Prime Video has an array of movies, and it’s adding writer-director Liz W. Garcia’s Space Cadet to its repertoire. Starring Emma Roberts as Rex, a woman who dreams of going to space and applies to a NASA program to get there, Gabrielle Union, and The Umbrella Academy actor Tom Hopper, Space Cadet is one of the best streaming comedies out this year. The film is all about empowerment and following one’s dream regardless of age, experience, or the obstacles standing in one’s way.

Garcia brings a sense of charm to Space Cadet, which features a great supporting cast that includes Plan B’s Kuhoo Verma and Poppy Liu. Rex, who’s always dreamed of going to space, hasn’t had the life she always planned on. She dropped out of college to take care of her sick mother, working as a bartender in Florida ever since while creating new inventions on the side. She’s thrilled to be accepted into the astronaut candidate program at NASA. To stay, however, she has to prove that she’s more than capable of being an astronaut.

Screen Rant sat down with Garcia to discuss the comedies that influenced Space Cadet, what Roberts brought to the role of Rex, Hopper’s comedic timing, and writing Princess Diaries 3.

Liz W. Garcia On Space Cadet’s Inspirations & Research Required To Bring It To The Screen

Screen Rant: What were some of the old-school movies that inspired this one? It feels very 90s/early 2000s.

Liz Garcia: Yeah, definitely Legally Blonde was a formula that I admired a lot, and wanted to do something similar with this movie where you’re having a great time and you’re laughing, and there are elements that are really silly, but underneath there was this empowerment story. And also Private Benjamin with Goldie Hawn, which was probably Private Benjamin led to Legally Blonde, led to this. And then I think the 80s comedies that I grew up on, even Ghostbusters, these movies that just maybe felt a little bit more like ensemble silliness, but good-hearted, all that.

This movie deals a lot with space, and you mentioned you’re the daughter of a scientist. How much more research did you have to do to get into the brains of the everyday NASA stuff?

Liz Garcia: I had to do so much research. I knew absolutely nothing about what went on at NASA to train these people, what they had to go through, and also what they were learning about. And just to be able to get in the voice of, to write the lines that a professor might say, I really had to teach myself. I spent a lot of time on the internet learning about physics.

The character of Rex is so charming and so confident and she has a can-do attitude. Were there any real-life inspiration that you drew from when you sat down to write her?

Liz Garcia: Well, I think I was trying to write someone who was the last person you would expect in this environment. So if the environment is full of serious people who’ve really had all their ducks in a row for most of their lives. And it was like, well, what about someone who has skills that could really help, but they didn’t come through higher education, she’s not pretentious, she’s maybe not even outwardly impressive? So starting there.

Impressive to some of us, but I was like, yeah, who’s the girl who’s going to not worry about impressing people, but actually goes into it thinking, “Well, we’re all going to support each other. I’m a supportive person. Aren’t we all going to support each other?” And working with that guileless person who’s got this big dream. I like people like that, I love characters like that, who are just chasing something in spite of the fact that everyone else thinks they’re foolish to do it.

How Emma Roberts’ “Incredible Sense Of Humor” Contributed To Space Cadet

When Emma Roberts came into the role, did she inform the character in any way that wasn’t necessarily on the page?

Liz Garcia: I think she just saw what was on the page and really understood what it was and was such a good match for it. And she brought so much, it’s like the character was all these things on the page, was the Florida girl, was kind, was this, was that. But it’s nothing without Emma’s… incredible sense of humor, and her physicality, which is also so funny, and she brought all these great moves to it. She brought it to life.

I really love the film’s message about being able to dream big and do what you want despite being in a place in life where you might have missed your shot or not gone to school for it. Is there anything in your life that you’re still dreaming toward?

Liz Garcia: I’m honestly living my dream. Making movies is my dream. I’m living it. But I am very, very empathetic when it comes to people thinking, “It’s too late for me.” You hear that from people where it’s definitely not too late for them. She’s only 28 and thinks it’s too late for her, and so I really love the idea of encouraging people to not just settle when they don’t feel comfortable in their lives, but to reconnect to whatever it was that they dared to dream of when they were younger.

What about space made you attracted to want to write the story?

