Posted in: Apple, TV | Tagged: AppleTV, Ben Nedivi, for all mankind, joel kinnaman, Matt Wolpert, ronald d. moore

For All Mankind Star Joel Kinnaman on Ed's Journey, "Asteroid Heist"

Joel Kinnaman reflects on his journey as astronaut Ed Baldwin across four decades on the AppleTV+ sci-fi streaming series For All Mankind.

Joel Kinnaman found the role of a lifetime, literally, in playing astronaut Ed Baldwin in the AppleTV+ revisionist historical drama For All Mankind. Where most roles typically take an actor within a microcosm of his/her life, Kinnaman spent four seasons chronicling Ed's journey in space over four decades from his 30s into his 70s by the time of season four as one of the few cast members to be featured the entire duration along with Wrenn Schmidt's Margo Madison and Krys Marshall's Danielle Poole. As the Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi series has crossed several genres from drama, history, crime, and even some occasional comedic moments of levity, the fourth season developed a surprisingly heist storyline involving an asteroid before its conclusion in the prior decade in the 2010s. The following contains spoilers.

For All Mankind: Joel Kinnaman's Journey as Ed to Embrace Space as His New Home

When it comes to Kinnaman's growth as Ed since season one, "There were two things that really drew me to playing Ed. First off, he was this American archetype, this all-American hero. And to me, it's not particularly interesting to play that guy," he told Variety. "So that's why this was so fascinating because he was that on the outside, but on the inside, there was something entirely different going on. He was a man who wasn't really able to handle his emotions and dealing with rage and not being able to handle his rage and being a parent. When he suffers the ultimate tragedy of losing his child, he starts to fall apart and becomes something different. Then over the course of several seasons, it's really a deconstruction of that archetype. That was really fascinating to me."

Entering season four, "And to especially see the aging version of Ed where his supreme confidence has enabled him to be this impulsive and courageous person, who has been able to make decisions in life-threatening situations with a pretty calm hand," Kinnaman continued. "Now, when his physicality starts to come apart, and he's no longer physically able in the same way, and he's making mistakes that have consequences that kill people that he cares about, his confidence starts to come apart. He basically becomes a different person. All of a sudden, his existential anxiety starts to guide him, and his fear of death almost paralyzes him. It's a really fascinating process to portray him in that way."

As far as the challenges of aging for the 44-year-old actor, "I thought for me, it's such a gift with this profession that you get to spend this amount of time where you focus on something that gives you such understanding," Kinnaman said. "It forced me to really put my mind on what it's like to be in your mid-70s. I hadn't really grasped the idea that, of course, when you get older, it's going to affect your confidence when you're not as physically able to do the same things."

Kinnaman also broke down how he had to "reinvent" his character each season. "That was part of what drew me to the character. On the one hand, it was the deconstruction of the all-American archetype, and then on the other hand, it was to get to play this character over the course of several decades," he said. "You basically become a new person every 10 years. So, to sort of have to reinvent the character with these new circumstances was really fascinating. Playing old and and this much older, it is one of the most difficult things you can do as an actor. It's something that is done in the epilogue scene of a movie but not as a lead character over the course of a whole season of a show. If we didn't have an incredible makeup team that really made it happen — the whole show stands and falls on it. It's mentally the most difficult thing I've done in my professional life. I would get up around midnight, get in the makeup chair at 1 a.m., and be in the chair until 7 a.m. Then you tack on a 12- to 14-hour day on top of that. Also, when you got that makeup on, it's very itchy, very uncomfortable. So it was demanding mentally to keep an even keel and to stay in a mentally good space. But then, you know, the fun challenge was, of course, building the physical, the body language."

For the surprise plot involving Ed and space mogul Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) to steal an asteroid to keep it in Mars orbit instead of Earth's, "That was actually one of the first conversations that I had with Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi. We usually sit down and have a dinner before a season, and then they give me the outline. They were like, so tagline for Season 4: 'asteroid heist.' I was like, what? I couldn't even wrap my head around it. You have to do like the three frames that come in. I mean it just goes to show the vision of this series and how the scale just keeps increasing for every season. It just gets bigger and bigger. It's just really exciting to be a part of and I hope the audience feels the same way."

For more, including how Kinnaman immersed himself into astronaut life, how Ed copes with the loss of his wife Karen (Santel VanSanten) and his best friend's son Danny (Casey W. Johson) in season four, Ed's bond with his grandson, and why he thinks Elon Musk should give up on social media and focus on SpaceX instead, you can check out the interview here. All four seasons of For All Mankind are available to stream on AppleTV+.

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