"Now that I've got you out of the spaceport, let's talk about myself," says Brad Pitt, grinning. He sits at NASA headquarters in Washington and speaks by video call to Nick Hague, an American astronaut. This is located on the International Space Station - 400 kilometers from Earth.
Pitt plays NASA engineer Roy McBride, who travels to Neptune to find the trigger for electromagnetic storms that threaten Earth, in the new movie "Ad Astra".
The team at the International Space Station has already seen the science fiction thriller. Pitt's call is part of a promotional tour. The film has apparently pleased Hague: "The presentation and the environment in the film looked like the ones around here."
During the conversation, Hague floats in a messy looking room with many colorful cables hanging from the ceiling. Hague now lives and works aboard the space station for more than 180 days.
NASA Youtube channel: Brad Pitt talks to astronaut Nick Hague
"How do you manage to stay in one place all the time, do you have a foothold for the foot?" Pitt asks as Hague makes a forward roll in the air and hangs headfirst. "Yes, there are railings almost everywhere and I can pinch my foot underneath," says Hague. "The cornea under my feet is gone because I'm not running, but now I have corneas around my big toe because I'm stuck with it all the time."
At the space station, they mainly carry out scientific experiments and do maintenance work on the station, says the 43-year-old astronaut. Hague has already been involved in three spacewalks.
"How does a space walk feel?" Asks Pitt, looking expectantly into the camera. "The first thing you see is the Earth - 250 miles below you, with the helmet giving you a nearly 180-degree panoramic view," says Hague. "You forget very quickly that there is something between you and the vacuum of space." Feel this deep admiration and appreciation for how big the universe is.
Who was more credible than Astronaut - Clooney or Pitt?
"Nick, last question, for which I need your expert judgment," says Pitt at the end of the 20-minute conversation. "Who was more credible - Clooney or Pitt?" There is laughter in the background. George Clooney played the veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski in the space movie Gravity.
Hague points his finger at the camera and says, "Of course you!"
