Summary
- A Million Miles Away is an inspiring biopic that tells the true story of José Moreno Hernández’s journey from a migrant farmer to an astronaut.
- The movie showcases Hernández’s struggle to achieve his dream, including becoming an engineer, learning a new language, and going through astronaut training with the support of his family.
- The star-studded cast, led by Michael Peña and Rosa Salazar, accurately portrays Hernández and his loved ones, while the film’s realistic sets and attention to detail add to its authenticity.
A Million Miles Away tells the incredible true story of José Moreno Hernández’s long journey to become an astronaut. Beginning as a migrant farmer with his family when he was a child, Hernández dreams of going to space. He does everything he can to achieve this seemingly impossible dream: becoming an engineer, training, and learning a new language. When all hope seems lost, he finally earns a spot at NASA, but this is only the start as Hernández tries to make it through astronaut training with the support of his family along the way.
A Million Miles Away’s star-studded cast is led by Michael Peña, Rosa Salazar, Julio Cesar Cedillo, Veronica Falcón, Garret Dillahunt, and Sarayu Blue. The movie is directed by Alejandra Márquez Abella. Abella also co-wrote the script with Hernán Jiménez, and Bettina Gilois based on Hernández’s autobiography.
Screen Rant spoke with astronaut José Moreno Hernández about A Million Miles Away, breaking down the adaptation process and working with Peña to help him capture Hernández as a character. Hernández also revealed his proudest scientific achievement, and it isn’t going to space. Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and the movie covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
José Moreno Hernández Talks A Million Miles Away
Screen Rant: This movie was fantastic! I was so inspired by your journey. I’m so glad you shared it.
José Moreno Hernández: Oh, thank you very much. I’ll tell you kudos to our director Alejandra Márquez Abella because it’s hard to put a whole life, condense it to two hours, and to accurately portray it. And I’ll tell you, for the most part, she did an outstanding job. At least the whole important parts of the story are absolutely on point and so that’s why I’m very happy with the movie.
Can you talk a little bit about this adaptation process? Because you’re covering so much in such a short amount of time.
José Moreno Hernández: Well, the good thing is that they had books. I’ve written three books, one my self-penned biography, another one’s a children’s book, and then another one the middle reader. I think that helped them a little bit, at least to put things in sequential order of how they were going to tell it. We had three script writers, Bettina Gilois, Hernán Jiménez, and then our director, Alejandra Márquez Abella and with each one I spent time.
They sent me their draft, and I would give them my feedback. Sometimes they took it, sometimes they couldn’t, because of how the scripts work and all that. But again, for the most part, it was done great. And then when Alejandra started shooting I had met with my counterpart actor, Michael Peña. So he got to know my personality and accurately portrayed it. Rosa Salazar portrayed in an excellent manner, my wife, so I think everything was done. I was very happy with it.
Speaking of Michael Peña, can you talk to me about what made him the perfect actor to portray you? Was there anything you wanted him to specifically keep in mind while on set?
José Moreno Hernández: Well, I think what made him perfect is that first of all, he’s a talented actor. The guy is just awesome. Second, he has acting experience as an astronaut. If you recall, the movie, The Martian, he came up with Matt Damon. He’s the one that rescued Matt from Mars. So I think that was great, too. And so, I just thought that when someone asked me, “What actor should portray you?” I immediately came up with Michael Peña, and I’m sure everybody else probably came up with the same name. I wasn’t the only one that got this great idea. Michael did a great job.
I can’t even imagine being in space. Are there any movies or TV shows that you think actually get that portrayal right? Or is that just something Hollywood has been unable to capture?
José Moreno Hernández: I think there’s a lot of movies that actually get things right. I love Sandra Bullock and all but Gravity had so many technical misconceptions there, errors that it couldn’t happen. It’s clear, they didn’t hire a space geek to help them out. And then you look at another movie, like The Martian, Matt Damon’s. You look at that one, you say, “Huh?” About 95% of what happened in the movie can actually happen.
Whereas in Gravity, it’s more of a, hey, that’s physically impossible to happen, kind of thing. And so from ours, we just had the floating scene and blasting up into space. So we didn’t have to get too complex, but I’ll tell you that got the whole story perfect. And I was just so happy because now we’re going to inspire millions of people, hundreds of millions of people, and we’re so excited that it’s coming up this Friday, September 15 to over 240 countries. And how exciting is that?
That’s so fantastic. And we talked a little bit about how much time this was covering. Were there any moments that you guys maybe didn’t have time to get into? Either just at all or the details of that you wish had been maybe a bigger part of the story?
José Moreno Hernández: Well, there was 1/3 of my career at Lawrence Livermore Lab. One was working on the X ray laser, the other one was going to Russia. The middle one was, I’m the co inventor of the first full-field digital mammography system for the earlier detection of breast cancer. And when people ask me what’s my most proudest technical moment, it’s not being an astronaut is inventing this digital mammography system for earlier detection, because we know earlier detection saves lives. And this device has saved hundreds of 1000s of lives. And I’m kind of just setting that part did not make it into the script, at least one scene of it, but that’s okay. I mean, it is what it is.
What was the most surprising part of the process of making this movie for you?
José Moreno Hernández: I think the most surprising process is they didn’t have to go to NASA. They did everything in the studio and it was just amazing how they could get all this work done. They didn’t go to that big NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab. They recreated it in another pool and did it and it looked exactly like what we were seeing at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. So I mean, kudos to Hollywood, and to the film folks that are able to make sets that look very realistic. And so I was pretty happy with that.
Can you talk to me a little bit about working with the cast to capture the essence of your loved ones as well?
José Moreno Hernández: Yeah, I think they did a good job. Obviously, they did a great job with Adela, Adelita, because Rosa did an awesome job on that, but also my parents. How my parents taught tough love kind of thing and say if it gets hard, you get stronger and work harder and those type of things. And it’s those type of things that really came across pretty well on the screen.
One of my favorite through lines in the movie was Miss Young. Can you talk about the importance of putting a spotlight on teachers?
José Moreno Hernández: Oh, I love bringing this subject up whenever I give motivational conferences to teachers, because I say, “If you think you don’t make a difference, let me tell you this story about Miss Young, who just took 30 minutes of her life, to come to our house. And she changed the trajectory of a whole family. Because she convinced my dad, we needed to stay in one place.”
And I tell them, “So next time you get frustrated, and you don’t think you’re making a difference, just look back at the little things you’ve done for students. And I’ll guarantee you, there’s someone out there that remembers something you did that changed their life.” And so I’m very excited to highlight that and it’s true that we looked for her. It’s true that she was sitting next to my parents when I blasted off in space in Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center.
About A Million Miles Away
A biopic about Jose Hernandez and his path from a farm worker to becoming an engineer and an astronaut. A tale of perseverance, community, and sacrifice to accomplish a seemingly impossible dream.
Check back soon for our other interview with director Alejandra Márquez Abella.
A Million Miles Away is available to stream on Prime Video.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
