I really admire astronauts but I would have absolutely no aptitude for it
Actor Rufus Wright chats to GEORGIA HUMPHREYS about his cosmic new role as Neil Armstrong in drama 8 Days: To The Moon And Back
TO commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, BBC2 is bringing the story of the Apollo 11 mission to life in one-off drama, 8 Days: To The Moon And Back. Rufus Wright, 44, who portrays Neil Armstrong, tells us about his role in the drama, which uses cutting-edge digital effects and original declassified cockpit audio recorded by the astronauts.
For those of us who haven’t yet seen the drama, can you explain how it tells the story?
THERE are a whole ton of shows celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, and each one has a particular way of looking at the story.
I think what ours does – and I would say this because I’m British – but it feels like quite a BBC approach ... they’re really concentrating on the kind of emotional truth, if that doesn’t sound too pretentious.
So will it appeal to everyone or just a select audience?
WHAT the three actors in the film are doing is lip-syncing to the original, recently declassified audio from Apollo 11, in order to basically reconstruct as closely as it possibly can what the conditions in the capsule would have been like, on the eight-day mission.
So what I think is great about this, it’s good for Moon-landing nerds who wants to get every single frame they can of it, but also it’s good for people who know nothing about it – it’s a great introduction as to how it all happened.
Was taking on this role a nobrainer for you? It is such a famous moment in history YEAH, definitely. When I read the script, it’s quite extraordinary, because it’s a very cleverly written script. It’s a 90-minute drama, essentially. There is no voiceover.
It’s kind of a docu-drama, but kind of a drama.
And when I read the few pages which are the actual descent of the The Eagle lands lunar module to the lunar surface, it’s absolutely gripping.
The opportunity of playing Neil was absolutely a no-brainer. And I’ve never really thought that I resemble him but, with the right gear on, I thought, ‘ Yeah, I do look a bit like him’.
Did you have any reservations about taking it on, given it’s based on a real person?
YEAH, I mean, in a way. I’ve played a few real people – I was in a play called The Audience a few years ago, and I played David Cameron on stage opposite Helen Mirren as the Queen.
And then on Broadway, I played Cameron and Tony Blair. And I’ve always been interested in playing real people.
I’m fascinated by real people, because you can go down that YouTube rabbit hole and find as much visual and audio as you can.
And I had to do that a huge amount with Neil, because I had to inhabit his speech patterns and his umms and his ahhs and everything else and his voice.
So you’re using the actual audio? WE made the decision, or the producers made the decision, to use the original audio and I think that was a good one... hopefully it adds a real realism to it.
That’s what makes it really different, actually...
YEAH, because we could have just made it into a script and just, you know, acted it all, but then the problem with actors is they’re always putting their own spin on whatever text they’ve got, so if you give me the
line ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ I’d say it differently to Neil, even if it’s only slightly differently.
That’s not what the film is, the film is how did Neil say that and what would he have looked like as he said it? And that’s the question we’re trying to answer.
What was it like putting on the space suit for the first time?
I’M a bit of a vintage clothes junkie. I love smart suits and bespoke clothes, but putting the space suit on, I’ve never felt quite so cool as when I put this thing on. The three of us were strutting around in our costumes taking endless selfies.
It’s a unique experience, you have to dive into it arms and head first and then stand up through the neck piece, and you can’t get out of it on your own. It takes 10 people to get you in and out of it.
Do you think you would make a good astronaut?
DEFINITELY not, my wife gave me the Tim Peake book for Christmas and I’ve just finished reading it and I mean, the sheer ... everything to do with the training, I would loathe.
And just the sheer level of fitness that astronauts have to have, not to mention the maths and science knowledge, which I do not have.
And the isolation from family and friends and relying on horrible, dehydrated food and very few comforts and all of that ... I admire astronauts almost more than anyone else. But I think I would have absolutely no aptitude at all for it, unfortunately.
■ 8 Days: To The Moon And Back is on BBC2 on Wednesday at 9pm.
I’ve never felt quite so cool as when I put the space suit on. The three of us were strutting around taking endless selfies
Vintage clothes fan Rufus loved his space wardrobe