by If there is indeed a multiverse where all possible outcomes occur, then in one of Marv Murchins Universes, half of the “Wet Bandits” from “Home Alone,” is acting as NASA administrator.
As it probably does not seem, such a thing is playing out in the current season “For All Mankind.” Actor Daniel Stern, perhaps best known for his role as Marv from the 1990 Christmas comedy, took on the space agency chief in the Apple TV+ alternate space history series.
“They called me and said, ‘Are you interested in playing Eli Hobson, the head of NASA?’ and I put the phone down and laughed for about 20 minutes,” Stern said in an interview with collectSPACE.com. “I told my wife then and she was like, “What are they drunk? You, as the head of NASA?”
But then Stern read the script and started watching the show. It hid its scope and how it combined the production quality of a very expensive film with the intimacy and character development of a long-running TV series. He was particularly impressed with the fun the writers were having creating the show’s alternate timeline, which began with the Soviets beating the Americans to land men on the moon in 1969.
Related: ‘For All Mankind’ season 4 episode 6 review: The culmination of a story years in the making
“I think of it as the butterfly effect,” Stern said. “If with that one moon landing we missed our shot, they got it and that butterfly effect changed everything, as history is always formed by events.”
The more he thought about it, the idea seemed too good an opportunity to play the head of NASA.
“I’ve never been a part of anything like this. They made me get out of my gut and go back to work and play with Eli Hobson, and I’m very glad I did,” he said.
Eli doesn’t look like Stern’s “Home Alone” character, but that didn’t stop some of Stern’s teammates from having to suppress their reaction to seeing Marv standing in front of them.
“Sure, the first scene we had together, I just let myself live in the room,” said Wrenn Schmidt, whose character, Margo Madison, was the former NASA administrator. “For the first day I think it was challenging maybe, but he is such a beautiful, warm guy, and so funny.”
“I thought he was an extraordinary part of our cast this season and I really enjoyed watching his work,” she said.
Related: What was the space race?
collectSPACE spoke with Stern about his performance on “For All Mankind,” the inspiration for his character and how being on the show shaped his ideas about space exploration. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
collectSPACE (cS): We know there isn’t much connection between “Home Alone” and “For All Mankind,” but have any of your previous roles been part of a space exploration-themed movie or show?
Daniel Stern: I think there must have been a “Wonder Years” episode with the moon landing. That was right at the time [that the show was set]. So I probably did an episode, but I don’t remember that.
The only thing I did was a terrible, terrible movie called ‘Leviathan,’ but it was an underwater exploration. Even though we had to wear a suit with the big helmets and things like that, I felt like I was on Mars. And I could very well have been on Mars with the performance I gave.
cS: You are one of the few members of the “For All Mankind” team, at least in the current season, who were alive for the moon landings. Did you follow the space program growing up?
Stern: We watched the first one and our minds were blown, and then every time there was a launch, I watched it, but I didn’t follow it.
I have another interest in it, in that one of my best friends from high school works for NASA. He is an interplanetary geologist studying the samples they receive from Mars. And that is true.
The space program for me has a capacity for what people are capable of. What’s interesting about “For All Mankind” is that we see the technology that humans can create [is] off the charts, but we always bring our own crap with us, our humanity. Our primitive selves are fighting each other, our tribalism, and that’s what’s so interesting about the show is that dilemma of, We’re great enough to build a colony on the moon or in space and yet, we’re arguing about which sandwich. He was.
It’s crazy to me, because it’s getting real. It has become easier to launch people on rockets, and private industries are getting up there. It is wild that we are unleashing these complex people on the universe.
cS: Did the creators of “For All Mankind,” Ron Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, give you any guidance on who to base your performance on? In real life in 2003, the NASA administrator was Sean O’Keefe, who had been Secretary of the Navy and deputy director of the White House office of management and budget before taking the job.
Stern: Lee Iacocca was the one they put in my head, and he was a good key for me for the Hobson character because Lee Iacocca knew how to run a company. He knew how to be innovative, but also budget conscious. He turned GM around. He was the head of Chrysler for those who don’t remember and he turned that company around.
He was also a media star. He was not only a pure corporate leader. He was an outspoken corporate leader and a political animal in a way.
So Eli is an extension of Lee Iacocca, who is friends with the president [of the United States], and the president gets to pick the director of NASA. I’m not playing Lee Iacocca specifically, but he’s the one who guided me for the character.
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cS: Not giving anything away, but knowing what happens this season and the ten year jump between seasons that is expected now, would you like to serve another term and see Hobson back in Season 5?
Stern: I don’t like acting that much. I have so many other passions. I make a bronze sculpture, I run a farm and I have my grandchildren. I love my life.
But I like the show. It was so good, I had to be a part of it. So, I would definitely sacrifice one more year of my life to do it again, because there were such good people on the show. It has a lot to say, it was a great part, so how can I say no?
Click through to collect space to watch a clip of Daniel Stern as NASA Administrator Eli Hobson in “For All Mankind,” Season 4.
The fourth season of “For All Mankind” made its world premiere on Friday, November 10, 2023 on Apple TV+and is now streaming one new episode per week every Friday through January 12, 2024.
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