Photos courtesy of CBS.
NEW YORK, June 30 (UPI) -- Halle Berry's experience playing a super-powered heroine in the X-Men film franchise served her well when it came time to portray an astronaut in the new science-fiction television series Extant, says show-runner Greg Walker.
"She did a lot of research. She spoke to a NASA consultant, [Kady Coleman]. And she also went up in the Zero [Gravity] plane, where you can experience weightlessness for short periods of time. So, she was a true gamer. She was a die-hard. She went up and really felt what it was like to be in a Zero G environment in a real way," Walker said in a teleconference with reporters last week.
"And she'd had a lot of experience on the wire work, you know, just from her work in X-Men. I'd kind of forgotten about that by the time we were shooting the [Extant] pilot. I looked at her... you know, it was late one night while we were shooting all that stuff and I said: 'Oh, my God, are you OK? This must be exhausting.' And she was like, 'I've been doing this for a while.' So, I'd forgotten that she'd had some experience flying and floating."
So, did Berry get sick while she was on the Zero G plane?
"People around her got sick, but, no, she didn't. She made it to the very end," Walker said. "Yes, she toughed it out."
The producer went on to say he regards the show as a futuristic family drama, adding Berry does a wonderful job of playing an astronaut who tries to reconnect with her husband and son after a year in outer space.
"It looks so effortless," Walker said. "You know, she's so powerful and so emotionally compelling. And there's this great sort of soulfulness and vulnerability to her."
"And then to get to watch her pull that off on the set and to watch her sort of fearlessness take after take, and you know, to watch her process, and she's very conscientious. She really digs into it with the writers and she has a point of view about the character and so I don't know. To me, it's just like it's thrilling to watch. And I think people are going to love it. I think, again, it's one of those things that, you know, in movies you go see her once or twice a year, and they're going to have the opportunity to go on this great 13-hour journey with her, you know, with an actress that people just love."
Co-starring Goran Visnjic, Camryn Manheim and Grace Gummer, Extant is scheduled to premiere July 9 on CBS.
