LOS ANGELES, March 21 (UPI) -- Aaron Paul and Eiza González play astronauts exploring a new planet in Ash, in theaters Friday, but disagree on whether they would really wish to leave Earth. The prospect is a reasonable possibility, as actors like William Shatner have been invited on space flights.
In a Zoom interview with UPI out of Austin, where the film premiered at South by Southwest, Paul said he would like to play astronaut in real life, with one caveat.
"I would go up to space in a heartbeat I think," Paul, 45, said. "As long as I could come back for sure. If they could guarantee a safe return."
González, 35, did not believe such a guarantee was possible, so she opted out.
"I would never," González said. "You don't know. You never know. That's a no for me on space."
In Ash, Riya (Gonzalez) wakes up on a spaceship after landing on the planet Ash. She is the only survivor of her crew, and Brion (Paul) arrives to help her piece together what happened.
Both actors appeared in science-fiction TV shows directly before Ash, with Paul starring in the Black Mirror Season 6 episode "Beyond the Sea."
"I was already used to being in space a little bit," Paul said.
González, meanwhile, stars as nano physicist Auggie Salazar in the Netflix series 3 Body Problem. Though earthbound, Salazar joins other scientists attempting to deal with an alien species.
"I'd been talking a lot about possible life on other planets and what not for about a year," she said. "It just felt very natural, like a natural transition into Ash."
Director Flying Lotus, 41, drew inspiration for the film from sci-fi movies. He said he wanted to be a filmmaker ever since seeing Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park.
When he decided to direct Jonni Remmler's script for Ash, he was fully aware of the cinematic history of spaceships and alien life forms.
"One thing I wanted to do was to not do Alien," Flying Lotus said. "You already have the perfect organism out there."
While the crew of the Nostromo in Alien were flying a towing freighter for a corporation, Flying Lotus developed a backstory that explained the crew traveling to Ash were working for a low-rent employer.
"This company is just the worst of the Chinese manufacturing," Flying Lotus said. "It's the most ghetto, beat up hunk of junk stuff that you can get. That's what they have to work with."
Another way Flying Lotus distinguished Ash was by executing a series of flashbacks from Riya's point of view. In those flashbacks, the camera represents Riya and only her hands sometimes wave across the screen.
"Some of it was me," González said. "Some of it was just the camera and the director."
The flashbacks reminded González of last year's film Nickel Boys, which employs first-person point of view for the duration of the film.
"Every time you went back was a POV and so immediately, the audience understands that you're reliving with her," she said. "I love an interactive film."
Flying Lotus said González's stunt double, Elodie Pertorious, served as Riya's hands for some of the physically intense flashbacks. On camera is Iko Uwais, the Indonesian martial artist, attacking Riya.
"We get to use a POV ass kicking," Flying Lotus said. "He's kicking your ass. That's what it's like when Iko beats your ass."
Following Ash, Gonzalez is returning to film both Seasons 2 and 3 of 3 Body Problem, based on the Liu Cixin book series. The seasons will be based on Cixin's novels The Dark Forest and Death's End.
"I am a huge fan of the next two books," she said. "Secretly, that's why I made the first season because I really was praying to God that people connected with it and we could make a fascinating story."
Paul recently ended several of his series -- while Westworld did not get renewed for a fifth season, he was able to reprise his Breaking Bad role of Jesse Pinkman one last time in the final season of the prequel Better Call Saul.
"I love that guy," Paul said of Pinkman. "He definitely will always be a part of me, but that journey's done for sure."
In addition, Paul's animated series Bojack Horseman concluded with its sixth season in 2020. He voiced Todd Chavez, the famous horse's best friend, and also executive produced the show.
"I'm so proud of that show," Paul said. "We pitched it around to the entire city and everybody passed on it, then finally convinced Netflix to hear our pitch."
