'The Martian' crew meets Chinese scientists
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 23, 2015
The crew of science fiction blockbuster "The Martian" met with Chinese real-life scientists and students at Tsinghua University on Saturday in Beijing to talk about the science of the movie.
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Producer Michael Schaefer, actors Sebastian Stan, Matt Damon, director Ridley Scott, and actress Chen Shu meet with Chinese scientists and thousands of students at Tsinghua University to promote "The Martian" in Beijing on Nov. 21, 2015. [Photo / China.org.cn] |
Director Ridley Scott, actors Matt Damon, Sebastian Stan and Chinese actress Chen Shu appeared on the stage at the Auditorium of Tsinghua University to meet thousands of cheering students who came from eight universities in Beijing, and four Chinese scientists including Jia Yang, deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-3 lunar probe, who led a team to develop China's first moon rover, the Yutu, or Jade Rabbit.
Jia was very curious about where the crew shot the scenes of Mars for the film. Scott said the scenes were shot in Jordan’s Wadi Rum where a spectacular desert lies. He told the scientist that they digitally edited it in post-production to paint everything red and that the most challenging thing was how to deal with detailing the Martian sky, which has a very thin atmosphere. They added visual effects simulating wind and dust to the sky based on their imagination, "if you’ll forgive me, Martian expert," Scott said.
Matt Damon, who played the lost-on-Mars astronaut Mark Watney in the film, said to Chinese botanist Dr. Gu Yourong that he really learned how to grow potatoes for the movie. The potato is the crucial element of the movie, as the astronaut had only the plant as his food to survive. Many funny moments in the film are also based around the potato.
"Acting is a funny career because we learn these kinds of very bizarre skills," Damon laughed, "it's nice to be with a real botanist. To play a botanist, basically, all I learned is how to grow potatoes, but this is only a narrow aspect of what botanists do."
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