From Cards’ Sharp to Space travel
James Croot talks to Molly Parker, who plays Maureen Robinson in the new version of 1960s sci-fi series Lost in Space.
Originally best-known for supporting roles in arthouse cinema flicks like Hollywoodland and The Good Shepherd, Canadian actress Molly Parker is experiencing a second career as a TV star.
After an Emmy-nominated turn as House Majority Whip Jackie Sharp in House of Cards, the 45-year-old has returned to Netflix for an even more ambitious concept – a reimagination of muchloved 1960s sci-fi series Lost in Space.
Ahead of the 10-part series premiere, Stuff caught up with Parker to discuss the future, family bonding and the original show’s men in furry suits.
Did you ever watch the original series when you were growing up in British Columbia?
I didn’t, because for the first 10 years of my life, we didn’t have a TV, or if we did we had one channel. But that meant I didn’t have those preconceptions when I read the script. And by the time I did go back and watch it, I was like, ‘‘whoa, that’s really a weird show’’. Because it was pretty radical for its time. It looks so hilarious now, in terms of the special effects, but that was a pretty futuristic thing they were doing for back then – something pretty new. Also, it is so funny. I ended up watching the first season, during the course of our shoot, with my son who’s 11. We were laughing at how a guy in a furry suit isn’t actually an alien, but the thing about the original – I was watching my boy – even though he could see it was ‘‘fake’’, he still got scared. He would still get caught up in the story, which is cool.
How much did the writers initially let you know about what was going to happen this season?
The whole thing. I’ve never had this experience before. When we started, we had seven out of the 10 scripts, which is really rare, and so we sat down all together and read all seven of them out loud over a couple of days. It was so wonderful, because you just don’t ever get a chance to do that in television. I came up doing independent films and it is such a different experience when you know the beginning, middle and end. It gives you the opportunity to make choices that payoff later.
And how much input did you have in the character of Maureen Robinson?
It’s hard to know how much. The writers had the story already and certainly had a character who was this aerospace engineer, science woman – brilliant and ambitious and also flawed. I think the place I had the most input in perhaps was with Toby Stephens [who plays her estranged husband John] in developing the relationship between our characters. The writers certainly knew that they wanted them to be estranged at the beginning of the story and in fact on the brink of divorce and they had set it up that John’s character has been away for years and is estranged really from the whole family. Maureen, in many ways, like a single mother who has done it all by herself and has made a decision that she is going to take these kids to a place where they can have a future because the Earth has become increasingly uninhabitable.
In the playing of it and in the day-to-day back and forth with the writers, Toby and I tried hard to create a relationship that people would care about and that had layers and felt like an actual broken marriage that a whole lot of people can relate to now.
There was no way we could go back and tell the story that was told in the 1960s when all the families on TV were perfect nuclear families.
In a way we are doing almost the opposite of that – trying to tell it like it is.
Likewise, while the 1960s Robinsons were bright-eyed space explorers, in this version it’s part of desperate mission to find humans a new home because we’ve messed this planet up.
Sadly, I think that change reflects a truth, not just for us overly cynical people, but also kids. My 11-year-old and I can’t go to an aquarium or zoo without seeing an installation telling us about how messed up the environment is, or how a particular habitat is threatened. Kids are so aware of the state the world is in. But also, the thing I feel excited about in terms of the show coming out is I think it is very aspirational and I think there’s a real hopefulness. It’s not dark, it’s exciting. It’s scary, but it’s positive and, at the centre of it is this beating heart of this family that’s trying to survive, not just their external extraordinary circumstances, but also their internal relationships.
On that note, was there anything that the five of you playing the Robinsons did to bond initially?
The very first day we rehearsed, we sort of started just by talking about the characters and what we all thought about it. But really, what the director (The Descent’s Neil Marshall) was interested in was whether or not we could put our helmets on on camera. Because these spacesuits, they look so great, but they are absolute torture devices. The first time we tried them, we realised you couldn’t even raise your arms in them. So we spent that first rehearsal sitting around the table trying to put our helmets on normally or gracefully, like we knew what we were doing.
And did that bonding work?
Yeah, we do things together, even now. We sort of all became quite close. We’re really lucky, Toby and I, because these kids are such good human beings and have incredible families with the right values and these kids are loved and respected.
Was there any inspiration that you took from June Lockhart’s original version of Maureen Robinson?
It’s funny, because I couldn’t see anything initially because her Maureen spent a lot of time asking people if she can make them a sandwich, or working with her fancy futuristic laundry machine which sent the clothes out already folded and nicely packaged.
But the thing about June Lockhart was that she was really this pretty fiercely intelligent woman and, given what she was allowed to do in that part, she was pretty incredible. I was hoping to have big fake eyelashes because that was a big part of her original character, but sadly it wasn’t to be.
begins streaming on Netflix today.