David Gyasi - Film

 

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David Gyasi - Film

By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist

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David Gyasi

Interstellar’s Astrophysicist

    

David Gyasi as Dr. Romilly

The new movie “Interstellar” explores the idea of Earth running out of resources to support human life and man must find a new place to go in the universe. Of course the crew selected to go on this fact finding mission in space are of the brightest and the best. Actor David Gyasi is the Black astrophysicist on the crew who breaks down all of the scientific data and problems that occur on board. Gyasi is a native of Hammersmith, London, England where he was trained and began his career in British theater, TV and film. He is part of the increasing number of Black Brits to be seen on American cinema and TV.

    

One of the main concepts of the film was based on the late Dr. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity where in space one can travel great distances and return to earth the same age while those left behind on earth have significantly aged or even died. In other words an astronaut could be 30 years-old when he leaves  and come back five years later and be only 35 while everybody he left on earth that was his same age is 50 years older or more. This is due to the time-space frame of a moving body appearing to slow down and contract (in the direction of motion) when measured in the frame of the observer. Of course, you all reading this interview learned that in high school science or math didn’t you?

   Was Gyasi into Einstein’s theory or any of the scientific stuff before getting into the role?  He laughs, “It wasn’t something that I thought about everyday but it was something that I had to consider obviously for the part and accept that it was possible. Chris (the director) was telling me about an experiment  they did where they placed two identical watches; one at the top of a high-rise and one at the bottom. And when they brought the two watches together after some time they were out of sync and that is part of the relativity theory that at that altitude something else is happening than on the bottom.” He also compared gaining a day and losing a day flying between the time zones of London and the U.S. as part of the same ideal.

L-R: Matthew McConaughey (Cooper), Anne Hathaway (Brand) and David Gyasi (Dr. Romilly)

     When playing a regular role there may be room for ad-lib but in a scientific role like the one he plays as Dr. Romilly, he has to say specific things with a certain discipline. Did this alter the way he approached the role? Gyasi explains, “It doesn’t differ because of actually Romilly‘s make-up, that’s his passion. For some people it’s their family and some people it’s their car or money. That’s his passion so I’ll always try to tap into what makes this character live and breathe and experience life. What level does he do that on and then tap into that. Even when you look into the dense dialogue you have to sort of correct yourself and say actually this is how the guy experiences life and sees the world and he does that with extreme passion. So find his passion and go for that.

     This is obviously a big budget film and the sets were breath takingly realistic. Does the ambiance of a realistic set fire an actor up? Gyasi responds, “It forces you to bring 100% at the time because you say the props guy did it, the sound guy is doing it, the visual effect guys are doing it, the other actors and the director are doing it and you don’t want to be the one who drops the ball. And it is nice if you are someone who aims and attempts to work like that in everything that you do. That’s how I was brought up to approach life and approach work in that way.”

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