If there’s indeed a multiverse where in every possible final result happens, then in certainly one of those universes Marv Murchins, one half of the “Wet Bandits” from “Home Alone,” is serving as NASA administrator.
As unlikely as that might sound, such a thing is form of playing out in the present season of “For All Mankind.” Actor Daniel Stern, who is maybe best known for his role as Marv from the 1990 Christmas comedy film, has taken on the a part of the space agency’s chief within the Apple TV+ alternate space history series.
“They called me up and said, ‘Are you occupied with playing Eli Hobson, the pinnacle of NASA?’ and I put the phone down and laughed for about 20 minutes,” said Stern in an interview with collectSPACE.com. “I then told my wife and she or he was like, “What are they drunk? You, as the pinnacle of NASA?”
But then Stern read the script and commenced watching the show. He got hooked on its scope and the way it merged the production quality of a really expensive film with the intimacy and character development of a long-running television series. He was particularly taken by the fun the writers were having crafting the show’s alternate timeline, which began with the Soviets beating the Americans to landing humans on the moon in 1969.
“I believe of it because the butterfly effect,” said Stern. “If with that one moon landing we missed our shot, they got it and the butterfly effect of that modified every thing, as history is at all times formed by events.”
The more he considered it, the thought of playing the pinnacle of NASA appeared like too good a chance to pass up.
“I just have never been an element of anything like this. They made me get off my butt and really return to work and play Eli Hobson, and I’m so glad I did,” he said.
Eli is nothing like Stern’s “Home Alone” character, but that did not stop a few of Stern’s castmates from having to suppress their response to seeing Marv standing opposite them.
“Definitely, the primary scene that we had together, I just let that live within the room,” said Wrenn Schmidt, whose character, Margo Madison, was the previous NASA administrator. “For the primary day I believe it was perhaps difficult, but he’s such a stunning, warm guy, and so funny.”
“I believed he was a unprecedented a part of our forged this season and I actually loved watching his work,” she said.
collectSPACE spoke with Stern about his performance on “For All Mankind,” the inspiration for his character and the way being on the show has shaped his thoughts about space exploration.
collectSPACE (cS): We all know there’s not much of a connection between “Home Alone” and “For All Mankind,” but have any of your past roles been as a part of an area exploration-themed film or show?
Daniel Stern: I believe there should have been a “Wonder Years” episode with the moon landing. That was right at the moment [that the show was set]. So I probably did an episode, but I do not do not forget that.
The one thing I did was a terrible, terrible film called ‘Leviathan,’ nevertheless it was underwater exploration. Although we needed to wear suits with the large helmets and stuff like that, so I felt like I used to be on Mars. And I could have thoroughly been on Mars with the performance I gave.
cS: You’re certainly one of the few members of the “For All Mankind” forged, at the very least in the present season, who was alive for the moon landings. Did you follow the space program growing up?
Stern: We watched the primary one and our minds were blown, after which each time there was a launch, I watched it, but I didn’t follow it.
I do have one other interest in it, in that certainly one of my best friends from highschool works for NASA. He’s an interplanetary geologist who’s studying the samples they get from Mars. And that’s real.
The capability of what humans are able to is all wrapped up within the space program to me. What’s interesting on “For All Mankind” is that we get to see the technology that humans can create [is] off the charts, but we at all times bring our own crap with us, our humanity. Our primitive selves are fighting with one another, our tribalism, and that is what’s so fascinating on the show is that dilemma of, We’re sensible enough to construct a colony on the moon or in space and yet, we’re arguing over whose sandwich that was.
It’s crazy to me, since it’s all becoming real. Launching people on rockets has develop into increasingly easy, and personal industries are going up there. It’s wild that we’re unleashing these complicated humans on the universe.
cS: Did the creators of “For All Mankind,” Ron Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, provide you with any guidance on who to base your performance on? In real life in 2003, the NASA administrator was Sean O’Keefe, who prior to taking the job was the Secretary of the Navy and the deputy director for the White House’s office of management and budget.
Stern: The one who they form of planted in my head was Lee Iacocca, and he was key for me to the Hobson character because Lee Iacocca knew the way to run an organization. He knew the way to be modern, but additionally budget conscious. He turned GM around. He was, for many who don’t remember him, the pinnacle of Chrysler and just turned that company around.
He was also a media star. He wasn’t only a bland corporate leader. He was an outspoken corporate leader and a political animal in a way.
So Eli is an extension of Lee Iacocca, who’s friends with the president [of the United States], and the president gets to choose the NASA director. I’m not playing Lee Iacocca specifically, nevertheless it was he who gave me a direction for the character.
cS: Without giving anything away, but knowing what happens this season and the decade-long jump between seasons that has now develop into expected, would you wish to serve one other term and see Hobson return in Season 5?
Stern: I do not really like acting all that much. I actually have so many other passions. I do bronze sculpture, I run a farm and I’ve got my grandkids. I like my life.
But I just like the show. It was so good, I needed to be an element of it. So I might definitely sacrifice another yr of messing up my life to do it again, because there have been such good people on the show. It’s got so much to say, it was a fantastic part, so how can I say no to that?
Click through to collectSPACE to look at a clip of Daniel Stern as NASA Administrator Eli Hobson in “For All Mankind,” Season 4.