For All Mankind – Sonya Walger & Jodi Balfour

 By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) Sonya, there is this saying that “the sky is the limit.” And it seems to have two different meanings for Molly. In Season One nothing could really keep her from reaching the moon, and then in season two we see this scene where she is literally grasping towards the atmosphere and she can’t quite reach it.  It kind of becomes ironic.  How is Molly’s diagnosis the ultimate test of control and boundaries for her when everything for her has seemingly been limitless?

Sonya: Yeah, I think that goes to the core of Molly’s dynamic this season.  I really do.  I think she has lived a life that hasn’t forced her to really reconcile her immortality at all.  She’s pushed, she’s driven and she’s arrived with great, great effort at her goal, which was the moon and then she found water on the moon and then she got to keep going back to the moon.  It’s not to say that her life hasn’t been without struggles, but she has yet to meet an obstacle that she cannot overcome through sheer force of will and determination.  But the limits of her own body are something that even her own will cannot overcome.  And that is very humbling for Molly, who is so proud and so unwilling to ask for help and finds it so hard to admit vulnerability.  I think being humbled by her own limitations is enormously hard.  It’s actually much, much harder than any rule that NASA might impose on her, is dealing with the limits that we all deal with, our own mortality.

Q) Jodi, this season Ellen has gone from astronaut to administrator, and she actually excels at it. Margo kind of expects Ellen to see things from her side, but Ellen really does follow well in Tom’s footsteps. What kind of surprises Ellen the most in this position?  How does she balance between each side’s expectations?

Jodi: It’s really hard.  It’s really tough.  And I think it asks a lot of Ellen in terms of compromising certain principles and ideals.  But it’s sort of that instead of looking two meters in front of you, you are looking all the way down the road at what the end goal is.  And that the end goal is Mars, you kind of have to compromise a little bit in how you get there.  If only it could be with all of your principles and ideals intact, but the world as we all know doesn’t always work that way.  That’s a huge lesson for Ellen this year.  Along with that comes the struggle and the sort of discomfort of butting heads with Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) who this person is really an ally for Ellen and it’s not intentional.

Q) Sonya, speaking of relationships, Molly’s relationship with her husband has kind of constantly been tested since season one. I really love the way that you and Lenny work so well off of one another with that relationship that balances one another. Ultimately, Molly kind of chooses her stubbornness over her selflessness when it comes to wanting this operation.  What is it about their dynamic that allows Molly to feel more grounded?

Sonya: I think there is something about how he has absolutely no connection to what she does for a living.  I think it’s liberating to go from this singlemindedness of Molly I think maybe struggles with to come to someone who has no expectations of her other than to love her.  No need for her to succeed.  No need for her to be anything other than the prickly hedgehog that she is.  I think of Molly is so guarded and yet with such a soft underbelly and I feel like she gets to show that underbelly around Wayne (Lenny Jacobson).  I also think it’s fun because they play together.  There is a playfulness and a lightness.  They get high together.  There is an ease there where she can let her guard down.  So, I am always relieved, cause as an actor you always look for the opportunity to play the opposite of who you present as, and I feel like these scenes with Lenny give me the opportunity to do that.

Q) Jodi, Ellen’s relationship with Larry is one of convenience and it seems like he has benefited from it well more than she has in the past two seasons. Do you feel like Ellen is more resentful or regretful when it comes to this marriage of convenience that we see?

Jodi: That’s a really good distinction to try and make. You know, I think it’s a bit of both.  I think even though she hasn’t sort of been finding a way to make it work for her sexually the way that Larry (Nate Corddry) has or romantically that Larry has, it has allowed her to have that spotlight shown away for a second in that way and that scrutiny rather than the spotlight shown away from them.  It’s given her an ability to breathe.  But there is massive regret there, but I think regret she doesn’t really let herself think too much about.  It’s sort of that Pandora’s Box of feelings that it’s a lot easier to manage her life if she doesn’t even go there. Whereas Larry, as we see, can dabble. He can hold both things in one hand.  She just can’t and we get to explore that a little bit more as the season goes on.

Q) Really my final question is for the both of you, and it’s just what do you think makes these women such strong female characters? What does that mean to you?

Sonya:  First, we’ll get credit where it is due.  Ron [D. Moore], Matt [Wolpert] and Ben [Nedivi] and all of the writers collaborate to create these extraordinary women and this extraordinary collection of women.  I think it’s maybe sort of unprecedented.  I can’t think of another show.

Jodi:  There are eight of us this season!  Eight leading storylines.

Sonya:  And every single one of us have an identity other than simply being someone else’s wife or girlfriend. Every one of us carries our own career and role models, I think. That feels very exciting.  Then, I look around at this cast that I work with and I think, “Well, what did you expect?” You’ve got very strong women here and there is not a wallflower among us.  So, they got what they paid for is what I’m saying. This was entirely inevitable, and I think they really pull to our strengths more and more.

Jodi:  Yeah, totally, exactly what Sonya said.  And I think this phrase that has been adopted and celebrated in Hollywood, “the strong female character,” I think what I get most excited about in trying to embody that and trying to flesh out what that idea even is, is someone and their humanity.  Strength is such a subjective term, and to me anyway, it’s about seeing fully flawed fully dynamic three-dimensional human beings who happen to be women rather than what has preceded us which is a lot more like someone’s wife, someone’s mother, someone’s secretary and the limitations that are often put into place.