EXCLUSIVE: Director/Writer Liz W. Garcia Talks Her New Movie, ‘Space Cadet’
Prime Video’s new movie, Space Cadet is now streaming and to celebrate we got to chat with the mastermind behind the movie, Liz W. Garcia. Both the movie’s writer and director, we talked to Garcia about the making of the movie, the pressure of being the movie’s writer and director, the cast and so much more.
How did this movie come to life?
“Well, I wrote it and said, ‘If you want to make this movie, it’s mine, and you got to hire me with it.’ So, that always worked. It’s kind of a blackmail approach.
That’s always the best kind of approach. From the writer’s side, what was the inspiration behind the movie?
“A few years ago, NASA released a press release that, for the first time ever, they had a class of astronaut candidates where it was 50% male, 50% female. That caught my eye, so I started to read about that like, ‘Wow, who are these women, and how have they set themselves up to enter this traditionally male-dominated field?’ The more I read about these women and men, just how insanely qualified you have to be to become an ASCAN, I became really interested in this world of these really accomplished, really driven people who, if they’re lucky, get invited to Johnson Space Center to both compete against each other and function as a team.
It just seemed like such a funny environment to me, and I loved the idea of this lofty goal of trying to make it to space. Then I worked backwards from there. Who’s the person you would least expect to thrive in that environment? Who’s somebody who would never be taken seriously? That’s how I landed on Rex, this DIY Florida princess bartender girl whose given up on her dreams of science until she has a bad experience at her high school reunion.”
I don’t think I would classify it as a bad experience. It’s more of an eye-opening experience.
“Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. A healthy experience that didn’t feel great at the time. But you’re right, she needed somebody to say, ‘You could be doing something more.’”
I love your take on Rex. She is always looking on the brightside of things, even when they are bad. Was this always the case for this character?
“At a certain point, with every character I write, I have to find the thing in them that I relate to. It helps me write them without being in my head too much, just letting it flow naturally. With Rex… I am not a risk-taker. I don’t like to go in airplanes, let alone rockets. So, I was like, ‘But, what about me could be something that might be a positive quality for an astronaut?’ It wasn’t going to be the need for speed because that’s not who I am. But I was reading about how it was so important that they be able to function as a team, and I am a cheerleader for people. I get very excited about other people’s skills, and their dreams, and I tend to assume that everyone is on the up and up, and everyone means the best. Maybe I’m a little naive in that way.
So, I just decided that I would give Rex that quality, that she’s a good leader because she’s genuinely so excited about everybody else. I also like the idea that that’s not a quality that is always taken seriously. Sometimes being really nice and being really enthusiastic can be used against women particularly. So I liked the idea that people would think she’s not even serious enough to be competitive with us, but that ultimately that ability to lift other people up and see what they need, and to continue to be optimistic even when things were going downhill, that that would be one of her superpowers as an astronaut.”
You have such a fantastic cast led by Emma Roberts as Rex, and I don’t think you could have asked anyone to play that character better.
“I know.”
But you also have a whole slew of amazing actors and actresses. For you, this is your baby, your brainchild. Now to see it come to life with these people, how does it feel?
“Oh my gosh, it feels amazing. It’s so fun. The best part of directing is just watching actors do the magical thing that they do. No matter how many times I do it, it still looks like magic to me. Watching them think of jokes that are perfect for the character that I came up with, but now it belongs to them, it’s just an absolute thrill.”
While you’re on set, you are the writer and the director, but how do you separate the two? Or do you find yourself, as you’re directing, rewriting scenes?
“Oh, yeah. There is definitely the feeling of, ‘Why didn’t I think of this earlier?’ That feeling continues until the last minute of the movie being done. You’re in the editing room like, ‘Dang it.’ But I don’t really separate the two, except that once I’m directing, I can’t be enamored of the script. I can’t be like, ‘Oh no, we can’t change that line. It’s so clever.’ Once I have my directing hat on, it’s like, ‘That line’s dumb. It’s too long. Let’s move on.’”
I have to imagine that’s a lot of pressure also. As you said, you’re wearing multiple hats while you’re on set pre-production, post-production. So, how do you manage it all?
“Well, it doesn’t feel like pressure. I don’t know how to explain. Every time you get a movie made, it takes so long to get to that point, you’ve fought so hard to get the money, to get cast…We had one day where our extras, our background actors, were banished from the set. Something about COVID, yada, yada, yada. There are days where things fall apart, but just the basic privilege of being able to make your movie supersedes everything. I was really never in a bad mood because it’s like, ‘Finally we got here. I get to do this incredibly fun job.’”
If you could sum up this movie in one word, what would it be?
“Optimistic.”
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.