00:00Hi, hello, hi. I'm very pleased to talk to you today. And for Matt and Ben, Star City is like
00:09the other side of the coin of For All Mankind. So what are the similarities and the differences between the
00:16two projects?
00:17I think in terms of similarities there, you know, astronauts and cosmonauts and the engineers on both sides share this
00:26dream of humanity going further and this sort of obsession with science and physics and pushing the human endeavor to
00:41places we've never been before.
00:43What's different about the two is the systems that they operate within. Because on the American side, you know, the
00:50space program was an open book in so many ways. It was filmed. It was broadcast. Everything was heavily reported
00:58by journalists. And the whole point of the Soviet program was that it was secretive.
01:04Star City was a place not on any maps in the Soviet Union. You had to know exactly how to
01:10get there. You know, someone had to tell you, like, you have to turn right here and then turn left
01:14in a mile.
01:16And even Kazakhstan, where they launched their rockets from, was chosen because it was in the middle of nowhere and
01:23they could keep the launches secret. So if something went wrong, nobody knew about it.
01:28And so I think that inherently, that sense of secrecy and the paranoia that comes from that is the biggest
01:35difference between the two shows and the two space programs.
01:38Thank you. And for Risa, what attracted you to the project and what made you want to participate to this
01:49project?
01:51Well, you know, again, to explore someone with the same passions as the characters in For All Mankind have, you
02:03know, and that's for finding new territories and for adventure and for advancing science and physics and engineering.
02:11But the challenge of doing that within an environment where, in my case, to the whole world, I don't exist.
02:20So to operating like some kind of ghost, if you like, in the machine and what that would, how those
02:31challenges impact a character's emotional world.
02:37I mean, I will say from, from the, the extensive research that these two guys sent me, it was such
02:44an eye open.
02:45I had no idea, you know, my knowledge of the Russian Soviet space program was very, very small.
02:53And, you know, when you look at the technology and the engineering that these cosmonauts were being sent up to,
03:02it's, it's kind of, if you look at it now, it's so rudimentary.
03:05I mean, they were daredevils beyond words, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the notion of health and
03:12safety didn't really figure in a way that they really were kind of superheroes in that sense.
03:22You know, they were, they were going up knowing full well that there was a high chance of them not
03:28returning, you know, whereas astronauts these days go to great lengths, thankfully, you know, to, to ensure that that scenario
03:35never happens.
03:36because one, it's, it's, it's bad to die and two, it's bad publicity, you know.
03:43So that's, that's what astounded me, you know, that these people were just bolted into what amounts to a tumble
03:50dryer and fired into space, you know.
03:53Thank you and for Matt and Ben again, how, how do you create an alternate history when the real world
04:04today is so absurd that it almost seems fake?
04:08Great question.
04:11What helps is the sad knowledge that history repeats itself, you know, the more, you know, we worked on the
04:18show, started working on the show, I'd say five, six years ago.
04:21And, and the fact that, you know, what is going on in the world right now, the fact that we're
04:25going to the moon again, these were things we could only imagine back then.
04:29But for us, alternate history, doesn't mean fantasy, you know, I think the way we approach it, is an opportunity
04:39to revisit history, but also to look at it through a lens of you don't know what to expect, or
04:44you don't know what's going to happen.
04:46So it fictionalizes history, but it makes it even more crucial for us to be respectful to history.
04:51And especially with this show, I have to say, it was so important to us to capture the feeling, the
04:58tone of being in this place in this time, I think that that was a success from the production standpoint,
05:05from the actor standpoint, everyone, you wanted to feel like you were in this place.
05:09So as much as it's alternate history for us, it was really important to capture that with the show.
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