The inspiring true story of NASA astronaut José Hernández has made its way to Hollywood.
A biographical film (or biopic) about José Hernández's journey of going from migrant farm worker to STS-128 mission specialist on space shuttle Discovery is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Directed and co-written by critically acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Alejandra Márquez Abella and starring Michael Peña, "A Million Miles Away" follows Hernández as he went from working the fields with his family to pursuing his dream of flying into space.
"T-minus 1 day for the movie, based on my life, AMillionMilesAway to be released on Prime Video to coincide with HispanicHeritageMonth! Hope you see & review it!" Hernández wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) on the eve of the film's Sept. 15 release.
Abella and fellow screenwriters Bettina Gilois and Hernán Jiménez, keep things moving at a brisk, chipper pace, starting with José’s peripatetic childhood helping his parents, Salvador (Julio César Cedillo) and Julia (Verónica Falcón), from Michoacán, on produce farms in California’s Central valley. In different hands, the scenes of José’s youth as a farm worker – 4.15am wake-up to the radio in the dark, cut and bruised hands, a quick succession of indistinguishable, cold American schools – could be played for pity or milked for trauma. But Abella frames these scenes through young José’s (an adorable Juan Pablo Monterrubio) curiosity and naivety. A roving camera brings us into the field, more playful than depressing; an opportunity for scolding turns into a motivational speech. (The film switches often between Spanish and English, particularly in the first third.) The hardship is a fact of life, as is the whirlwind of José’s memories and his youthful wonder at the stars.
Plus, she says, “When you think about an astronaut, you never think that he could be like your uncle.” The filmmakers had found in Peña an actor who “looks like you, talks like you, or has just a familiar vibe.”
Hernández agrees there’s an everyday relatability to the Ant-Man star. “I'm normal-looking,” he jokes. “You don't want an Antonio Banderas because people won't have empathy with that person!”
“You get the audience to engage and pull for the underdog,” he says. “If [an actor is] normal-looking like me, then they're going to pull for him, right?”
"You see how thin our atmosphere is, and you see how delicately balanced it is that I tell you, I became an instant environmentalist," he said.
"You don't have to be someone else," said Abella. "You don't have to look like someone else. You can be yourself. Whatever you do, doesn't matter the job that you do. There's honor and there's everything you need to turn that machinery in whatever what you want to become."
"A Million Miles Away" is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.
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