The cast of Disney’s Crater went to moon camp to prepare for filming — here is everything they learned.
Crater takes place on the moon, so it would make sense that the actors would have to know what it feels like to be there while filming. In order to teach them how to act while “on the moon”, the kids were sent to moon camp.
During the Crater Global Press Conference, McKenna Grace (“Addison”), Isaiah Russell-Bailey (“Caleb”), Orson Hong (“Borney”), Thomas Boyce (“Marcus Tollefsoon”), and Billy Barratt (“Dylan Thomas”) reveal what it was like to attend to moon camp, what they learned, and how it helped with the stunts they needed to do.
Crater Cast Went To Moon Camp – Here’s What They Learned
Billy Barratt immediately exclaims that moon camp is a crazy place, that is quite far away, up high in the sky, before chuckling to himself and letting everyone know he is just joking. He goes on to explain that it was all done on Zoom because of the pandemic, but that it was so long ago, he can’t remember much.
“There was a guy. He was very clever, and he knew everything he was talking about.” Billy says, before recalling that the kids all sat at a table together, taking notes, while the guy talked on Zoom. “He would just basically tell us about everything to do with the moon.”
McKenna says she remembers that he was an Astronomer from NASA. But besides meeting with him, the actors did a lot more to prepare for filming.
Harness & Wire Work For Stunts
Isaiah explains that they did about six weeks of spacesuit fittings and harness stunt training as well. They did this all together, which also helped them form a bond. “For four of those weeks, we worked with the team at Legacy to help build our spacesuits to make sure they looked like real, functional spacesuits,” he details. “For the last two weeks, we worked with Dave McCumber and his stunt team to help us look like real astronauts and perform like real astronauts in low gravity.”
Most of the low gravity training was harness work. The team made sure that the actors’ spacewalks looked as realistic as possible, so that it wouldn’t look out of place in the movie. McKenna claims that wires is what makes a good space work, and Thomas agrees while also adding that moving in slow-motion helps too.
This harness work prepared them all for the stunts they had to do. McKenna says that learning how to do flips on the wires was really cool, while Isaiah confesses that his favorite stunt was having to pick up Billy and run across the moon. “I felt like Captain America saving Tony Stark while I was picking him up. It was definitely a little bit of an ego boost.”
As for Thomas, the stunt he had fun with the most didn’t include the wire work, but it was just in a house destroying stuff and having a good time. “That was one of the best days shooting, in my opinion.”
Discover how it all came together when Crater starts streaming on Disney+ May 12th.
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About Crater
“Crater” is the coming-of-age adventure story of Caleb Channing (Isaiah Russell-Bailey), who was raised on a lunar mining colony and is about to be permanently relocated to an idyllic faraway planet following the death of his father (Scott Mescudi).
But before leaving, to fulfill his dad’s last wish, he and his three best friends, Dylan (Billy Barratt), Borney (Orson Hong) and Marcus (Thomas Boyce), and a new arrival from Earth, Addison (Mckenna Grace), hijack a rover for one final adventure on a journey to explore a mysterious crater.
Crater starts streaming May 12th, exclusively on Disney+.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.