I last spoke to 19-year-old Asa Butterfield a little less than a year-and-a-half ago for the British drama A BRILLIANT YOUNG MIND, and I found him to be charming, intelligent, and keenly aware that he’s already had a career that many actors three times his age might be envious of (having already worked for such directors as Martin Scorsese and opposite heavyweights like Emma Thompson, Harrison Ford, Vera Farmiga, and Ethan Hawke).
Since we spoke, he starred in the most recent Tim Burton work, MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN, and beginning this weekend, you can catch him in director Peter Chelsom’s sci-fi tale THE SPACE BETWEN US, opposite Gary Oldman, Britt Robertson and Carla Gugino. In the film, he plays Gardner Elliot, a young man whose mother was an astronaut going to live on Mars, who took off from earth not knowing she was pregnant with him. As a result, he was born on Mars, and because of the different atmospheric conditions, he is unable to go to live on earth despite having met a young woman via internet chatting whom he’s developed feelings for. Somehow he manages to sneak onto a shuttle bound for earth, and before long a massive manhunt is under way, all while trying to keep his existence a secret.
Butterfield remains one of the busier young actors working today with two more films already in the can—JOURNEY’S END and THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW, with another soon to start shooting (DEPARTURES). This interview was actually conducted via Skype late last year when THE SPACE BETWEEN US was scheduled to come out at year’s end, and it was far too brief to dig deep into the film properly. Still, Butterfield is a fun interview, and he’s quite good in the film, especially in his scenes with Robertson. With that, please enjoy my talk with Asa Butterfield…
Capone: Hello, how are you?
Asa Butterfield: Quite good. And yourself?
Capone: Excellent. So is the reason we’re doing this interview via Skype because you want me to think you’re on Mars, talking to me on earth?
AB: [laughs] You’ve uncovered our plan, yes.
Capone: Excellent. What was it about Gardner and his unique set of circumstances that intrigued you the most?
AB: Perhaps it was his unique set of circumstances that intrigued me the most. It gave me the opportunity to explore a new way of living and gave me a lot of freedom in making someone who was very pure and innocent and uncorrupted. It was a lot of fun actually.
Capone: I know in one part of the film, you’re supposed to be in zero gravity, while in another part of the film, your body is literally weighing you down. Did you have to physically have to learn to move differently as a result?
AB: I did. Part of my research was zero-gravity training. Unfortunately, we didn’t actually get to go into space, so it was all done with wires and harnesses. I’d done it before with ENDER’S GAME, so I had some of that knowledge already, which I could take into it. But when he comes to earth, one of the important elements is his physicality and the way he moves and finding out how it would affect coming to earth after living on Mars for 16 years. So I wore this weight vest on my chest and tied weights to my ankles, just to feel what it would be like and how it would impact your movement and the way you do everything. That was quite interesting.
Capone: You can actually see you struggling to put one foot in front of the other in some scenes. It’s actually funny to watch sometimes.
AB: Right. We were actually trying to make it so it wasn’t too over the top, but still make it believable and noticeable and humorous. We didn’t mind finding the humor in these ridiculous situations.
Capone: Gardner finds this kindred spirit in Tulsa [Britt Robertson], and she’s a bit of a soul without a true home as well. Talk about their unique relationship and what he gets from it.
AB: They’re both very polarizing people. You’d probably think they wouldn’t hook up at all [laughs]. But it’s those differences that attract them too each other. They relate to each other in that way, even though they are different. They both have difficulty trusting other people and forming relationships, and that pulls them together. Working with Britt, she was lovely, and she makes it easy. Whenever you’re with someone you can get along with and have fun with, that makes it much easier to form that relationship and that friendship and develop that on screen as well.
Capone: Speaking of lovely people, you get to spend time with Carla Gugino, who is one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. What did you learn from working with her and watching her?
AB: You said it: she’s such a nice person—very humble, down to earth (excuse the pun). We got along great, and the relationship in the film between Kendra and Gardner is incredibly important because she’s his mother figure. So she cares for him and looks after him, and he looks up to her because of that. Me and Carla, as with every actor you work with, you need to feel relaxed and not take it too seriously and be able to play off each other and have fun, especially in a film like this, which is sort of light-hearted and has energy. You really need to be able to play and have that freedom.
Capone: You also get to spend some on-screen time with Gary Oldman, who is one of the greatest we have. Same question: what to you glean from just watching him do his thing and the choices he makes?
AB: Myself, Gary and Peter [Chelsom, director] were the only Brits on a set full of Americans, so we banded together, really. Like Carla, Gary is an incredible actor but he manages to stay very humble, and he can crack a joke. What’s great about Gary is that he looks out for everybody on the set, from the cast and crew. He’s so generous, and if he feels like someone isn’t getting treated fairly, he will speak out and make sure everyone feels comfortable and feels happy. He’s a real team player, which is admirable.
Capone: You’ve done a healthy dose of genre films in your career so far. What do you enjoy about those kind of films?
AB: As with every film I want to be a part of, there has to be something new, something original to bring to the audience and show people. That’s one of the most important things whenever I read a script. With the character, there needs to be something I can offer and make my mark on the film, either as a lead or supporting character. With a film like this, it’s genre is a bit obscure—it’s got a bit of everything, and that itself makes it unique.
