Fun facts about the making of Biosphere (2022) that I learned from listening to interviews:
-Mark Duplass came up with the initial idea for a script where the last two guys on Earth are stuck in a biodome arguing about Super Mario Bros, and then he ran into a wall with it so he brought it to Mel Eslyn who filled in the rest, did the scientific research, and offered a queer female perspective. They also got input from Zackary Drucker who provided a trans woman’s perspective, as well as Sterling K. Brown’s perspective on the homophobia he encountered in his own community growing up as a Black man in the south (source 1 2 3)
-Mark and Mel wanted Sterling for the film after seeing a videos of him dancing goofily and being goofy in interviews. Mark said he fell in love with the idea of Sterling playing Ray before they had even reached out to him. They sent him the script asking if he wanted to be a part of it, expecting not to hear back for several months, but he read it overnight and called the next morning while driving saying he wanted in (source 1 2)
-it was filmed over a period of 3 weeks (source)
-the 30lb weights Ray uses for bicep curls before [redacted] are real and from Mark’s garage, and they had dust on them from not being used (source)
-there were a lot of LGBTQ crew on set and their appreciation for the story and how much it would mean to the LGBTQ community really bolstered Sterling during the process of making the film (source)
-Sterling found that he went on a similar journey in preparing for the role as Ray does in the film (source)
-Sterling thinks Mark’s junk looks very normal (source)
-Mark: “the key ingredient to this movie is being able to giggle warmly at these gentlemen’s discomfort as they try to deconstruct who they have been and try to grow and they mess up and see if they can survive, both literally and metaphorically. […] and I hope that anyone can see a little bit of themselves as our society is bringing us so many challenges about who we are and who we want to be and is it okay to admit that we have these blind spots at times. I hope that this is a warm and non-castigating way for people to see some things in themselves and get a different lens on it without feeling like theyre being called out.” (source)
