Adam Irigoyen Previews ‘Away’ and Explains What Makes the Series a Relatable Family Drama [Exclusive Interview]

The much anticipated Netflix original series Away premieres this week, and it promises to be quite the emotional journey. Created by Andrew Hinderaker, the series is executive produced by showrunner Jessica Goldberg, Jason Katims, Matt Reeves, Andrew Hinderaker, Edward Zwick, Hilary Swank, Adam Kassan, and Jeni Mulein.

Away follows American astronaut Emma Green (Hilary Swank) as she prepares to lead an international crew on the first mission to Mars. Doing so means leaving behind her husband Matt (Josh Charles) and teenage daughter Alexis (Talitha Bateman) when they need her the most. 

While Emma is gone, Alexis makes an important connection — a boy at her school named Isaac Rodriguez, played by Adam Irigoyen. 

I recently had the chance to chat with Irijoyen about his role on Away and what makes the new series so unique. He also reflected a bit on his time filming the popular series, The Last Ship.

From the content of the series to the talent working on the series, Irigoyen had plenty of reasons to be excited about his role on Away. “As soon as I got the opportunity to be a part of something like this, I jumped at it,” Irigoyen said. 

Away isn’t just a series about traveling to outer space. Irigoyen described the series as having a deeper focus, and one that will be relatable and relevant.

“It’s got a lot of elements that I think that people will appreciate. It’s a sci-fi show, but at its core, it’s really this family drama that I think people are really going to relate to, especially right now,” he explained.

After all, much of this story is about being separated from loved ones.

“Obviously, it wasn’t our intention to write about this kind of separation from loved ones that pretty much everyone is facing right now, but sometimes it happens like that, and art imitates life,” Irigoyen said.  

Something else that sets Away apart is the representation. “Space stories are always going to be something that people gravitate towards. No pun intended. But we all have that wonderment — what’s out there and the final frontier and all that. I think the difference with this show is it’s in a world where the world governments have their act together enough to send these five astronauts in the space,” Irigoyen explained.

“It’s a representation of the entire world. You have an astronaut from the US, from India, from the UK, from China, from Russia. There’s so much representation. I’m Hispanic, so you have that representation as well. It’s a very inclusive show,” he continued. “You get to know these characters really well. I think the difference between a show like this and these other mission to Mars shows or movies is that over the course of these ten episodes, you really start to care for these characters in a way where this mission kind of means something to you.”

Irigoyen also gave a few hints about what we can expect from his character, Isaac, and the relationship he develops with Emma and Matt’s daughter, Alexis.

“Alexis meets him fairly quickly after her mom goes off on this three-year journey,” he stated. “You really start to think he might be this bad boy, whatever the case might be, but as you get to know him, you realize that he’s just a sweet, genuine kid who really cares for Alexis and is trying to help her cope with these outstanding circumstances that would be difficult for anybody, let alone a high school kid.”

“He notices her, and obviously, the entire school knows who Alexis is, and who her mom is, and what she’s going through, but he’s, I think, the only person who really tries to connect with her and not this idea of her. I think that’s what’s so special about it.”

Isaac has his own backstory that becomes important, and he also has a pretty fun hobby — riding dirt bikes. For Irigoyen, that was something new. 

“I had never ridden a dirt bike before. When you see me riding the dirt bike, for the most part, it’s people that are much better at things like that.”

There was one moment, however, that he was able to be on the bike. “It was me and Talitha [Bateman], and we were both on the dirt bike, and we were popping wheelies and all that stuff. That was because they hooked us up to a rig so that we were completely safe and fine and all that. It looks great. I mean, even on set that day, it looked like I was actually riding the thing.”

Even though most of the scenes Irigoyen filmed were on location in Vancouver, he did have the chance to visit the sound stage a few times.

“One of the days that I was there, I was actually able to see the set and the spaceship and all that stuff. That was super impressive,” he remembered. “The wire work that they had to go through and all that just to create this believability of a suspension and zero-G is impressive in and of itself. Obviously, in a show like this, the job of the set designer is profoundly important in creating that believability, not only for the audience but for the actors as well, to be put in this world and to understand where everything would be and how everything would operate.”

Of course, I also had to ask Irigoyen about his experience working on the drama series The Last Ship, which aired its series finale in 2018. 

“That show was awesome,” Irigoyen said. “Before that show, I had really only done children’s programming. I had done some stuff here and there, some guest spots, but nothing to the extent of The Last Ship.”

“It was my first foray into the adult world of acting and being on a set by myself, and to have my first experience be around so many talented professionals — Adam Baldwin, Eric Dane, Maximiliano Hernandez, Charles Parnell. It’s a complete blessing. The education that I was able to take away from that show, I’ve taken with me to every show after.”

“That show is another one where the set design was just as equally important to telling the story,” he continued, describing the elaborate set of the naval destroyer used to film. “That set was so impressive to me.”

In addition to Away, you’ll also be able to catch Irigoyen in the upcoming film, Centurion XII.

“That movie is centered around the world of Mexican horse dancing, and it follows the story of the mentor Ellissia and her journey in this world. She’s trying to rise to stardom, and it’s quickly put to a pause, let’s say, because of a diagnosis of a rare form of leukemia that she encounters. I play Francisco, who is her rival in this competitive world. It’s fun because I play the antagonist, and I have sort of this floaty competitor vibe, even though it might not be totally reciprocated, but fun nonetheless. That was another great project. Honestly, I had a time in my life doing that movie.”

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Don’t miss Adam Irigoyen on Away, which premieres Friday, September 4th on Netflix.  

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