Liz Garcia: Well, when I researched this astronaut candidate stage at NASA, it seemed like a great world for a company because the people who make it to that camp, that training, are so intense and they’re so extreme. But then also this idea of wanting to go to space, it’s a world I’m really interested in, yes, but it’s also this metaphor, right? It’s like that’s a dream a lot of us have as kids, and it’s something that seems that could stand in for any dream that feels too big. Any dream where you could question, “Am I really worthy? Can I really do it?” I think that’s part of what drew me too is there’s this baked in metaphor of, “I’m shooting for the moon.”

The cast is amazing. They had great chemistry together. As a director, did you do anything to inform how they would react to each other onscreen?

Liz Garcia: Well, we had a good time. We all had a good time on and off set, and that really helped, and we went out and sang karaoke and things like that. But also, I think just being in those matching jumpsuits together and doing those big scenes together made these guys all bond so, so nicely, and they were also respectful of each other’s talent and found each other hilarious. It was really sweet. I was lucky that they created their own relationships too.

I saw that Emma Roberts was already pitching you an idea for an adventure film. Can you talk a little bit about that, or what kind of project would you want to do with her in the future?

Liz Garcia: Well, we’ve talked about doing something that is, yes, a romantic comedy, but heavy on the comedy, because we had so much fun doing that here, and she’s obviously huge in the romantic comedy space, and that is a space that I’m very interested in too. I love being funny, but I also really love writing romance, and she’s so charming and beautiful.

In terms of the romance aspect, was there anything that didn’t necessarily make the film?

Liz Garcia: I don’t think so. I think they kiss in the end. No, I think we put everything in there. And the romance was always meant to be an accent on her main story. And her main story would be about having the people at NASA recognize how talented she was and feeling good about realizing her dream, and that adjacent to that would be finding this man who really suits her for how brilliant she is and is enchanted by him.

I think Tom Hopper is such a funny actor. Great comedic timing.

Liz Garcia: He’s so funny. And physically, he’s so hilarious. Such a handsome, dashing, charming, smart dude. I was like, “You are Cary Grant. You are Cary Grant. I can’t believe this.” He’s so great.

You wrote a film that was very original and very charming and very funny in a landscape where there are a lot of adaptations of comics, of books, of other previous shows and things like that, so coming up with something like that is incredible. Can you talk to me a little bit about that process, what the industry is looking for, and how you got this made?

Liz Garcia: Yeah. Well, it’s getting easier to be a female-identifying director. But what I’ve found is I have to create my own chances. I have to create my own opportunities, and specifically, what that means is writing the material that I’m going to direct. I feel like that’s the way for me to get movies made. I’m not a dude whose phone is ringing off the hook, direct this for this huge company, whatever. So I’ve come to rely on, and also love, directing my own material.

So that’s how this came about, is that I’d made two small dramas, and I was like, “I want to write a comedy, and I want to do a big comedy, and I want it to be sort of like a throwback to classic Hollywood in some ways.” And then I came across this news item about NASA and female astronaut candidates, and I was like, “This is what I want to do.” So I went and pitched it and here we are.

Liz Garcia Talks Princess Diaries 3 & Why Its Legacy Endures

I hear you were tapped to write Princess Diaries 3, is that correct?

Liz Garcia: I did write Princess Diaries 3 a few years ago. I hope that they’re making a movie. I don’t even care if it’s my draft. Anne Hathaway is so amazing, I love her so much. She’s so smart, and I want to see more of her.

What about that franchise do you think endures? Because it’s very much a Space Cadet of its time, in a way.

Liz Garcia: I know. I think she’s just so real and so charming, and you will go anywhere with Annie. She brought reality to a heightened premise, and I think that idea of, “I’m really awkward and I’m insecure, but I am my own person and I’m going to bring that specificity into maybe a leadership role and something that’s glamorous.”

About Space Cadet

Tiffany “Rex” Simpson (Emma Roberts) has always dreamed of going to space, and with a “doctored” application she gets into NASA’s ultra-competitive astronaut training program. In over her head, can this Florida girl get through training and into the cosmos before she blows her cover?

Check out our other interviews with:

• Tom Hopper
• Emma Roberts & Poppy Liu

Space Cadet will be available to stream on Prime Video on July 4.