For All Mankind Interview: Cynthy Wu & Coral Peña On Their Characters' Growth In Season 4 (2024)

Warning: Spoilers from For All Mankind season 4, episode 6!

Summary

  • In season 4, the focus of the space program in For All Mankind is capturing and mining valuable asteroids.
  • Kelly and Aleida's characters have grown and developed over the eight-year time jump.
  • Emotional reunions between Kelly and her father Ed, and Aleida and her mentor Margo, are central to their storylines this season.

For All Mankind season 4 jumps right into the new millennium with an eight-year time jump since season 3. Happy Valley has rapidly expanded its footprint on Mars by turning former foes into partners. The year is now 2003 and the focus of the space program is to capture and mine extremely valuable, mineral-rich asteroids. However, simmering tensions between the residents of the now-sprawling international base threaten to undo everything they are working towards.

Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu) and Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña) have both spent these eight years doing a lot of growing up. They have been, more or less, left to their own devices as they have been separated from their parents and mentors. For All Mankind season 4 is currently streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes released each Friday, through January 12th, 2024.

Screen Rant spoke with Cynthy Wu and Coral Peña about the fourth season of For All Mankind. They both discuss what it is like to transform into older versions of themselves when the series does a time jump between seasons. Cynthy and Coral also talk about how their characters, Kelly and Alieda, have grown and developed in season 4.

Cynthy Wu & Coral Peña Talk For All Mankind Season 4

Screen Rant: What is the process like for you when they age you up?

Coral Peña: We're lucky.

Cynthy Wu: We didn't have heavy prosthetic work as some of the other folks, like Joel and Wrenn do, this season. We had a little light aging. But it didn't feel like such a massive jump. I think it was more about character journey for us this season, rather than the physical changing.

Coral Peña: There's this fun thing that I learned about, called stretch and stipple. Have you heard of this? It's almost like a light latex paint, right? So they stretch your skin and then they put it on, and then they put a blow dryer on and they air it out. Then when they let go, you're supposed to have all these wrinkles. I did not have all these wrinkles. I don't know, I looked at myself, but I will say this, and this is where I justified all my mom at 42, which is the age that Aleida is this season, everyone thought my mom was my sister in high school. So, I think it's accurate. Actually, I think it's accurate aging. Since you probably had the same thing. We have good genes.

Cynthy Wu: Yes, we did a lot of the stretch and stipple. It's funny, in the makeup chair, we could totally see all the wrinkles and the lines. And sometimes when you're standing under a certain light or a certain angle, you can't. It doesn't all pick up. But it didn't get in the way for us. We still felt like we were playing to Kelly and Aleida's ages this season. And to Coral's point, I think our families aged very well.

Screen Rant: You both have some pretty emotional reunions this season. Kelly and her father, Ed, and Aleida and her mentor, Margo. Can you talk about getting into the mindset of these integral parts of their stories this season?

Coral Peña: I think one of the things that Kelly and Aleida share is that they've always been in the shadow of someone else. And one of the nice parts about the first half of the season is that you see Kelly and Aleida really start to morph their own identities without these people. So then, to be reintroduced to them after these people have said, "No, this is actually who I am. I know who I am now. And now I'm coming to you with this knowledge, and with this security."

I think that's what makes the reunion so explosive. Because when Aleida sees Margo, Aleida knows at this point who she is, and she's formed that for 10 years without Margo and same thing with Kelly and Ed. Kelly hasn't seen Ed in person for eight or nine years, and at this point, you've raised a son and so I think that's what makes it so emotional.

Aleida says a line where she says, "You don't know me anymore." And I really took that to heart in her latest journey, which is that they don't, ten years is a long time to not see someone and thirty to forty, you really form a real identity during those years in your life. The reunion is satisfying because it's a new Aleida that's meeting Margo.

Cynthy Wu: How did I get the mindset? So, part of my prep in between seasons, because we're unique in that we jump roughly ten years in between every season, is I keep a journal. That's part of my process, personally as an actor. I keep a journal of where Kelly's been and what her life has been like to fill in the blanks. To catch her up. And then she meets Ed there's this explosive moment.

It's kind of everything I was holding in my journal and it felt so gratifying to let my father know how his actions impacted me. Kelly, she doesn't have her mom. She's a single mom. And she experienced a lot of trauma, and she just could have used support and Ed made the choice to stay up there. And that's wonderful if he wants to be here, but there's always sacrifice and consequences of how that affects your family members. So there's a lot of love. Kelly loves her dad. But the feelings are complicated. And it's not just this happy reunion that he expects, like, "Oh, it's gonna be great. I have my kid and my grandkid." No, there's a lot of bitterness and other feelings going on there. It just felt really good to kind of unload the journal entry.

About For All Mankind Season 4

For All Mankind Interview: Cynthy Wu & Coral Peña On Their Characters' Growth In Season 4 (2)

Rocketing into the new millennium in the eight years since season 3, Happy Valley has rapidly expanded its footprint on Mars by turning former foes into partners. Now 2003, the focus of the space program has turned to the capture and mining of extremely valuable, mineral-rich asteroids that could change the future of both Earth and Mars. But simmering tensions between the residents of the now-sprawling international base threaten to undo everything they are working towards.

Check out our other For All Mankind interviews here:

  • Creatives at NYCC

The fourth season of For All Mankind returned for its critically acclaimed fourth season on November 10. New episodes premiere every Friday through January 12, 2024.

For All Mankind Interview: Cynthy Wu & Coral Peña On Their Characters' Growth In Season 4 (3)
For All Mankind

Drama

History

Sci-Fi

Imagine a world where the global space race never ended - For All Mankind is a thrilling "what if" take on history that explores what would have happened in the race to the moon between the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as the space programs and the race's effects on the astronauts and their families in the aftermath. The Apple TV+ series hails from Ronald D. Moore and stars Joel Kinnaman as a NASA astronaut. For All Mankind also features historical astronauts like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

Release Date
November 1, 2019
Cast
Michaela Conlin , Jodi Balfour , Coral Peña , Colm Feore , Sarah Jones , Wrenn Schmidt , Casey W. Johnson , Cynthy Wu , Shantel VanSanten , Michael Harney , Krys Marshall , Joel Kinnaman , Sonya Walger , Michael Dorman

Seasons
4

Story By

Writers
Ronald D. Moore , Matt Wolpert , Ben Nedivi

Streaming Service(s)
Apple TV+

Directors

Showrunner
Ronald D. Moore
For All Mankind Interview: Cynthy Wu & Coral Peña On Their Characters' Growth In Season 4 (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Lakeisha Bayer VM

Last Updated:

Views: 5403

Rating: 4.9 / 5 (49 voted)

Reviews: 88% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Lakeisha Bayer VM

Birthday: 1997-10-17

Address: Suite 835 34136 Adrian Mountains, Floydton, UT 81036

Phone: +3571527672278

Job: Manufacturing Agent

Hobby: Skimboarding, Photography, Roller skating, Knife making, Paintball, Embroidery, Gunsmithing

Introduction: My name is Lakeisha Bayer VM, I am a brainy, kind, enchanting, healthy, lovely, clean, witty person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.