‘Away’ Star Hilary Swank Talks About Quarantine, in Space (VIDEO)

In Netflix’s sci-fi drama Away, premiering September 4, two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank soars as Emma Green, commander of a three-year Mars expedition that separates her from husband Matt, a mission control engineer (Josh Charles) and her teen daughter Lex (Talitha Eliana Bateman). The story alternates between the crises on the spaceship, and the crew’s loved ones on Earth.

Ahead of the premiere, TV Insider spoke with Swank and Bateman about the emotional toll it takes on their characters to be separated. “The astronauts are learning to trust one another with their lives, juggling the decisions that need to be made, between life and death,” Swank told us.

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“They’re also tethered to their loved ones on earth. What I just love is this woman (Emma) has this great career and also this great love, which is her daughter and husband back home, and it’s that love story between them as well… and how hard isolation is which we all have a better understanding of now, with COVID[-19].”

Bateman, whose character ends up taking care of her dad after a health emergency, explains that Lex tries to put on a brave face for her far-away mom. “She feels abandoned in some ways, because she doesn’t have someone to lean on. She wants to talk to her mom, but she doesn’t want it to be about her problems and her issues. So she ends up being driven towards a boy later in the show.”

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Swank revealed she got excited stepping into the iconic space suit (“You realize what heroes these astronauts are!”) and what it was like to shoot scenes on wires depicting zero gravity.  “The space suits weighed approximately 30 lbs. and we’re in them 12 hours. It takes a lot of effort to make it look effortless!”

Away, Series Premiere, Friday, September 4, Netflix