超越传统科幻片的《星际穿越》

After he plumbed the direst depths of Gotham City in his “Dark Knight” trilogy and traversed multiple levels of consciousness in “Inception,” it seems the only place the filmmaker Christopher Nolan could go next was outer space. In his latest feature, “Interstellar,” an intrepid shuttle team slips the surly bonds of earth to search for wormholes, black holes and planets beyond our galaxy; at the same time, the film is closely concerned with the pale blue dot the crew came from, which is rapidly becoming inhospitable to human life.

在《黑暗骑士》(Dark Knight)三部曲中探索过哥谭市最险恶的深渊，又在《盗梦空间》(Inception)中跨越意识的多重层次之后，导演克里斯托弗·诺兰(Christopher Nolan)接下来能去的地方似乎只有外层空间了。他的最新影片《星际穿越》(Interstellar)讲的是一支勇敢的太空队脱离了地球束缚，去寻找虫洞、黑洞以及我们的星系之外的行星，与此同时，影片也密切关注着这群人的家乡，那个宇宙中淡蓝色的小点，它正在迅速变得不适宜人类居住。

The starry cast features the newly minted Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club,” “True Detective”) as Cooper, a farmer and pilot tasked with ensuring humanity’s future; Anne Hathaway (an Oscar winner for “Les Misérables” and a co-star of Mr. Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises”) as Brand, a fellow explorer; and Jessica Chastain (an Oscar nominee for “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Help”) as Murph, Cooper’s earthbound astrophysicist daughter. Audiences can see exactly how these celestial bodies align when Paramount Pictures opens “Interstellar” (which cost a reported $160 million) in Imax and other film formats on Nov. 5, and in wider release on Nov. 7.

演员阵容群星荟萃，最新获得奥斯卡奖，在《达拉斯买家俱乐部》(Dallas Buyers Club)和《真探》(True Detective)中出演主角的马修·麦康纳(Matthew McConaughey)饰演库珀(Cooper)，这个农夫兼飞行员的身上担负着人类的未来；凭《悲惨世界》(Les Misérables)赢得奥斯卡奖，并在诺兰的《黑暗骑士崛起》(The Dark Knight Rises)中饰演角色的安妮·海瑟薇(Anne Hathaway)饰演团队中的探险者布兰德(Brand)；因《猎杀本·拉登》(Zero Dark Thirty)和《相助》(The Help)获得奥斯卡提名的杰西卡·查斯坦（Jessica Chastain）饰演墨菲(Murph)，库珀的女儿，这是一位讲求实际的天体物理学家。据报道，影片耗资1.6亿美元，由派拉蒙电影公司以Imax和其他格式推出，11月5日首映，11月7日大规模上映，观众们可以在片头看到这些明星们排成一队。

Ms. Chastain, Ms. Hathaway and Mr. McConaughey gathered recently to discuss the pathways that led them to “Interstellar” and the universes to which it introduced them. Together, they carried themselves less like a crew of seasoned, seen-it-all veterans than three guileless novices still acclimating to their mission and to one another. They kidded around, swapped notes on Mr. Nolan and their interpretations of the film, and apologized profusely for their lack of Ph.D.s.

查斯坦、海瑟薇和麦康纳最近聚在一起讨论了他们加盟《星际穿越》的经历，以及这部影片向他们所展示的宇宙。他们在一起，似乎不像是一群见多识广、成熟老练的资深影星，更像是三个诚实的新手，仍然要适应自己的的任务，也要适应彼此。他们开着玩笑，交换对诺兰的意见和对电影的解读，为自己没有哲学博士学位而诚恳道歉。

These are excerpts from that conversation.

下面的对话经过节选。

Q. Did any of you grow up dreaming of someday becoming an astronaut?

问：你们小时候曾经梦想过有朝一日成为宇航员吗？

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY I did not. I was very much, what’s happening on the ground was going to be enough. Until I made “Contact” [the 1997 movie about the search for extraterrestrial life]. That made me actually wonder: “O.K., it’s not just what’s happening here, east, west, in front of us. You can look up. What’s the new frontier to the north?”

马修·麦康纳：没有。地面上发生的事就已经足够了。我拍《超时空接触》（Contact，1997年的影片，讲述寻找外星生命的故事）的时候就想：“好吧，这不是在东方，在西方，在我们面前发生的事。你可以抬头看，北方的新边疆在哪儿？”

JESSICA CHASTAIN I loved Princess Leia as a kid. I loved that she was so badass and took control. But I have no interest in being one of those people on the spaceships they’re advertising that go to the moon. No thank you. I’ll be one of those people that stays on Earth, eating corn.

