The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub talks with
Fly Me to the Moon
director Greg Berlanti and star Ray Romano.
The movie takes place during the 1960s space race as NASA is preparing to land on the moon, and spoofs the theory that the Apollo 11 mission was faked.
During this interview, Berlanti and Romano discuss working with NASA on location, why Romano was unable to be on set for a pivotal scene, their intense filming schedule, and more.

Ray Romano’s character in Apple TV+’s Fly Me to the Moon almost wasn’t present for the big scene which the actor says his character’s whole life had led up to. The film was in production when COVID hit, and due to safety measures, this meant he couldn’t join costars Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, and Woody Harrelson on set that day. It was a bummer, for sure, but during his and director Greg Berlanti’s interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, he shares why the experience overall blew him away.

Fly Me to the Moon is a rom-com rolled into the 1960s space race that sees NASA scrambling to put man on the moon ahead of the Russians. To ensure this monumental achievement is captured for the world, the White House wants to film a fake landing as backup in case anything goes wrong with the original recording. An already tricky situation is made that much more chaotic as a film crew sets up shop, and space exploration is turned into a glamorous production.

During their interview, Berlanti and Romano discuss working alongside NASA to “ultimately show, with reverence, the greatest humankind accomplishment on film,” as well as how they utilized movie magic to make sure Romano’s character could be in the pivotal scene. They also talk about costume choices, why shooting on location affected the filming schedule, and moments throughout production they’ll never forget.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.

Fly Me to the Moon (2024) Marketing maven Kelly Jones wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis’s already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, Jones is directed to stage a fake moon landing as back-up.Release Date July 12, 2024 Main Genre Comedy Writers Keenan Flynn , Rose Gilroy , Bill Kirstein

Ray Romano Had to Miss Out on The Moon Landing
Image via Apple Productions.

COLLIDER: I love learning about the behind-the-scenes of the making of movies, the stuff you don’t read in press notes or see on Wikipedia. For soon-to-be fans of the film, is there anything that you think they’d be surprised to learn about the making of the movie?

GREG BERLANTI: Ray, do you wanna tell your COVID story?

RAY ROMANO: This is not fantastic, but the day we were gonna shoot the moon landing, my character — of course, this is his whole life leading up to this — my stupid character gets COVID that morning. In my trailer, we found out about COVID, and I had to go back to the hotel. I was pleading with Greg, “I have to be there when they land on the moon!” And there was no way around it. We had to go to NASA, and they had to shoot around it. You had to do the magic of editing to make it look like I was there, but I wasn’t there.

BERLANTI: There’s a scene later on, one of the last scenes in the firing room, and we used a beat from Ray earlier on. The advantage is they always all wear white shirts and the same tie, so you can kind of just steal an angle. We were able to use a piece of Ray from an earlier scene for a later scene because he was COVID-ed out of the sequence.

ROMANO: Also, the cat was David Spade — I don’t know what I’m saying. [Laughs]

What’s funny is when I was watching the movie, I noticed the only person who got to wear a yellow or blue shirt was Channing.

BERLANTI: Yes, exactly. If you watched that great Apollo 11 doc, [Apollo 11: First Steps Edition], or any of the docs on that, there were a few guys that, just based on their ranking, were allowed to be a bit more casual, though they all had so much style then. Mary Zophres, who was our costume designer and is a legend herself, really used that as inspiration for his character.

NASA Was Enthusiastic to Be A Part of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’
“It allowed us to ultimately show, with reverence, the greatest humankind accomplishment.”

I was lucky to have been to that NASA building where you guys filmed for a set visit. Obviously they landed on the moon, but you guys poke fun at that with the conspiracies. Were you a little nervous about getting NASA to sign on?

BERLANTI: Yeah. I’m not sure I would have wanted to participate in the movie if I didn’t know that they were enthusiastic about it from the start. They got what we were really trying to do, which was use, obviously, the most talked about element at the outset — the conspiracy theory — because that’s the thing that’s in so much in the public’s consciousness now. We wanted to use one of those stories to tell a story about why the truth is important. They got what we were trying to celebrate about the program, and it allowed us to ultimately show, with reverence, the greatest humankind accomplishment on film. They were so participatory with their advisors and their technology, and the campus itself and the places that we were allowed to shoot. We were doing more TV-style days of, like, six or seven pages a day. Ray had a four-page day — it was one of our last days — which you don’t see a lot of in movies, but I knew how valuable that campus and that location would be sporadically throughout the film to make you feel like you were there. I could go back again and again. I think it’s such a special place.

Image via Apple Productions.

Ray, is there a day that you’ll always remember from shooting besides COVID?

ROMANO: The days at Cape Kennedy — my scene when we’ve splashed down, and Channing comes out to me. And also just being there with my family. I didn’t mention this, but standing next to the crawler and taking pictures with that, the immenseness of it just puts it all in perspective. You’re like, “Oh my god, this is the thing that’s moving the thing that’s going to the moon!” It just blew me away. The whole thing.

Fly Me to the Moon is now in theaters. Click the link below for showtimes.

Get Tickets