Featured stories
Ad
Ad
Get theMagazine
Get your free copy of MILITARY FAMILIES MAGAZINE every month. Read the latest issue
Get theNewsletter
Signup to get the latest stories, giveaways + more
Home
![Looking for your next 📺binge?
A new @disneyplus series is a throwback to an aspirational time in U.S. history that proved ordinary humans can achieve extraordinary feats.
“The Right Stuff” takes viewers back to America’s space race against the Soviet Union, with the U.S. placing its hopes on the capabilities of seven astronauts — all military test pilots. Two men at the center of the Mercury Seven are Maj. John Glenn (played by Patrick J. Adams), a revered Marine test pilot and committed family man, and Lt. Cmdr. Alan Shepard (played by Jake McDorman), one of the best test pilots in Navy history, according to a press release 🚀
McDorman and his fellow cast members had a wealth of research to lean on for the pre-production process, he says, but Alan Shepard was also a private man — he was among the astronauts that didn’t write his own book. The other component of McDorman’s preparation for the role entailed in-person experiences.
“As far as the physical training part of it [the role], none of us did as much as we wished we could have — there was probably an astronaut bucket list that we all have,” he said. “We didn’t get to do the most exciting parts of astronaut training physically but educationally, by far, we did. We shot in Coco Beach, we shot in Florida where all of this stuff happened. We got to meet real astronauts at Kennedy Space Center and tour the entire facility; we got invited to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing … and just kind of soak in this environment firsthand before we started.”
𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐝. [𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐎] #NASA #DisneyPlus #MercurySeven #astronauts #militarytestpilots #Navy #Marines](https://militaryfamilies.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