杰西卡·查斯坦：我小时候喜欢蕾娅公主(Princess Leia)。我喜欢她的无法无天、对大局的掌控。但我没想过成为广告里能登上月球的宇宙飞船上的一员。不，谢谢，我喜欢留在地球上吃玉米花。

ANNE HATHAWAY When I was in fifth grade, my older brother asked me how I was doing in school, and I said I did just get a 52 on a math test. Later, I said I wanted to be an astronaut, and he said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to raise your math scores if you want to do that.’ Later in life, I discovered I do love science, and I do love physics. But I was really happy that in this film, I could still be bad at math and be an astronaut.

安妮·海瑟薇：我上五年级的时候，哥哥问我在学校里做什么，我说我数学测验只得了52分。后来我又说我想当宇航员，他说：“这个，那你可得提高数学成绩才行。”后来，我发现我确实喜欢科学，我也喜欢物理。但我很高兴，在这部影片里，我虽然学不好数学，但是也能当宇航员。

How were each of you approached by Christopher Nolan for this film?

问：你们是怎么被克里斯托弗·诺兰找来拍这部片子的？

CHASTAIN I was in Northern Ireland, shooting a Strindberg adaptation [Liv Ullmann’s “Miss Julie”]. It was cold and rainy and miserable, and I got a call that Chris was interested in me. They flew someone from L.A. to Dublin, who then drove to Enniskillen and handed me a script. Bright red, headache-inducing pages.

查斯坦：我当时在北爱尔兰，拍根据斯特林堡(Strindberg)的原著改编的电影（丽芙·乌曼[Liv Ullmann]导演的《朱莉小姐》[Miss Julie]）。那天很冷，下着雨，气氛惨淡，我接到克里斯的电话，让我很感兴趣。他们派人坐飞机从洛杉矶来到都柏林，然后开车到恩尼斯基伦来给我送剧本。纸页是鲜红色的，让人头疼。

HATHAWAY I went into the Nolans’ library and read it. Kind of knew what I had just read, but wasn’t entirely sure. Chris had invited me over for a three-hour reading block, so I just went back to the beginning and read it again.

海瑟薇：我到诺兰兄弟的图书室去看了剧本。我觉得能看懂自己读到的东西，但是不完全确定。克里斯邀请我来参加三个小时的剧本朗读会，所以我又回到开头读了一遍。

McCONAUGHEY You read it twice in three hours? It took me five and a half hours. [Laughter.] I was in New Orleans working on “True Detective,” and my agent said, “Christopher Nolan’s got a new project coming out, and he’s thinking of you — and some other people.” I went to Chris’s house, sat down for about three hours. Basically talked about being fathers, talked about our kids. We laughed a lot and said goodbye. I remember walking back to the car going: “I know what that was. But what was that?” It was not specific at all.

麦康纳：你在三个小时里读了两遍？我花了五个半小时（笑）。我当时在新奥尔良拍《真探》，我的经纪人说，“克里斯托弗·诺兰有个新项目，他想到了你——还有其他人。”我去了诺兰的家，在那儿呆了大概三个钟头，主要是聊当爸爸的事情，聊我们的孩子。我们大笑，告别。我记得走进车子的时候说：“我知道这个是什么，但那个又是什么？”根本没有什么特别的。

What ultimately won you over?

问：最后是什么让你们下了决心呢？

McCONAUGHEY It had the things that I had loved about Chris’s earlier films. That epic scope and size, which I think you get from him better than any director I know of. But also, this one seemed more intimate. It was a very human and a very simple question of a parent and a child, a father and a daughter. The most extreme circumstance of, “What would you do if ...?”

麦康纳：主要是因为我喜欢克里斯早期的电影。那种史诗般的空间和广度，我觉得他比我知道的任何导演做得都好。但也是因为这部片子看上去更个人化。它是一个关于父母与孩子、关于父亲与女儿的问题，非常人性化，非常简单。是那种“如果换了你会怎样……”的极端环境。

As a director, Mr. Nolan has to contend with costly set designs and elaborate special effects. How does he work with his actors?

问：作为导演，诺兰得应付昂贵的场景设计和复杂的特效。他和演员又是怎么合作的呢？

CHASTAIN He allows room for everyone’s process. In the scenes I did with Casey Affleck, Casey likes to improvise, and Chris was completely open to that. When I’d be working with Michael Caine, you went right by the lines. But you feel like Chris is the captain of the film. He knows what his movie is, and he’s going to help everyone find their own way there.

