Camryn Manheim revealed what it’s like to work with one of the biggest, and most beautiful movie stars on the planet, “It’s very difficult working with her.” the actress said. But more on that in a minute.
Halle Berry Stars in Extant, premiering tonight on CBS, about Molly Woods, a female astronaut who has been on a 13-month solo space mission. Upon her return to Earth, she learns she is pregnant. “So that begins the antics and the chaos and all hell breaks looks from there, says Manheim, who plays Wood’s physician and close friend Sam Barton.
So back to Manheim and her earlier eyebrow raising comment. The lovely brunette with the smoky laugh elaborated about it being hard to work with Berry. “It is very difficult working with her because when I am talking to her, all I can think about is, ‘Oh my God, she has perfect skin!’ And I hope they’re giving me 3 times the amount of light because it’s just not fair how beautiful she is.”
On the show, Woods and Barton both work for The ISCA, a futuristic space exploration administration. As females in this all-boys club, their friendship grew closer as they moved up the ranks, so now they are more than a physician and the astronaut she treats, they are each other’s confidantes. And the discovery of Wood’s pregnancy is especially troubling for physician Barton. “She [Woods] wants to keep it a secret, I can’t keep it a secret. I’m asked to betray her. Whether I do or not, I can’t say…” says Manheim, “but we start to find out who’s running the whole operation and it’s very disturbing.”
It’s amazing how many “But I can’t tell you’s” I have heard while covering Extant. To very badly paraphrase Winston Churchill, “Never in the field of television has so little been said by so many.” So many mysteries! So many secrets! So many questions!
I am eagerly anticipating tonight’s premiere of Extant. I am excited to finally get some of my questions answered (but I’m sure most of my questions will have to wait for future episodes,) but I’m excited to see Halle Berry in Zero-G, which she described as, “a very freeing experience.”
Zero-G flights weren’t part of the show’s original script, but show executive producer Steven Spielberg encouraged that they up the shows production value and Berry told myself and a group of journalists, “What surprised me was that when you go upside down, there’s no gravity, so you have no sense of being upside down,” the actress says. “You feel exactly the same when you are upside down as when you are right-side up.
“I can really understand why astronauts love to go up there and love to live in that medium and experience. It’s as close to being a bird and having that kind of freedom I think one can ever get.”
And the end of the day, Manheim says zero gravity shots and the fantasy of space travel aside, the show is relatable. “It’s a little bit of sci-fi, a little bit of thriller. It’s a thriller-adventure. But truthfully, it’s a drama, a human drama about ordinary people up against extraordinary circumstances.”
But then she adds with her trademark laugh, “It could happen to you. I mean if you were the most beautiful woman in the world who is now an astronaut in space, it could happen to you!”
Check out this pulse-pounding Extant preview!
Halle Berry in space image © CBS 2014 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Camryn Manheim image © Cliff Lipson/CBS 2014 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved
