AppleTV+’s For All Mankind is one of the best sci-fi shows on TV. Season 4 takes place in the early 2000s in an alternate reality where Al Gore is president and there is an international space station on Mars dealing with a serious labor crisis.
Created by Ronald D. Moore, the man who rebooted Battlestar Galactica, For All Mankind is an incredible series. Showrunners Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert (who have written for Fargo and The Umbrella Academy) and their writers craft mind-blowing scripts that are shockingly relevant. Not only is the writing incredible, VFX supervisor Jay Redd’s work is simply stunning.
The sequences that take place in space are truly mesmerizing. Krys Marshall plays Commander Danielle Poole, who is a powerhouse and the first Black woman to achieve several firsts in space. Marshall’s portrayal of this incredible character has been fantastic. In Season 1, we meet Danielle in her twenties. In Season 4, we see Danielle seamlessly playing the same character in her late fifties. Marshall is an incredible talent, and BGN spoke with her via Zoom shortly after Thanksgiving 2023 about her dynamic character.
Did you get to go to space camp?
I wish! But we did create our own little version of a space camp. We have a real live astronaut, Garrett Riesman, who was the technical advisor on Battlestar [Galactica]. Several advisors are always with us on set, ensuring everything is authentic. When we first started, the cast sat down to lunch with Garrett and got answers to questions like how you eat, how you pee, and what the physicality of being in space is. He told us that since there’s no gravity, the blood in the body doesn’t rush to the extremities; it kind of pools at the center of your body, so it’s crucial to drink fluids and exercise to keep the blood flowing. Knowing things like that has been instrumental in telling the story authentically.
Season 4 takes place in 2003, and Danielle is at the top of her career. What is it like to be playing her at this stage of life?
It’s been really cool. In previous seasons, she was coming off the heels of the civil rights movement. She went to a totally segregated school and is the only Black girl in an all-white program; she is also one of the few women in this all-male program. She has had to watch her Ps and Qs constantly. She’s had to be very aware of how she is being perceived as a person who, although she knows she’s competent and knows about what she’s talking about, she’s had to defer to everyone else around her.
Danielle has moved leaps and bounds to the Danielle we see at the beginning of Season 4. She is totally competent and not afraid to speak her voice. She is an authority in her field. We get to see what happens when a person has really stepped into their power. It’s a delight to play such different variations of the same person.
I love For All Mankind because of how beautifully each story is told, and I know that storytelling is important to you. Please tell me why your mentorship with the Young Storytellers Foundation is meaningful.
When we’re growing up, it’s easy to say to a kid, ”You can be anything you want to be. The world is your oyster.” But as a kid, you don’t really believe those things for yourself. I think about how the teacher who inspired me really encouraged me not just in a generalized way but actually meant it. So when I started doing workshops, I observed that often in grade school, kids are just taught to just answer questions. At the Young Storytellers Foundation, we sit down with writers, and we teach kids the meat and potatoes of writing — rising action, etc. Then, we help them write their first little five-page screenplay.
What about playing Danielle brings you the most joy?
There’s so much intensity in our [For All Mankind] world, and I love that Danielle is light and joy. I love that she doesn’t take herself too seriously. I love that she’s, at times, comic relief. Sometimes, in the story, you need a deep breath. And I think that she is, for our characters, a safe place for them to land.
Krys Marshall’s work on For All Mankind is stellar. It’s not easy to play the same character from her early twenties through her middle ages. Marshall’s acting is flawless, the show is wildly entertaining, the alternate reality is a fun world to visit, and the show has a 100% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes. You never know what will happen next.
Episodes of For All Mankind are streaming on AppleTV+.
