Interstellar – what’s it all about?

In the lead up to what will undeniably be another polarising epic from the canon of director Christopher Nolan, the cast and creative team assembled at Claridges to discuss not saving the world, amateur gardening, Sandra Bullock and growing beards. And that was just from Michael Caine.

Described as a “daring mission to pierce the barriers of time and space in a desperate human gamble against extinction”, Interstellar is set in a near future where the world is on its knees amid dust storms and an agricultural crisis that threatens its very future.

The film’s environmental message is there for all to see. Is this a call to arms to do something before it’s too late? “The film is optimistic”, Nolan suggests, “Mankind is independent to its situation. This is a work of fiction that feeds off our existing worries and concerns.”

Whilst the age old question of ‘mankind’s place in the universe’ is toyed with throughout, Nolan’s optimistic hope is that we can, “deal with issues out of choice rather than necessity.”

It’s not all environmental, although earnest answers are mixed with more light hearted responses. Jessica Chastain hopes that her contribution makes a difference, “I’m vegan. I don’t feel like everybody should be but there are ways of making a difference. If everyone held a meatless Monday for example, that would make a huge difference to the landscape.”

Matthew McConaughey joked that to offset his carbon footprint, he would run to all meetings for Dallas Buyers Club, whilst press conference champion Sir Michael Caine (more Caine gems throughout) was more dismissive, “I was poor for so long, I reckon the world owes me a debt.”

The film deals with multiple universes and dimensions but this isn’t your run of the mill CGI-fest. Producer Emma Thomas reveals working on a Nolan film is, in itself, a challenging affair, “It’s always more fun to watch then to make. We filmed in challenging locations. Iceland, for example is an amazing place but it also presents its own challenges. How do you get a spaceship there?”

Chastain picks up the challenge baton, “I’m new to big budget films and the expectation was for higher technical components but they were all practical sets. There were no green screens, we had dust in our face all the time. There were real corn fields.”

In order to capture the epic nature in as realistic a way as possible, Nolan continued his love affair with shooting on IMAX rather than digital or film. Shooting this for the first time on a Nolan film was Dutch cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (rather than regular collaborator Wally Pfister) and this itself proved one of the many perks the shooting process provided. As Nolan explains, “his command of the IMAX medium is extraordinary. Bringing a handheld intimacy with these enormous cameras – I don’t know how he did it.”

On the subject of regular Nolan collaborators, Sir Michael Caine had more to say than most (Interstellar is his sixth Nolan film), “Everyone one of them is a hit. He rings me and asks me if I want to be in a film. Yes. Do I want to see the script first? No.”

Beyond the hit factor, what is it about being in a Nolan film that is so attractive? Caine elaborates: “He asked me if I wanted to be in Batman. I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’m too old to play Batman. What does he want me to play?’ He said, ‘I want you to play the butler.’ I thought, what will the dialogue be like? What will I say? ‘Dinner is served? Would you like a beverage?’ He said, ‘No, Michael. Read the script.’ So I read the script, and he wasn’t a butler. He was a foster father. Nothing is what it seems with Chris.”

There are many influences at work with Interstellar, the most obvious being the Kubrick classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nolan explains, “One of my earliest movie going memories is going to Leicester Square to see ‘2001’ when I was seven years old and I’ve never forgotten the scale of that experience. I saw my first IMAX film when I was 15 and immediately wanted to make features that way. Working on that scale in the medium is, for me, a long held dream.”

Influences aside, the inception (if you will) of Interstellar’s extraordinarily operatic soundtrack (with another Nolan regular Hans Zimmer) was a very simple one side sheet of A4. Nolan asked for a day of Zimmer’s time, “This was before the script was written,” Nolan explains, “I handed him a letter. A fable. It was a story of a relationship between a father and child. What he came back with became the starting point. Two years later, it developed into the final score.”

With its large scale, its environmental message and huge dust storms, are the cast positive or negative about humankind’s future?

McConaughey chipped in with the first positive, “There are many challenges we face but mankind is faithful to its capacities.”

Nolan, as expected, thinks on a large scale, “We are small compared to what we know. What we can speculate is even bigger.”

The last word went to Sir Michael Caine. “I’m 81, so I’m positive.”

 Interstellar opens on 7 November. Our full review is here