{From Playbill.com and Deadline.com}
Brian d’Arcy James has added “astronaut” to his list of upcoming film roles. The three-time Tony nominee recently finished filming the 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, directed by Damian Chazelle, who won an Oscar in 2017 for La La Land. Based on James R. Hansen’s book, First Man follows Armstrong’s journey to the moon. Brian will play Joseph A. Walker, Armstrong’s secondary boss, who flew the world’s first two spaceplane fights in 1963. Walker became the seventh man in space.
The feature will star Ryan Gosling as Armstrong, with Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, Claire Foy as Janet Armstrong, Jon Bernthal as Dave Scott, and Kyle Chandler as Deke Slayton. First Man hits theaters in October 2018.
From a February 2018 IN STYLE interview with Brian:
Your next project is First Man, the period drama about astronaut Neil Armstrong directed by Damien Chazelle. Have you wrapped that yet? I have one more day of shooting in February. It’s fascinating—such a great story about Neil Armstrong, getting to know who he was and what led him to be. How fate and his own talent and ability led him to this historic opportunity. And I’m watching The Crown right now, so I just said to my wife I’m so glad I didn’t see any of The Crown before I met Claire [Foy, who plays Armstrong’s first wife Janet Shearon] because I wouldn’t have been able to talk to her! She’s so amazing in that show and I had a couple of scenes with her. I’m just blown away by what she brings. And, of course Ryan Gosling is terrific as well. And, Damien is the director that did La La Land and Whiplash—I’m a huge fan of his. It’s always really exciting when you get to meet people you admire and they turn out to be even better than what you imagined. That’s the case with those three.
Who did you spend the majority of your scenes acting with? Ryan! I play a character who is a bit of a mentor to Neil, Joe Walker. He flew X15 research planes which was the precursor to the space program. So, he’s an astronaut technically because he flew past the marker—there’s a French term that says if you go past this point you’re in space and you’re out of the atmosphere. And he was able to do so in a plane. The way that Damien and I describe him is like he’s 5 minutes late to the party. So, he was Neil’s senior and they worked together and he did become kind of a friend in crisis. They share some painful history, so there’s a bond there that starts off the movie.
Related:
» Playbill announcement
» Deadline announcement
» Updates on this site about Brian’s films
