AUGUST 2019 InSTYLE 161Do you read the comments? I do, and I do
respond, but I don’t really think I’m all that
clever. [laughs] n
Making Space
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 138
talking on Day 1 about what it’s going to be
like [in space]. Holy cow, fast-forward a cou-
ple of years and I’m opening a hatch for all
the astronauts to come through. Knowing
what they ’re about to experience and getting
to share that with them—it’s awesome.
What have you learned from each other?
CHRISTINA KOCH: Anne taught me the
value of leadership. It ’s different when you
come from a science and engineering back-
ground [as opposed to the military]. We
don’t have the same hierarchy. And it’s quite
fitting because Anne is now the lead of the
U.S. side of the space station. AM: Christina
is someone who challenges me to be better.
She’s one of the most technically proficient
people I’ve ever met. I call her “the Mac-
Gy ver” because she can fix anything with
any tool you hand her.
What is your day-to-day like? CK: We do
maintenance around the station or conduct
science experiments like someone in a labo-
ratory might do. I was lucky enough to be the
official gardener [for one experiment], learn-
ing about growing food in space so that,
hopefully, one day astronauts can grow their
own food on long missions. I kept the little
guys alive long enough to harvest them, and
we had a nice dinner together as a crew to cel-
ebrate. Obviously, preparing for space walks
can be very exciting. One neat thing about
the space station program right now is that
since we have so few astronauts aboard—
currently six—each of us has to be qualified
to do everything.
What do you do in your downtime? AM:
There isn’t a lot of that since we work 12-hour
days [five days a week]. But we do movie
nights in a little theater that we set up. And by
far everyone’s favorite thing to do is look back
at earth. It’s hard to register that you’re see-
ing it with your bare eyes.
How do you stay connected to the
ground? AM: We have a great NASA support
team that uplinks the nightly news. And if we
have favorite TV shows or movies or sporting
events, they can uplink those too. We also
have access to the Internet just like we would
on the ground. We have email. And we video-
conference with our families about once a
week. We feel pretty connected up here.
You didn’t get to do the space walk to-
gether as planned, but you did separate
walks. Can you describe the experience?
AM: Surreal. You’re putting yourself in an en-
vironment that humans were never designed
to operate in and relying on sophisticated
equipment just to keep yourself alive. Right
before I went out I stared down, and all I
could see were my visor and earth. I couldn’t
see any of the space station. I couldn’t see any
handrails. I just watched the earth go by. You
fall back on your training and say, “OK, well, if
the handrail is supposed to be here, I hope
that’s where it is!” You just do it. And then, at
the end of the day, you look back and it’s hard
to comprehend what you just did. CK: It ’s a
consolidation of everything you’ve learned
up to that point in your life, technically and
mentally. It’s your moment—both for the
teams on the ground who trained you, who
are counting on you, and for yourself.
What has been the most frustrating part
about living in zero gravity? AM: It ’s a c t u-
ally awesome. Everything is better when
you’re floating. Every task you do is fun. You
get up in the morning, get coffee, look
around, and think, “Wow, I’m floating!” The
most surprising thing is how normal it feels
after a little while. It’s amazing how quickly
the human body adapts. The most frustrat-
ing part is how quickly you can lose some-
thing. Things could be gone for days. [laughs]
What do you think is the toughest part
about being an astronaut right now? CK:
In some ways I feel like the toughest parts
are behind us. In the last five years of our
training, we underwent an entire transfor-
mation. I learned how to pilot high-speed
aircrafts. We all learned how to do space
walks, how to operate the robotic arm, and
how to speak Russian [to communicate with
the Russian cosmonauts on the station]. Get-
ting through that felt like an uphill battle,
and now we’re putting it all to use.
Is this the general uniform you wear every
day? Or do you get to switch it up? AM: Up
in space we don’t have a huge wardrobe. What
you see is pretty typical of what we wear. It’s
functional and somewhat professional. We
have Velcro on our cargo pants to carry things
around because you need your hands to walk
with. We end up sticking to things a lot. But,
yes, this is the fashion. We call it “space high
fashion.” [laughs]
Have you thought about what you want to
do next? CK: I want to stay with NASA for
many years. I love this organization, and I
feel like I’m just getting started. I also want to
begin a nonprofit down the road. It intimi-
dates me, but I’m always looking for things
that feel like they ’re just outside my reach.
AM: This is an amazing time to be an astro-
naut. We’re flying two new commercial vehi-
cles over the next couple years. NASA just
announced its goal of putting boots on the
moon in the next five years. And eventually
I’d like to give back too. I think I’ve just de-
cided I’m going to go work for Christina’s
nonprofit! [laughs]
Do you have advice for young women
looking to get into science? CK: Don’t live
your life according to a checklist of what you
should do to achieve X, Y, or Z. Follow the
path you love. Do what scares you. When you
do achieve those things, it will have the most
impact for you personally and for the world
around you. And support people. I thinkwhen we pay attention to elevating everyone,
the outcome is far better than it could ever be
if we were all doing it on our own. nThe Broads
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 149
projects, like Escape at Dannemora. I love
that Ben Stiller directed it. I recently
watched Flirting with Disaster, which you
also did with Ben. The relationship you have
with him is so great. I really admire your
openness to playing that role [of Tilly, an
adulteress and prison tailor] in Dannemora.
PA : I was excited to play a woman who is un-
apologetically sexual, who doesn’t look like
the typical movie version of that woman. It
was exciting to be able to explore that and the
idea that everyone wants love and to feel alive.
PH: And what about The Act? You play Dee
Dee, a mother suffering from Munchausen
syndrome by proxy who makes her daughter
think she is really sick when she isn’t. How
did you dive into that role?
PA : Dee Dee is another person who’s very
complicated and not “likable,” but as an ac-
tor, it’s fun to move past that and work on
seeing these characters as full human be-
ings. But, yeah, this illness is really painful
and a difficult thing to observe. Mental ill-
ness in America is so understudied. Her love
was destructive and goes against most of our
instincts as moms.
PH: It seems like films and TV shows are
opening up for more women of all ages. Like
Big Little Lies—I mean, I’m not in Holly-
wood, but to me it seems like there’s some se-
riously powerful shit going down right now.
PA : There are a lot of incredible actresses do-
ing great work and new networks willing to
let women have these good vehicles. Obvi-
ously, we need a lot more roles for women of
color because we’re still behind in that re-
spect, but it’s starting to catch up—a little
more in television than in film. When I grew
up, you really felt like you’d be forced into re-
tirement by 50. But now I’m getting some of
the best parts of my life.
PH: Yeah, that was the whole thing in mod-
eling too. Your career was supposedly over
after 22! But now work for older women is
starting to happen.
PA : How did it feel going back to the runway
in February? [Hansen closed Michael Kors’s
fall 2019 show.]
PH: That was a great moment with Michael.
He’s so sweet. It was such an honor to walk
his show, and of course the theme was Stu-
dio 54, which was a lot of fun.
PA : Studio 54 is where you met Keith, right?
PH: Yeah. Isn’t that funny? I think he was
hiding from John Belushi and Anita Ek-
berg. Keith didn’t really go to Studio 54, but
he did that night. It was meant to be.
PA : Absolutely! Did you like walking the
runway when you were younger?
PH: No, in the ’70s and ’80s it was a separate