Interview: Tom Hopper Talks Space Cadet, Singing With Emma Roberts

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Space Cadet star Tom Hopper about the upcoming Prime Video comedy movie. Hopper spoke about some of the film’s memorable scenes, working with Emma Roberts, and more. The film will premiere globally on Prime Video on July 4.

“Tiffany ‘Rex’ Simpson (Emma Roberts) has always dreamed of going to space, but life isn’t going quite as planned. Determined to turn things around, she aims high, and with the embellishing touch of her supportive best friend Nadine (Poppy Liu), her ‘doctored’ application lands her in NASA’s ultra-competitive astronaut training program. In over her head, Rex relies on her quick wits, moxie, and determination to get to the top of her class,” says the synopsis. “NASA program directors Pam (Gabrielle Union) and Logan (Tom Hopper) certainly take notice, but can this Florida girl get through training and into the cosmos before she blows her cover? Written and directed by Liz W. Garcia (Purple Hearts), Space Cadet is a comedy about the power of being yourself, following your dreams, and shooting for the stars.”

Tyler Treese: Your character, Logan O’Leary, he’s this very professional NASA worker. He’s forced out of his normal ways dealing with Rex, who’s played by Emma Roberts. What about the character did you really hone in on for your performance?

Tom Hopper: Yeah, I mean, for me, he was always a bit of someone who’s like a bit of a Clark Kent, right? And I think there’s another side to him. Like I think he’s grown into the job and is been doing the job for so long that he’s forgotten who he really is. I think his upbringing, actually, he probably was a little bit wild at times and a little bit more like Rex in his younger years.

They’ve been sort of stomped down, and he has pushed that side of him away, and there’s a side of him that might always come back out that he’s fearful that it might. Then Rex comes along, and I think he sees that in her, and that could bring. So it’s also why he’s drawn to her, but also why he is probably kind of fearful of her at the same time.

You share a lot of really fun scenes with Emma Roberts, and I really like that the energy levels are so different early on where she’s this high energy, and your character’s very reserved, trying to keep it together and be professional. How is it playing into the opposite energy levels? Because usually in a film people are coming at the same energy.

Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing. Like you have to sort of play against it. Because she has to be the energy ball, right? She has to be the one that’s coming in like a wrecking ball into this kind of professional world of NASA. So, yeah, it was important to play against that really.

It’s fun to see him eventually break out of that shell a bit. The “Mr. Jones” duet is such a special moment in this film. So much fun. How was it recording that scene?

Yeah, great fun. We had like three different options of the song, of what it was gonna be, and then it ended up, ’cause it was which one they finalized the rights to. So, um, Mr. Jones was the, uh, was the final choice. So I was really pleased. I love that song. So, uh, we were both pleased that that turned out to be the one, so we could really embrace it when it turned out to be that. And, uh, and just enjoy shooting the scene. It was really fun. It was actually my first day shooting on the job was that scene. So it was in at the deep end.

Your character has a lot of phone call scenes, especially with Poppy, which are fun. How was it filming those? Because a lot of the time in movies, those can just feel very exposition-heavy and aren’t really a highlight, but these are actually really fun scenes, so what’s the trick there?

Yeah, like, it was really important for me that those all stood out individually, and they were lifted really because they could have been boxed up at phone calls, and I really wanted to kind of find some humor in them. They’d already recorded all the other sides of the conversation, so I kind of knew what the kind of tone of the conversation from her side. So I was like, “Oh, I can have some fun with this.” And then Liz was great as a director, just letting me play and have fun with how I ended the calls and how I played within them. So it was, it was a lot of fun actually in the end.

Thanks to Tom Hopper for taking the time to speak about Prime Video‘s Space Cadet.

Tyler Treese

Tyler Treese is ComingSoon and SuperHeroHype's Editor-in-Chief. An experienced entertainment journalist, his work can be seen at Sherdog, Fanbyte, Rock Paper Shotgun, and more. When not watching the latest movies, Treese enjoys mixed martial arts and playing with his Shiba Inu, Kota.