Adam Sandler continues to stretch himself as a dramatic actor in the new Netflix sci-fi film Spaceman, based on the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař. Sandler plays Jakub, a Czech astronaut six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of our solar system. His profound loneliness is worsened by his realization that his marriage to Lenka (Carey Mulligan) might be over by the time he returns to Earth and the guilt that it’s his fault for why their relationship is failing. But Jakub soon finds he is not, in fact, alone in space: there is a mysterious, spider-like creature from the beginning of time hiding aboard his ship.
This nameless being – who Jakub eventually dubs Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) – is also an explorer and was drawn to Jakub’s plight. Hanuš’s monstrous appearance belies his gentle and altruistic nature. An unexpected connection develops between them as Hanuš helps Jakub understand what went wrong in his marriage, an emotional journey where both space travelers come away with a deeper understanding of what it means to be alive.
Sandler spent most of the shoot suspended on wires (to simulate zero gravity) inside a spaceship built dozens of feet off the ground – and with no scene partner to act opposite. IGN recently spoke with Adam Sandler and director Johan Renck together – and Paul Dano separately – about the meaning of Spaceman, the bond between Jakub and Hanuš, and how they settled on the look of the creature. (These interviews have been edited for clarity.)
Additionally, the exclusive clip below showcases not only the relationship between Jakub and Hanuš but also Spaceman’s distinct visual style.
IGN: There's a timelessness to what you explore in the film. I was thinking after I saw it, "This would work even if it wasn't set in space. This could just be a hiker lost in the woods thinking he's going to freeze to death."
Johan Renck: We had all those chats at the time. My production designer still thinks that this never even happened and this is all in the head of a guy sitting in an apartment sulking because he lost his wife, that kind of thing. Or it could have been a sailboat across the ocean or whatever it is. But those fucking guys, they don't know shit. (laughs) … But I will tell you, and this is my thing, the greatest accomplishment in this film is the fact that Adam, his performance throughout this film, this compelling deep, rich presence that he has is all against a fucking tennis ball and me reading the lines around the corner. That is a feat.
IGN: Definitively then, is Hanuš real? That's how I read it.
Johan Renck: Yeah. Hell yeah. It was important for me that this is for real. I think even on a very pragmatic level, there's this one moment when Hanuš sneezes on Adam's helmet and there's mucus all over the place, and that mucus sits on that helmet throughout the film. It's so easy to think that this is all a figment of Jakub's imagination and so on. But that's boring, isn't it? To me, we got to meet a creature from the beginning of time. We're not going to dismiss that being to being an imaginative friend at all. Mucus on helmet, that's all the info you need.
IGN: Adam, did you know that was the case from the minute you talked with Johan about it? Or were you reading Colby Day’s script wondering, "Wait, is this real? Is this in my head?"
Adam Sandler: I just felt it was real. I didn't think about that until maybe a couple of days after reading the script. But when I read the script, it was such a gift from my man Johan. … I read it, I couldn't put it down. I was excited. It was something I've never done, never been a part of. I didn't know what genre you could call it. I believed in the two of them. I believed in Jakub, I believed in Hanuš. I loved them both and was pulling for them both. No, I never once thought it was in his head. I just thought it was the one and only Hanuš.
IGN: One amazing visual aspect of the film is Hanuš himself. How many design iterations did you go through until you settled on what it would look like?
Johan Renck: Number one was I worked with a tremendous concept artist called Carlos Huante, and I've looked through everybody that's out there. He was the one that I really stuck for because I felt that he did not derive the science from the world of film, but it came from some imaginative place. There is a description of Hanuš in the book. ... He is a spider-like creature, the size of a Doberman Pinscher. But after that, it goes completely impressionist. He has a hundred eyes, the eyes of my grandfather, my grandmother. He has big red female lips and all that. You can't really use that. It works great in a book in which you can make your own slight image of it, but we have to make it into something congruent.
It was just about starting that process with Carlos, who's brilliant, sketch after sketch, back and forth. We have to have something congruent to talk about. He would send something, I would say, "I like that bit, but this makes it weird to me." Then we figure out the physiognomy and all that kind of stuff. I have files and files filled of these drawings, really fun to look at still because then you're like, "Oh, too cartoony, too non-cartoony, too this and too that." I have to always also think about the personality of this creature. I want them to be scary and off-putting scraggly in one way, but I also want him to be cute and sweet and you have to track all of those. It was just like a process. … The mouth I kept from the book. I said that to Carlos and I insisted on, the one thing we're keeping is I want to have a little mouth with human teeth in it.
IGN: Did not having a proper scene partner to act opposite help you find Jakub’s loneliness?
