‘For All Mankind’s’ Ruby Cruz and Ines Asserson on wearing those ‘clunky’ cool spacesuits and training with a Green Beret (interview)

Apple TV’s “For All Mankind” is setting up for an explosive season 5 finale as hungry Marsies are growing impatient, and Earth’s M-6 Alliance just dispatched an inexperienced military fire team to commandeer the all-important Goldilocks asteroid and its precious Iridium resources.

Avery “AJ” Jarrett (Ines Asserson) and Lily Dale (Ruby Cruz) are two of this season’s newest young adult characters. They were last seen as children in season 4, but they are all grown up now with the show’s time jump to the 2010s. We connected with Asserson and Cruz to learn more about their journeys on Apple TV’s flagship sci-fi series and the rigors of zipping up a spacesuit!

“We had so many different costumes because of their development in her association with the Marines,” Asserson tells Space. “It was so cool, and I felt really powerful in the uniforms during the space travel to Mars. We weren’t in them very long. It was easy to physically enter the headspace of a Marine wearing them. The first time in a spacesuit was really cool, then I realized they’re not that easy to wear. They’re heavy and clunky, and you want them to look cool. I mean, when else would I get to wear a spacesuit?”

Asserson’s Off-Planet Expeditionary Force (OPEF) marine is a complex individual whose family legacy is a generational aspect of the hit show. She’s the daughter of Danny and Amber Stevens, and granddaughter of astronauts Gordo and Tracy Stevens, who sacrificed themselves in season 2’s finale to save the Jamestown lunar base by taking a suicidal moonwalk.

“There’s so many tensions with AJ; there’s this rigidity and so much desire and emotion and loneliness within her,” explains Asserson.

“She’s really fighting such a battle with herself that speaks to that kind of yearning for belonging and friendship and family as well, and to embrace her family history. Her struggling wth her past is always going to be a difficult thing for Avery. I think that’s going to take shape in many different situations. Everything is going to make her see another side of herself.”

In crafting her Earth-based soldier character, Asserson talked to a number of veterans, which was something that became incredibly informative to understand the mindset of combat and camaraderie.

“Then we did a lot of CQB (Close-Quarter Battle) training with a real Green Beret,” she adds. “He was phenomenal. We learned to clear rooms, operate guns in a way that’s realistic, and to work together as an OPEF group. Those friendships have really become super important to me in my real life, actually, which I think is that Marine mentality.”

Ruby Cruz portrays Lilly Dale, the daughter of Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell), and an ambitious journalist who helped leak the secret Happy Valley automation documents to the press with Alex (Sean Kaufman).

“Building Lilly was really fun because I got to watch Miles Dale in season 4 and build the daughter that that father would raise,” Cruz tells Space. “It’s so cool thinking about the different qualities in him that she would really admire and look up to and want to embody. And the different qualities in him that really frustrate her and that she would want to reject. Building out with Toby was really fun because he’s one of the funniest people.

“I really like that Lily is a young person discovering her voice in fighting for what she believes in. She has this very rebellious, fiery, impulsive nature that I can somewhat relate to. I don’t like the establishment. I don’t like organized systems,” notes Cruz.

“And I do relate to her in that way, but she’s harsher than I am, and I liked being in that headspace. She also has a very big heart and has a lot of care for people. I think her journalistic tendencies are really cool. She cares about the truth, and it was inspiring to be reminded that it’s a very important thing.”

Filming in multiple sound stages on the historic Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City, California, was particularly rewarding for Cruz, as was trying to absorb the production’s insane scale.

“Nothing shoots in L.A., so it’s cool shooting at home. But also to film on these historic stages. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ filmed there!” exclaims Cruz.

“Then, to be in such immersive sets made it easy for an actor to be immersed immediately, and that was a rare experience. The spacesuits are like real spacesuits! They’re so complicated and much heavier than you’d ever expect. [Costume Designer] Esther Marquis is so well versed in making space suits that space companies have approached her in helping design their suits.”

“For All Mankind” season 5 streams exclusively on Apple TV, along with the previous four seasons.