Exclusive: Emma Roberts & Poppy Liu on Space Cadet & “intellectual bimbos”

In an exclusive interview, Emma Roberts and Poppy Liu open up about the delightful, Legally Blonde-esque film, being “intellectual bimbos” and more.

Space Cadet is Legally Blonde-coded. Emma, was that a factor in taking up the role?

Emma: Of course, Legally Blonde is one of my favourite movies and on top of that, I just love a fish out of water story. I also love the idea of a young woman being underestimated and then kind of proving everybody wrong, not necessarily by the obvious route. That’s what I loved about the script of Space Cadet. I loved watching the movie. It brought that story to life in a way that I haven’t seen in a long time.

Female friendship is a major theme in the film. How important is it to have that as actors in the film industry?

Poppy: I’m kind of a simp for friendship. I feel like I really go into all of my projects a little starry-eyed to be like, “Maybe I’ll meet my new bestie”. When we filmed this, I was seven months pregnant. And Emma had just had her baby a year before. So, I was hormonal. It was amazing and so fun, but I was like, “I’m not inside my body, my brain is broken, my spirit is holding everything together by a thread.” And I felt really taken care of. There was a video of this one day where I was just lying on the bed. They were setting up and I was like, I can’t move. And Emma was giving me a foot massage and doing doula stuff on me. The running seat at the end, the very last clip when I’m running, I did run a little bit too much for that. No one asked me to. Liz was like, you don’t have to run. I just feel like I would right now and I’m glad I did.

Emma: I couldn’t believe that Poppy literally was seven months pregnant running across the beach. I was like, you’re going to go into labour. We need her to lie down. It has to be said too that Liz Garcia, our amazing writer-director wanted Poppy in the movie and Poppy said “I’m seven months pregnant.” And Liz said, “I’m going to just write that into the role.” So, I feel like it was just a lot of fun because all three of us are now moms. There was that camaraderie of having been through that experience and all of us being working moms. I thought that was cool that Liz didn’t even blink about writing Poppy’s pregnancy into the role.

In the movie, Rex goes through a lot of self-doubt. How much do you relate to her?

Emma: There’s always self-doubt. I feel, part of being an actor is to constantly think that you’re never going to work again, no matter what job you get.

Poppy: Everyone struggled with their career during the pandemic. But by the end of 2020, I had done maybe 88 tapes. I had a spreadsheet where I was tracking all that. At the very end, I booked a job. I knew the industry was stalled and nothing was filming, but just on a mental level, I felt maybe this career wasn’t for me. Maybe I should go and become a midwife or go to law school. We all had our existential crises during the pandemic. There are very few jobs where you have to put yourself out there so often and face so much rejection. That’s just part of our career. My team used to say, “Poppy, this is actually amazing. The fact that people are asking you for tapes is great.” And I understood that in theory. But in practice, I just felt like, “I’ve literally made 80 tapes and it’s all gone into the ether.” I was just alone in my apartment in New York not having worked in a year. Perhaps, there was another world where I went to law school.

Emma: Now, I want to see a movie of you going to law school where you are Elle Woods. Oh my God, I would love that.

Emma, how different is your process when you’re doing comedy versus when you’re doing a thriller?

Emma: That I’ve gotten so deep into horror is purely by accident because I’m so deeply scared of so many things (laughs). The fact that I’m in all these horror TV shows and movies is funny to people who know me very well. I feel like I laugh more doing horror than I do during comedy. I am not sure if that says something about me. With comedy, you have to be on such a high level of energy all day, but with horror, you can relax a little bit, in a weird sort of way. Comedy takes way more energy, in my opinion, than horror. That’s why I have so much respect for comedians. It takes a lot. Sometimes I find the experience of doing a drama or a thriller more chilled out. In thrillers, you’re screaming, you can look ugly, all covered in blood. In comedies, if nobody laughs, you’re just vulnerable and out there.  

Emma: Women in general get judged a lot. It’s ridiculous to think that you can’t be more than one thing as a woman. I think we’re slowly changing that with movies and social media as we’re putting the messaging out there that, “Hello! I’m way more than that”.