences?
Max Jenkins: The Robinsons stick together is a saying in the show. I believe that it’s really the representation of the show too. Will and his sisters and his mom are very close together, but the dad John Robinson left when they were very young and they had a very close relationship with him, but then he left and they can’t seem to find any common ground with him. I believe that the Robinson family is fractured but they realise they have to stick together.
Mina Sundwall: Penny Robinson has a lot of teenage angst and Judy is under a lot of pressure. But as the season goes on, partially because they are in such an extreme life or death situation, they learn how to thrive off of each other’s differences instead of becoming weaker from them. At the end, they have a connection that nobody else has.
Max Jenkins: Yeah, like a sci-fi connection. It’s like Voltron – how all the lions come together and make one, even though they have their separate skills, they come together to make this one awesome machine.
Max Jenkins
Digit: Max, you’re a sci-fi fan, aren’t you? What is your favourite sci-fi movie or TV show ever?
Max Jenkins: Star Trek, Blade Runner and Alien are my top favourites.
Digit: So did you guys watch the original? How was it like seeing the way technology was portrayed back then when the Robot was not more than a tin can?
Max Jenkins: Yeah, so it’s not a ton like our show. Our show is very modern than there’s was. But, when I watched it, I loved the original Star Trek and thought – this is really cool. I love classic bots like that, you know, the Iron Giant, guess it wasn’t a tin can, but it had the same nostalgic feel to it.
From Left to Right: Toby Stephens, Mina Sundwall, Max Jenkins, Taylor Russell, Molly Parker
Digit: What was your favourite onscreen or on set moment while filming for Lost In Space?
Mina Sundwall: One of my favourite scenes is the one where there’s a space chariot in episode two and at first they said that I was going to drive a chariot and I was absolutely terrified because I have never driven anything before and I thought that I will crash it and be fired. The reality is that most of it is on a green screen and the actual driven section is from an amazing stunt woman. She makes me look a lot more badass than I actually am, but being able to be in this giant machine was super fun.
Taylor Russell: There’s a lot of moments that I really liked. I thought about it the other day and it was when one of our head writers came to me and let me watch episode 7 and beginning of episode 8 and that was awesome because I hadn’t seen anything up until then. That was really cool and it was like the end of our season so I got really emotional.
Max Jenkins: My favourite moment was meeting the robot for the first time, not on screen, but off screen. It was like the second week or so and I was really homesick and was missing my sister a ton. The producer ran up to me one day when I was about to leave and he said, “Hey Max, they are showing the robot tonight to some VFX guys If you want to come” and I’m like “Yeah!”. I was waiting since last year when I first found out I got the role. They took me to this small shack and I was the first one there. Then I hear, over the speakers, the original ‘Danger, Will Robinson’, by then they hadn’t recorded my voice to be the robot’s voice. Then, out walks this 7 foot tall robot and it is so pretty. It’s got this blue and orange stripes and its face is glowing, it’s chest ios glowing…it is so awesome! So that was my favourite moment.
The writer's travel to Dubai for MEFCC was sponsored by Netflix