STEVE CARELL: It was not my idea.
It was all Netflix.
They called and said, Would you be interested in pursuing a show?
Steve Carell on ‘Space Force’.Aaron Epstein/Netflix
They had no premise; it was just the name.
And he jumped in immediately.
It was just a very, very simple notion.
Aaron Epstein/Netflix
What did the actual Space Force represent to you and why was it perfect comedic fodder?
It just seemed like a new avenue.
It seemed like something that had never been explored before.
Obviously, because it hadn’t existed.
So I think just given that, it could be really anything.
It was a blank sheet of paper for us, and that was intriguing.
And how did you go about researching this?
We have lots of different advisors, both military and scientific.
It’s a hybrid of those things.
You mentioned that it felt like a blank page.
What was the biggest challenge in filling it?
The challenge was also the joy of it.
But this didn’t have any of those aspects.
Greg and I talked a lot about who this character would be.
I thought that was an interesting thing.
He’s very loyal.
He’s a good soldier, hes incredibly committed.
And he’s smart and he’s savvy and he’s a good person.
How would you describe the dynamic between Naird and Mallory?
They’re oil and water.
Mallory is the chief scientist at Space Force.
He’s the person who is driven by science, whereas Naird is driven by his military background.
He’s very pragmatic.
And, as you said, he doesn’t necessarily trust everything scientific.
He sometimes thinks that butts up against what human beings might need or want.
The cast youve assembled is bananas.
We’d be writing a part and wed think, Oh, Jane Lynch would be perfect for this!
Do you think she’d do it?
and then she just said yes.
Everybody we asked said yes.
We were really lucky.
John Malkovich just makes me laugh.
I feel like I always have to say his full name when I say his name.
It’s the respectful thing to do.
What’s one surprising thing you pulled away from working with John Malkovich?
And he is all of those things as well.
He can do so many different things.
Hes just an incredibly interesting person to sit and talk to.
That, I think, was the surprise.
Because I thought he’d be pretty intense and hes just fun.
How did you decide how closely to wink at our current political landscape?
It wasn’t the thrust of the show.
It wasn’t the reason for us doing the show.
I hope what people understand about the show is that it’s surprisingly patriotic.
The object of the show is not to denigrate either party.
I don’t see it as a partisan show.
It doesn’t really lean too hard either way.
It’s an equal opportunity show.
A chimp astronaut factors into the show.
How would you brace viewers for what they’re about to see there?
When you hear chimpstronaut, you might have preconceived notions as to what that would mean.
I don’t know if the termchimpstronauthas ever been coined before.
If you look very closely within that chimpstronaut performance, you will see some of Greg Daniels.
Mark performs Kokomoin a stressful moment in the first episode.
Where in the recesses of your brain did that come from?
And one way he does it is to calm himself down by singing or imagining himself singing songs.
And once it gets into your head, it doesn’t easily leave your head.
Being a military man, he’s not going to go to a psychiatrist.
He feels that he can self-evaluate.
And so there’s a bit of a blind spot to the punch in of person he is.
When you started writing this show, did you think that the real Space Force would happen?
And do you feel any differently now, given the global pandemic?
We knew for sure that the real Space Force would be happening.
We just didn’t know exactly what it would look like, or how soon it would be happening.
They release their logo and we release our logo.
But no, we knew for sure.
And I don’t think that necessarily changes.
This is your first project together with Greg sinceThe Office.
I would work with Greg at any time.
I trust him implicitly, so Id definitely do another show.
I would continue on this show with him.
I would develop something new with him in a heartbeat.
And I think everybody fromThe Officefeels that way about Greg.
And with this one, too.
And I think he has a knack for that.
I have to look for the next big stress-relief song scene.
That’s something that I’m kicking around at this point.
What other odd, quirky ways of dealing with his life are we going to see?
I’d like to see some more of that.