查斯坦：他为每个人的发展留出空间。在一场我和卡西·阿弗莱克(Casey Affleck)拍的戏里，卡西想即兴发挥，克里斯对此保持完全开放的心态。我和迈克尔·凯恩(Michael Caine)合作的时候，就得完全按部就班。但你能感觉到克里斯是这部影片的领袖。他知道自己的电影是什么样，他会帮助每个人在片中找到自己的方式。

HATHAWAY On my camera test for [“The Dark Knight Rises”], I was wearing the [Catwoman] suit for the first time, in front of everybody, and hadn’t quite gotten into the shape that I wanted, and just had a million things going on in my head, none of them terribly helpful. Chris came up to me and goes, “I just wanted to ask you, what’s your process like?” I had come off a few years of not unpleasant but not totally satisfying film experiences, and I’d forgotten that you’re allowed to have a process. I just said: “You know, I’m not totally in touch with it. Can I get back to you?” I knew I was safe.

海瑟薇：（给《黑暗骑士崛起》）试镜的时候，我第一次当着大家穿那身（猫女的）戏服，它不像我想的那么合适，我脑子里顿时涌起了一百万个念头，没有一个是有帮助的。克里斯走到我身边说，“我想问你，你的流程是什么样的？”好几年以来，我拍片的经历虽然并不算是不愉快，但也不是完全满意，我都忘了你还可以有流程。我说：“你知道，我穿着不太合适，能还给你吗？”我知道自己安全了。

McCONAUGHEY My favorite times with Chris would be when we’d move to a new set — we’re going into a wormhole, now we’ve got a black hole — to sit down and go over the rules of this world. What’s gravity now? What’s time? It’s 23 years per hour? Thirty percent more gravity? And sometimes he’d say: “I don’t know about that. I’ve got to give myself some time to get bored, and that’s when I’ll figure these things out.”

麦康纳：我和诺兰合作最开心的时刻之一，就是我们进入到一个新场景——我们已经进入一个黑洞，又要进入一个虫洞——坐下来讨论这个世界的规则。重力怎么样？时间呢？一小时相当于23年？重力增加30%？有时候他会说：“我不懂这个，我要花时间让自己烦一下，把这些东西想出来。”

Jessica, the space your character inhabits is, let’s say, discrete from Anne’s and Matthew’s. Did you get to interact with them on set?

问：杰西卡，这么说吧，你的角色所居住的空间是和安妮的空间与马修的空间分离的。那你在片场和他们互动吗？

CHASTAIN The week when we were prepping for the film, I was tagging next to Anne. I’m a little awkward sometimes.

查斯坦：我们为影片做准备的那个星期，我被安排在安妮旁边。有时候我有点笨手笨脚。

HATHAWAY You were not! You were charming as can be. You taught us all how to make a poached egg.

海瑟薇：才不呢！你很迷人。你教我们怎么做水煮蛋。

CHASTAIN I’d just finished cooking school. And that’s not nerdy? Come on.

查斯坦：我刚上完烹饪学校。这难道不呆子气吗？得了。

HATHAWAY I went home and tried it. I couldn’t make the whirlpool roll enough.

海瑟薇：我回家试了。我没法让蛋液充分转起来。

What did you gain from working with the theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who was an executive producer on this movie?

问：理论物理学家基普·索恩(Kip Thorne)是这部片子的执行制片人，和他一起工作你们学到了什么？

McCONAUGHEY How great was it to see he had a sense of humor? He was just kind and dear. Nothing mathematical or stereotypically scientist about him.

麦康纳：他有幽默感，真是太棒了。他善良又可亲，一点也不像人们心目中那种数学家或者科学家的刻板印象。

HATHAWAY I was afraid he was going to make me feel dumb. But he doesn’t do that. His approach to it is always, “And....”

海瑟薇：我担心他会让我觉得沉闷。但他一点也不。他总是说：“还有……”

McCONAUGHEY That’s what I found about astrophysics. Everything you ask him, he goes, “Well, it’s not this or this. It’s both.” I was like, “Well, where’s the end?” He’s like: “That’s the point. There is no end. No answer you have in astrophysics should ever not lead to another question.” I was like, “You’ve got great job security.”

麦康纳：我发现天体物理学就是这样的。我问他的每件事，他总是说：“这个，不是这样或者那样，而是两者兼有。”我说：“那么，最后结果呢？”他说：“这就对了，没有结果。在天体物理学里，所有答案都会引出下一个问题。”我说：“那你肯定不会失业的。”

“Interstellar” imagines a not-far-off future where science and engineering are not highly valued, and humanity has lost its pioneering spirit. Do those ideas have relevance outside the film?

