Since she fascinated the world playing Lisbeth Salamander in the Swedish version of The Men Who Loved Women and its two sequels, the daughter of a flamenco singer born in Badajoz whom she stopped seeing when she was 5 years old has developed an equally career successful both in her native country and in Hollywood, where she has filmed with Ridley Scott, Brian De Palma and Guy Ritchie, although when she became world famous she did not speak a word of English. Owner of a notable acting range, Noomi Rapace was chosen to lead the cast of Constellación, the new series that Apple TV premieres this Wednesday the 21st in which she plays a Swedish astronaut who suffers an accident aboard the ISS space station, from which your life will never be the same. She is joined in the cast by Jonathan Banks, in her first role after leaving behind Mike Ehrmentraut of Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, James D’Arcy and Barbara Sukowa.
Constellation is a very complex series. What would you say is the main theme?
For me it’s about motherhood, and also about trying to find your truth, without leaving aside the dichotomy between loving your job and being a mother, and how those two realities collide with each other.
How did you get involved with the project?
They sent me the scripts while I was working on something else, and at that moment I felt like I didn’t have time to read anything. However, I allowed myself to flip through the first few pages to get an idea of ??what it was about. I couldn’t stop and two hours later I was still there reading the second episode. I was totally fascinated, I called my team and told them that I loved the story, and that I wanted to speak to the screenwriter, Peter Harness. And then I heard that Michelle McLaren was going to direct the first episodes, and I’m a fan of his, because I’d seen a lot of his work. The truth is that we had a call and there was no turning back. I felt like they had written “Constellation” for me. Curiously, Peter is a Brit who lives in Sweden and sends his children to the same school I went to. There were many similar coincidences that made me feel that this project was for me.
Filming the scenes on the space station must have been complex, right?
Yeah. We started very early to rehearse working with cables, simply to get an idea of ??the spaces and dimensions in which I was going to have to move. My first test with the cables was a disaster, I thought I would never be able to make it look like I was floating. I felt like a stone in water without any control over my body. But I am very hard-headed and I started to work on it, strengthening my body and my stretching, because I had to be like a dancer, and for that I did a lot of exercises. Then added to that was an incredible team that did everything necessary to make it look like I’m floating and there’s no gravity there.
Were you impressed when you saw those sets for the first time?
Clear. I didn’t see them until a couple of months after we started rehearsals, and they took my breath away. I felt like I was looking at something I had never seen before. At that point I was already obsessed with the ISS, I spent my time watching videos on YouTube, and talking about the subject. And the sets looked exactly the same as the ISS looks in real life, it was very strange. My impression was that all the technical departments that worked on the series created something that was very close to the original model. Come on, I’ve never been to the ISS, but I think our copy looks pretty real.
What was it like talking to the astronauts who advised you on the series?
It was fascinating. I spoke with three astronauts, two men and one woman. From our conversation, I have enormous respect for them and I feel like I understand a little bit about what they do and how they work, and in that sense I see them as a different species. Scott Kelly was on set from the prep period and then joined us as an advisor. I felt like a student who needed his approval, because he is a very tough man, who can’t be taken for granted. He tells you things to your face.
Was it painful to get into Jo’s skin when she returns to earth?
Yes. She questions whether she made the right decision, she wonders if she shouldn’t have stayed there, following her dreams of being an astronaut, even if it could cost her her life. Maybe her best option was to stay trapped there, even if she could never return to see her daughter and her husband. It was very interesting to explore Jo’s fragility and vulnerability as a human being trapped in an extreme situation, and see how she manages to continue functioning thanks to the training she has as an astronaut, which allows her to solve problems, be rational, pay attention to what You have in front of you, realizing what you have to do and maintaining sobriety when thinking and analyzing without getting carried away by your emotions, leaving the pain aside. As an actress I enjoyed being in that literal and emotional space. But it’s something that stayed with me after filming wrapped. When I get emotional, and feel like screaming or crying, I take a moment, look at what’s in front of me, how complicated it is, and ask myself if the situation is really as bad as it seems. And most of the time it is not. Although for Jo, things were really difficult.
There are those who can interpret that depending on the situations, we see different versions of Jo…
Actually I’m just playing one character, because the other one is trapped somewhere. What happens is that everything around Jo is wrong, she doesn’t know what’s wrong, and she’s also not sure if it’s her fault or the others’ fault. For me it was quite a complex mind game, and I became increasingly paranoid during filming. I had very crazy nightmares that led me to start questioning some things in my life. Having to deal with different realities like Jo does ended up affecting me as Noomi. Filming “Constellation” was a great challenge because what was happening to Jo ended up affecting me and I was not always emotionally stable.