Eric Liebowitz/Prime Video
Emma Roberts knows her new Prime Video film, “Space Cadet,” is an easy target for critics and cynics.
“It’s sincere,” she says on this week’s “Just for Variety” podcast. “And people are probably going to make fun of it, but it’s like, you know what, whatever. I think it’s better to be sincere and do your best and be proud of what you do, no matter how it’s received.”
Written and directed by Purple Hearts writer Liz W. Garcia, Roberts plays Rex, a bartender who decides to follow her childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. When she’s accepted into NASA’s highly competitive astronaut training program, things go awry when she learns that her best friend (Hacks actress Poppy Liu) embellished her application.
“I fell in love with it,” Roberts recalled after reading the script for Space Cadet. “I felt like it reminded me of all the movies I loved as a kid and a teenager, and it was very fresh, but at the same time very nostalgic. Everything I had read was so dark and depressing and felt very small, and I just wanted to do something inspiring and fun and light, and this was it for me.”
You’re also a producer on the film. I was talking to a filmmaker friend the other day and he was telling me about the difficulties he had in getting the money. He said, “It’s just atrocious.”
That’s why when people are so quick to see a movie or a show and say, “Oh, I hate that,” I’m like, “That was months and years of blood, sweat, and tears.” Producing stuff made me realize that you can’t really hate something because it means that people really, really, really tried and succeeded. If you watch something, then it’s a success.
What movie have you made and thought, “We worked so hard. I was so proud. I expected something different”?
I’m thinking more about putting out stuff like “Space Cadet.” First of all, everyone who’s seen the movie loves the movie, which makes me really happy. But there are comments that can be rude. So I try not to watch it, because people just want to hate it. I feel like I’ve been dealing with that since I was 12, so I’m pretty thick-skinned about it. But it depresses me. We’ve cultivated this culture of celebrity hate and hate for movies and TV online. Whereas before, you’d have five people criticizing a movie, now you’ll have people who won’t even say their real name, which says how much they hate something. I’m like, “At least everyone should be required to put their driver’s license number on their Instagram, so you’d probably think twice before you say something rude if we had your driver’s license information.”
And you had a lot of success on Nickelodeon (Roberts starred in “Unfabulous” for three seasons before the show ended in 2007). Nickelodeon has been in the news a lot because of the safety of children on sets. Do you ever remember feeling unsafe or were you protected?
I watched[Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV]and I was completely horrified and shocked because that was not my experience. It really saddened me that this was happening to people that I saw a lot and had no idea about. For my show, Unfabulous, the showrunner was this incredible woman named Sue Rose. I didn’t realize it at the time, but a female showrunner was not very common at the time. But it was my first exposure to a TV show. Also, my mom was with me 24/7, and even I was like, “You don’t have to be here all the time,” and she was like, “Actually, I’m telling you. I’m not taking my eyes off you. You’re not going to a fitting by yourself at 13.” “It makes me really sad, and I feel like children need to be protected on set, just like adults, and I feel like we’re working towards a better working environment in that sense. But yeah, that documentary definitely kept me up at night.
Emma Roberts starred in Nickelodeon’s “Unfabulous” from 2004 to 2007.
©Nickelodeon Network/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
I imagine that early in your career, people were always offering you projects to do with your aunt, Julia Roberts.
They always do. I would love to find the perfect project for me and my aunt, and I know there will be something. But it’s never been the right fit. She’s the best, and I want to do something with her. We send each other books and talk about this and that, but it hasn’t worked out. I watch her movies when I’m out in the field and I’m alone. I have movies of hers downloaded on my computer that I watch for comfort. “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “America’s Sweethearts” are my sure-fire movies.
We need to talk about “Madame Web.” The movie didn’t do as well as we expected. Dakota (Johnson) said she’d probably never do something like that again. But you said you wanted to do it again.
Things work, things don’t work. Everyone likes to pretend like they can predict whether they’re going to work or not. And the truth is, they can’t. Things work badly, and then they blow up on TikTok. Things work well, but then you look at them and you’re like, “Did that work well?” There’s no secret. It’s about doing something right and doing it at the right time. Everything else is like a wish and a prayer. I’m not intimidated by failure, and I’m not intimidated by people who have negative thoughts about something. Personally, I really loved “Madame Web.” I really enjoyed the movie. I thought everyone was great. The director, SJ Clarkson, did an incredible job. That’s why I wanted to make this movie. If it wasn’t for Internet culture and everything being turned into a joke, I think the reception would have been different. And that’s what depresses me about a lot of things, even the ones I’ve done, is that people make a joke out of everything now.
What was that role you auditioned for that made you say, “That’s the one I wanted”?
When I was a kid, it was the Peter Pan remake. I was pretty sure of myself. I had a British accent. I was very impressed with myself, but I didn’t get the part. The part that initially eluded me was Sam, which the incredible Dakota Fanning obviously got. I was pretty sure of myself, but the reactions were like, “You’re a little older,” and I was nine. When people tell me you’re older at nine, I was like, “That’s my skin that’s tough. It’s grown there.”
This Q&A has been edited and condensed. Listen to the full conversation with Roberts on “Just for Variety” above or wherever you download your favorite podcasts.
