Lucy In The Sky is a deep and complex look at the unravelling of Natalie Portman’s astronaut after she returns to Earth from two weeks in space.
The story’s similarities to the 2007 criminal activities of Lisa Nowak and her attempted kidnapping of one of her colleagues who was in a relationship with another astronaut has provoked movie fans to wonder just much how of Lucy In The Sky is actually a true story.
“The truth is relative,” writer and director Noah Hawley tells Metro. “This movie came to me as a fictionalized script. I didn’t feel motivated to bring it closer to reality. The challenge for me was to create a character journey that made sense to an audience. That dictated a lot of what the story was going to be. As I went along I was trying to solve problems that meant I wouldn’t lose the audience.”
“Once I took it on as a writer and a director I only focused on making sure that the audience rooted for her and went with her on this journey. So I decided that I didn’t want her to have children of her own. I think audiences can root for someone who cheats on her husband, but it was a bridge too far for me and it would have been for the audience if she cheated on her kids. I created the niece, though, so we could mirror Lucy and see Lucy at her lowest through Pearl’s eyes.”
Hawley was well aware of the importance that came with approaching these real-life events, though, especially as “most people think of this story as a tabloid joke.” With Lucy In The Sky, Hawley hopes to “bring back the dignity of the human beings involved that became a punchline in society.”
Portman was attracted to Lucy In The Sky because of how Hawley approached the “complicated exploration” of her character’s struggles, which see her childhood trauma, sleep deprivation, return from space, new view of Earth, and the gender based discrimination she suffers at work combine in such a devastating manner.
“What’s so accurate about Noah’s depiction is that it is not just one thing. I think that’s true for all human beings. It is not as simple as, ‘Oh there’s a childhood trauma, let’s join a line to this behavior.’ There’s many things. Every person is a unique constellation of issues.”
Portman also appreciated the fact that Hawley didn’t just make Lucy’s only drama and conflict her longing for her child back on Earth, something that has previously been prevalent in other female lead space dramas. “To play a character who is having an existential crisis instead felt radical and very meaningful. I am not being critical of those movies, but this was just very unusual.”
Meanwhile, Jon Hamm, who plays the astronaut Portman’s character has an affair with, was just happy to be involved in something deeper and more “intellectual” than a comic-book movie.
“This was an opportunity to do something interesting and fun. There is just not that many opportunities to do those things in Hollywood at the studio level anymore. The comic-book movies are fun and awesome, too. But they’re not necessarily for adults or for people that want to sit and talk about a film afterwards. It is more like a quick consumption, fast-food situation. This was an opportunity to make something that people will sit and indulge in for a while.”
You can do just that when Lucy In The Sky is released on October 4.
