The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub talks with
Fly Me to the Moon
costars Jim Rash and Anna Garcia.
On the movie set, NASA gets in on the joke, spoofing the moon landing with a comedic twist.
During this interview, Rash and Garcia discuss improv versus scripted humor, stunts on set, and why
Community
still resonates with fans, new and old.

It takes a whole lot more than a village to get a man on the moon. In Greg Berlanti’s romantic comedy Fly Me to the Moon, Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum lead an ensemble of characters, from the experts at NASA to the film crew hired to stage the fabled fake moon landing. In addition to glamming up the Apollo 11 mission for 1960s Americans, the White House wants to film a backup should anything go wrong in space. Enter Community’s Jim Rash and Anna Garcia.

In an interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Rash and Garcia talk about joining forces with NASA to poke fun at one of the U.S.’s wildest conspiracy theories and how they were game to do so, considering Fly Me to the Moon “advocates for the truth behind [the theories].” The duo also discusses finding the humor on set, improv versus what was scripted, and watching the stunt performers. Rash also talks about Community ahead of the upcoming movie and why the series has resonated with so many over the years.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.

Fly Me to the Moon (2024) Marketing maven Kelly Jones wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis’s already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, Jones is directed to stage a fake moon landing as back-up.Release Date July 12, 2024 Main Genre Comedy Writers Keenan Flynn , Rose Gilroy , Bill Kirstein

‘Fly Me to the Moon’ “Advocates for the Truth” & Has Fun Doing It

COLLIDER: I was surprised NASA was so involved when you guys were saying that the moon landing was spoofed in part of the movie. Were you a little bit surprised that NASA was playing ball with you guys?

JIM RASH: I guess so, but that’s the satirical element to it. The plot point, really, is just Woody Harrelson’s character wants to do it for the very reason you might think, which obviously is not something that happened — a sense of pride. In other words, “We just want to make sure that people believe we did it, but the truth is we obviously did.” So, I did not speak with [NASA], but I think the satire and fun of that, and the fact that we were using real stuff, but also a “what if,” and the “what if” is just for fun.

ANNA GARCIA: It’s just mostly an angle of this topic that hasn’t been touched on before. It’s definitely fun to play with, but I think the movie, very much so, advocates for the truth behind it.

One of the things that [director] Greg [Berlanti] does really well is he has to balance a lot of different tones in this. Jim, you specifically get to be the comedy. At the screening I was in, people were just laughing loudly at some of the things you said. How much is all of that scripted before you step on set through rehearsal, and how much is it the night before you’re thinking about alts and things that you might want to deliver in the moment?

RASH: I would say I want to give credit to Rose Gilroy, who wrote the script.

GARCIA: Who’s wonderful.

RASH: For example, his tirade of listing all the things that they hadn’t thought of, like production design, that all was there. I actually used that speech as an impetus to tell me who this person was, who, despite his faults, is all about perfection, and that comes at all costs. Greg was very open to improv from both of us and anybody for that matter. There were a lot of things that were written as action that he was going to use in the montage, as you see when we were walking through the “dirty” beach.

GARCIA: Montages just became full scenes.

RASH: Full scenes that, on the page, were descriptions. We’re both students of improv, so I didn’t really plan anything. Sometimes he throws some things at you, and you just see what happens. That’s my favorite place to come from, is a blank slate.

Image via Sony Pictures/Apple Studios

When you guys saw the shooting schedule, did you have a day or two circled in terms of, “I cannot wait to film this?”

GARCIA: That’s such a good question. By far and large, shooting at NASA itself. Everyone was just so excited about the fact that we got to actually be there. We had to go through all of these security screenings, and we had to get badges on a separate day, and you had to show up in person. There were all these steps to go through, and it just built excitement and suspense. It was even better than you could imagine. It was just incredible.

RASH: I think knowing that we were going to be in shots where we got to watch the stunts happen in real time, like you’re in the scene watching these people fall from a balcony, jump and then run into each other and knock a light over. Somehow, you’re in the scene, but you’re watching behind the scenes in a way. I don’t envy falling over that thing that number of times. They’re champions.

GARCIA: They were so good.

RASH: And a cat! We loved watching the cat work.

I also enjoyed watching the cat.

Jim, before I run out of time, you probably know I am a fan of Community. It’s been almost 10 years since it’s gone off the air, and people still want the movie. What do you think it is about the characters in that world that has resonated for so long with so many people?

RASH: I have to say, it’s both the original people and the people who discovered it during our pandemic time when it came back out again. It’s just the amazing writing and the fact that we were breaking the mold in the sense that the world could become a genre like that, Dan Harmon’s mind of loving pop culture and movies, and to be able to have a set and then have the library turn into paintball or lava or whatever it wanted to be. But then, at the core, I think with anything, you find these characters that you gravitate towards. At the end of the day, whether it’s Cheers or it’s Community, or whatever TV show, it’s all about that.

GARCIA: It’s just good characters. You want to watch them do anything.

Fly Me to the Moon is in theaters this weekend. Click the link below for showtimes.

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