Adam Sandler: Absolutely. That helps a lot. When I'm on the ship and I'm alone and I am alone. It allows you to concentrate. Sometimes when you're in a scene with someone else and you have to get emotional, there's part of my brain goes, "Come on man, let's get this going." It is to be fair to the other actor, and I don't want to waste anyone's time. I have that in my personality. I'm thinking of others a little bit. When you're alone and you are required to feel as much as you can feel, it is great to just concentrate on yourself. Johan would set it up for me in a way that I felt private and I felt I could do or feel anything and not feel self-conscious about it. We were teammates on that. He let me get to places that in real life, I don't jump into very often, and I got to do it in front of a camera.
Paul Dano on Giving Voice to Hanuš
IGN: What was your initial reaction to reading the script? Because I think people are wondering, "Is Hanuš real? Or is he a figment of Jakub's imagination?”
Paul Dano: Well, there are some projects where I think you've got one foot in the door even before you've read it. And I think if the log line was told to me something like this, "Adam Sandler on a spaceship talking to a giant spider." That sort of had me one foot in the door for sure just based on that premise alone. I don't know if I was biased by already being an actor who was reading it as a character, but I never for once wondered if Hanuš was not real. I think I always just took him as being real, and I think that it's possible that that's just part of my job, meaning if I were to choose that he wasn't real, I don't know how that would help me act it. I think that even if it ultimately was an extension of (Jakub) somehow, it still would need to be as fully realized as possible. And the way that they say in dreams that every character in the dream is a part of you.
So who knows, maybe that is all Hanuš is. But I liked the idea of him actually having been a traveler through time and space, and him actually having left a faraway planet or civilization, and him being on the way back to The Beginning himself and seeing this lonely man aboard a vessel. Perhaps Hanuš was out there lonely as well, and sort of studying him and wondering if he could be there for him or be a little less lonely or help him since all was lost for him in his civilization. I certainly remember thinking that it was a bit of a tone poem as well, just in terms of if you were hurdling towards death, what would you be thinking about? And I think that if you failed the love of your life, that's certainly a pretty big regret that you might have. So I think I was moved by that aspect of it as well outside of Hanuš. But I also thought it was really funny, and that I like its sort of cheeky sense of humor.
IGN: Were you shown a design of what they were going for with Hanuš? Or was there anything there for you as a reference while recording? I know Adam had a stuffed spider or a tennis ball to look at.
Paul Dano: No. So there was a few different stages to the process, and one which was really nice is we just started by reading it on Zoom together, Adam and myself and Johan. And that was way before they shot and when I first came on board I think. It was just a sort of, "Well, this is kind of a strange one, let's just talk it out loud and sort of see where we are." And then I think I visited the set a couple times and I think they had some audio recorded as well, maybe for the production. But then I went into work with actual picture, so I would look at Adam's performance and sort of interact with that, interact with the cut of the film. … I had to do some sessions with a big sort of wrap-around helmet thing that's sort of photographing your face so that they can try to maybe use a little bit of expression for maybe just in the eyes or the animators would have to say what they ultimately used or not, if anything.
It was very freeing. It was like if you're alone in the dark, you feel pretty free. You're like, okay, I guess I can just kind of do whatever here. So it was quite enjoyable, very sort of peaceful, calm way to work compared to a lot of productions if you're there every day. But I should say that I'm a huge fan of Adam's, so getting to do those first Zoom rehearsals and just to become pals with him and talking about it, was a real kick for me. Even his comedy albums as a kid were something me and my friends just played over and over again laughing. So that was one of my favorite parts of the process.
IGN: In terms of finding the creature’s voice, was there ever any discussion of doing something weird or alien, or was it like, "Man, this character is weird enough. Just keep it human-sounding."
Paul Dano: Yeah, no, because then you're getting into, "Okay, well it's a spider. What language did he speak? Now he can speak English. What does it sound like?" I think emotionally what felt important was that this creature was a sage of some kind or a guide. So no, in fact, I always felt like, okay, if there are scenes that are more emotional or anything, that'll be the tricky part because I feel like there's something so steady about the voice for this character. I probably started with the instincts that I was getting from the material, and I think that Johan felt the same way.
IGN: Can you talk about the journey that Hanuš is on and what encountering Adam's character means for him as a being who's been alive for so long?
Paul Dano: Well, first of all, I think it's hard sometimes for us to see ourselves, and to see the soup of life that we're swimming in. I know that Johann and Adam had real personal connection to those themes and what (Jakub) was going through. And I think it's easy for a lot of us to feel that way. I liked the idea that Hanuš has been around for so long and has traveled to so many places, and is this his first contact with a human being? And to see this is how this species or creature thinks and feels, and the curiosity to ask why, there is something that is both childlike and innocent about asking that.
But then I think he's seeing a bigger picture and helping Jakub through that. He's like a Yoda or a good shrink. I felt there is some kind of spirit guide element to this. Seeing this person … it's my honor or my duty to help them reach there in as best a place as they can be within themselves.
Spaceman is now playing in select theaters and debuts exclusively on Netflix on March 1.
