Friends in high places
SPACE FORCE Stars Steve Carell and Lisa Kudrow on how Donald Trump inspired their new workplace comedyé
ome ideas are so fantastical that they could only be real… Space Force, a new Netflix comedy about a galactic division of the US military, came from a speech in 2018 by Donald Trump.
In a surprise move, the US President announced, ‘We must have American dominance in space… and establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.’
Those two words, ‘Space Force’, set brains whirring at Netflix. They had been looking for a project that would suit award-winning American film and TV star Steve Carell and his friend from the US version of The Office, writer Greg Daniels.
‘Netflix asked, “Do you want to do a show called Space Force?’” says Steve, 57. ‘And I pretty much immediately said, “Well, yeah, sure. That sounds great.” Then I called Greg, and he loved the title, too. So it was really based on nothing, except this name that made everybody laugh.’
Together, Steve and Greg came up with characters and a plot to go with the title. In the 10-parter, Steve plays Mark R Naird, a decorated general who has dreams of running the Air Force. However, Mark’s superiors inform him that his next career move is going to be leading the Space Force into the cosmos.
SDespite his reservations, Mark uproots his family and moves to a remote base in Colorado, where he and a colourful team are tasked by the White House with getting American soldiers on the moon and achieving total space dominance by 2023.
It’s a huge undertaking – and it isn’t made any easier by the fact that everyone except Mark thinks the whole thing is one big joke.
‘Mark is in charge of doing this very difficult task,’ says Greg, 56. ‘The comedy revolves around the fact that the project requires a huge amount of creativity, flexibility and science knowledge – and those things just aren’t Mark’s strengths.’ The cast includes John Malkovich as chief scientist Dr Adrian Mallory and Silicon Valley’s Jimmy O Yang as science adviser Dr Kaifang, with Glee favourite Jane Lynch guest starring as the Chief of
Naval Operations.
Meanwhile, Friends star Lisa Kudrow plays Mark’s social-climbing wife, Maggie.
‘I got a text from Steve, who said, “Come play my wife – it will be fun,”’ says Lisa, 56. ‘Then I read the scripts
Mark and wife Maggie (Lisa Kudrow)
and they were
great.
Scientist Dr Mallory (John Malkovich)
I mean, it’s Greg Daniels and Steve Carell. You don’t say no to them.’ ‘I wasn’t even aware of Trump’s Space Force announcement. I missed it somehow,’ adds Lisa. ‘It wasn’t until we had finished filming that I saw footage of him talking about the Space Force and I went, “What? That’s real?”’
For the show’s writers, one of the biggest challenges was trying to imagine what a Space Force might look like – at the exact same time that the US military was setting it up for real.
That led to some strange moments of art imitating life – especially when it came to the uniforms worn by the Space Force team.
‘We did the majority of our research in the first year after the announcement of the Space Force,’ says Greg.
‘We thought it would be funny to give the team a camouflage outfit based on the surface of the moon, which has a certain absurdity because you’re never going to be wearing camouflage on the moon – you’d be in a spacesuit.
‘We thought that was pretty comical – and then the real Space Force very bizarrely went with a jungle camouflage!’
Known for warm-hearted shows such as Parks and Recreation, Greg is quick to point out that Space Force isn’t a scathing satire. Instead, it has an upbeat element and will explore the relationships between characters.
‘We wanted to acknowledge the positives about the US space programme,’ he explains. ‘Things like the Apollo mission was one of the United States’ shining moments and we didn’t want to ignore that. You want to do something that’s comic, but you don’t want to be mocking something wonderful.
‘So the show acknowledges that there are positive goals, while still poking fun at the negative things. But we’re not trying to score points. It’s not angry comedy.’