Lionsgate’s Moonfall is scheduled to make its debut later this week on February 4. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the film stars Oscar-winner Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson (Midway, The Conjuring films), and John Bradley (Game of Thrones).
“In the film, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it,” reads the synopsis. “With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman believes her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.
ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim spoke with Moonfall star John Bradley about his character KC Houseman, his research into conspiracy theorists, and more.
Jonathan Sim: Your character, KC Houseman, is a bit of a conspiracy theorist. What was your process like for preparing for this role? Did you look at any real-life conspiracy theorists for inspiration?
John Bradley: I did look at a lot of conspiracy theorists, and it’s weird that up until a few years ago, you probably have to go digging quite deep to find conspiracy theories, but now they’re everywhere. Now, they’ve come so much to the forefront of things, and it wasn’t necessarily the conspiracy theories that I looked into, because you can go down so many rabbit holes with that. But it was just their passion and their conviction and their energy that I was interested in. The way that they can have so much evidence that doesn’t support their theory, but they’ll just disregard it. They’re just so pugnacious, they’ve got so much fight to them. And it was that kind of indomitable, never say die refusing to concede energy that I had to bring to KC, especially in the early stages of the movie.
No, definitely, and you do bring all that conviction to the character of KC Houseman. It’s part of why I think your character will be a bit of a fan favorite. Of course, you’ve had this wonderful career with Moonfall, your upcoming movie Marry Me, and of course, Game of Thrones. So I wanted to ask if Samwell Tarly had to help stop the moon from hitting Earth, how do you think he would respond in that situation?
He’d try his best to do it. I think there are a lot of similarities between Sam and KC in so much as Sam would think that there was a solution in a dusty, old library somewhere. Some Archmaester centuries ago, would’ve written about trying to stop the moon hitting the earth, and he’ll find it. He’s determined to find it. He’ll do his bit. Some characters that you play just have that spirit and they’ll try to help out no matter what the situation is.
Yeah, it would definitely make for a very weird Game of Thrones episode, though. As far as Moonfall, this movie is just filled with all these crazy special effects. What was your favorite scene to see translated from this set of the movie to the big screen?
It was the scene, probably the scene in the hotel reception where the tidal wave hits. I remember reading that and knowing how Roland works, just thinking “Oh, well that’ll just be some kind of CGI on the day. Some CGI water will crash through and it’ll all be fine.” Get on the set, and it wasn’t. It was just gallons and gallons of gallons of real water that was shoved down a ramp and aimed at my real body. I spent 12 hours submerged in water and soaking wet, and in amongst all the VFX and the CGI, to play a moment that was that real, that physical with practical effects is just a completely different discipline, but I really enjoyed it once I’d dried off.