问：《星际穿越》想象一个不久的将来，科学技术不再受到高度评价，人类失去了探索精神。这些看法和电影之外的现实有关联吗？

McCONAUGHEY Those parts of the film are very relevant today. If you’re looking at NASA, literally. This film challenges mankind, but at the same time has faith in it. It says: “Yes, there’s something outside there. Call it extraterrestrial, call it God, call it the Prime Mover, whatever.” But it loops right back and says: “Guess who’s responsible for getting there, if we’re going to get there? You.”

麦康纳：影片的这些部分和如今有着密切的关系。这么说，如果你关注NASA的话。这部影片对人类做出了挑战，但也对人类怀有信念。它说：“是的，外面有些什么东西，不管叫它外星人还是上帝还是原动力。”但它转了一个圈，又回来说：“你猜如果我们能到那里去，责任应该由谁来承担？是你。”

CHASTAIN We’ve already done terrible things to the planet, and there’s no backtracking. Of course, I think space exploration is important, but I also wish that we would stop sticking our heads in the sand about what we’re doing to this planet. As great as those other planets were that you guys looked at, I really like this one. I’m more interested in doing what I can to make sure we can stay.

查斯坦：我们对这个星球做了可怕的事情，这是不可逆的。当然，我觉得星际探险很重要，但我也希望我们不要再忽视我们对这个星球所做的事情。它和你们注视的那些星球一样伟大，我真的很喜欢它。我更关心自己能够做些什么，好让我们能继续留在这里。

Did the experience of “Interstellar” make you think about what it means to be a parent or a child?

问：拍《星际穿越》的时候让你们想到了做父母或者做子女时的什么经历吗？

McCONAUGHEY My largest reason, instinctually, for why I wanted to do this was for my son Levi. He got really into spaceships. “There’s the moon. We’ve been on the moon.” He’s like, “How?” Going back and having to explain things, even the basics of the solar system, kindled up a new imagination for me.

麦康纳：从本能出发，我拍这部片子最大的原因就是为了儿子利维(Levi)。他真的很迷恋太空船。“那是月亮，我们登过月。”他说：“怎么登的？”回头去解释这些东西，甚至还有太阳系的基础知识，这为我点燃了新的想象。

CHASTAIN Chris is surrounded by his family. It really opened up my character in an unexpected way, when I saw Chris’s daughter on set. I had my own personal issues with father-daughter relationships that I could easily draw towards, but the production — the [code] name of it was “Flora’s Letter.” And when I was on set and I asked this sweet little girl, who was kind of shy, what her name was, she said, “Flora.” I realized, it was a letter to his daughter.

查斯坦：克里斯被他的家庭围绕着。我在片场见到了克里斯的女儿，这真的以意想不到的方式启发了我的角色。在父女关系这方面，我有我自己感兴趣的个人问题。但是这部片子，它的别名又叫《弗洛拉的信》(Flora’s Letter)。我在片场问这个有点害羞的可爱小女孩，她叫什么名字，她说：“弗洛拉”。我明白了，这是他写给女儿的信。

Does it feel like science fiction is, for a moment, moving away from alien invasions, toward humanistic stories of exploration and technology?

问：是不是科幻电影片刻之间变得不再是关于外星人入侵，而是变成了人类探索与科技的故事?

McCONAUGHEY Chris sort of trumped the stereotypical science-fiction film. It’s usually about doom, the end: If they come get us, we are gone. Chris has his wonderful, witty British cynicism, but he’s an absolute optimist. He’s challenging mankind. He’s saying the unknown — the ghost out there — whatever they are, they’re good, and maybe we can use them to get to the next place. He’s taking it a step further, in a life-affirming way.

麦康纳：克里斯超出了那种刻板印象的科幻电影。那种电影通常是关于宿命的，结尾是：如果他们来打我们，我们就完蛋了。克里斯有他精彩、聪明的英国式愤世嫉俗，但他是个彻头彻尾的乐观主义者。他在挑战人类。他说，未知——就是世界之外的幽灵——不管它们是什么，它们是好的，我们或许能够利用它们进入下一个阶段。他用肯定生命的方式更进一步。

Could any of you now operate a telescope if called upon to do so?

问：如果有必要的话，你们会操作太空望远镜了吗？

CHASTAIN They gave us telescopes. Did you get one?

查斯坦：他们给了我们太空望远镜，你们有吗？

HATHAWAY I did. I can’t make it work.

海瑟薇：我有。我还不会用。

CHASTAIN I can’t make it work either. It’s sitting on my windowsill. Someday, I’ve got to get this thing going. It just looks like a pervy New York telescope.

查斯坦：我也不会用。它就放在我的窗台上。有一天我会用上它的。它就像一个有点变态的纽约望远镜。