The 'Gravity' of Ron Livingston

The 'Office Space' star talks to MSN TV about his new summertime sci-fi soap, 'Defying Gravity'

Ron Livingston has been a lot of things over the years. He's played a World War II captain ("Band of Brothers"), a disgruntled employee ("Office Space") and a romantic lead ("Sex and the City"). But his latest role, in ABC's "Defying Gravity," takes him to new heights, literally. As Maddux Donner, Livingston is one of eight astronauts on a six-year mission to explore several planets in our solar system. But the series isn't some straight-forward sci-fi saga. With the show's creators having worked on "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy," it's a sci-fi space opera with love triangles, complicated back stories and a healthy dose of mystery. We caught up with the star to talk about the show, interstellar travel and his memories of making "Swingers."

MSN TV: Can you talk a bit about the show's various genres? The press keeps describing it as "Grey's Anatomy" in space. Is that accurate?

Ron Livingston: The idea was to sort of do a show that bridges sci-fi, sci-fact and a relationship drama. I think it's maybe a little bit like "The Right Stuff" with "Grey's Anatomy" and a little bit of "Lost" thrown in there.

Photos: Ron Livingston

Speaking of "The Right Stuff," did you go back and look at any favorite space films or sci-fi flicks to prepare for the mythology?

Definitely. I think we draw a lot of the mythology from NASA history, and actually from NASA's present, so I did actually go back to "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13." But as much as I went to the movies, there are a lot of excellent documentaries about the history of the space program and where we are right now. We're at the shuttle crews and the International Space Station. There are currently a lot of missions working together in zero gravity environments. The thing that's mainly different about the mission in our story is that we're going to the planets. We're taking it to Venus. We're taking it to Mercury. We're taking it to Mars, which means that it's a six-year mission, which means that the men and women aboard this ship see a lot of each other.

Did you actually have a chance to go to NASA and sit at mission control?

I took a trip down to Florida to the Kennedy Space Center for one of the shuttle launches and that was an amazing experience. That's something that I'd always wanted to do. One of the first things I did when I got on the show is, I thought, "Maybe I can put a couple of connections together and get down there." And I did and I was really glad I did.

So we learn that in 2042 abortions are illegal. What else can you tell us about the future as depicted in "Defying Gravity"?

The future, apart from a couple of details like that, is very similar to today. The idea is that we wanted to see a world that was right around the corner. As much as it is the future, it's really closer to the near present. The only reason it really has to be in the future is because we went to the experts and said, "Well if we want to do a mission to the planets, given the technology that we would need and where we are right now, if we started today working on this, how soon could we do it?" And they said we could do it by 2040 to 2050, so we said, "OK, that's when it's set." But the costume designer really did her homework with regard to what the space suits might look like. She looked at a couple of MIT designs, et cetera. But she also said, we probably won't be in Mylar jumpsuits by then. Cotton's been around for a couple thousand years. Blue jeans have been around for a couple hundred years and they're probably going to be around by the time our kids grow up today. So that's what most people wear.

Will we get to see any of the planets during the first season?

We definitely will. The first season is comprised of the mission to Venus so we take it from the time of the launch to the arrival on Venus. And it's a good ride. It really is pretty thrilling.

What can you tell us about some of the mysterious elements of the show?

Most of the characters are under the impression that this is a standard NASA-type discovery mission. What becomes clear pretty quickly (and some of the characters know about it from the beginning) is that there's sort of an ulterior motive to this mission that's top secret that only a few people know about. And that's what's gradually uncovered. It's definitely tied to something that turns up in one of the storage pods on the ship. And without spoiling it too much, it's a device that allows us to ask some bigger questions week in and week out.

You've played a couple of fairly iconic characters. To thirty-something women you're the guy from "Sex and the City." To slackers you're the guy from "Office Space." And to hipsters you're the guy from "Swingers." When someone approaches you out in public, can you always tell which film they're going to ask about?

Not really. I used to be able to tell pretty well but it's bled over so much now. I'll get girls that I definitely thought would have been "Sex and the City" fans asking about "Band of Brothers," or I'll get 70-year-old guys who I think are World War II buffs and they want to know about "Office Space." So it's a little more mixed up these days than you would think.

"Swingers" is one of my personal favorites. What are your memories of making that film?

It's one of my favorites, too. The craziest thing about that movie is that, while we were making it, I don't know that we ever thought anybody was going to see it. I remember thinking at the time, "Man, if anybody in the world should be a movie star it's probably these two guys here, Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn." But I never thought the rest of the world would be bright enough to catch on to that. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were.

Did you guys have as much fun behind the scenes as you appear to be having on-screen?

Probably more. I've got some pretty fond memories. I watch that movie now and it's a little bit like watching home movies. We had a great time. In fact I wasn't even in any of the Vegas stuff and I went to hang out.

"Defying Gravity" premieres Aug. 2 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.