Real-life tragedy inspired Hilary Swank’s Netflix Mars mission in film Away

Actress Hilary’s Swank’s new role as a Mars-bound astronaut looks simply out of this world.

The star once again pushes herself to the limits in a drama demanding peak physical fitness.

But few will realise that Away – an autumn release on Netflix – was inspired by a tragedy which hit two real-life astronauts and left even gun-hardened Americans reeling.

Two-time Oscar winner Hilary plays Emma Green, an ex-Navy pilot in command of a three-year mission to Mars. Days after lift-off, her husband suffers a crippling stroke.

Away creator Andrew Hinderaker has told how he was inspired by real astronaut Scott Kelly, who was in space when a gunman shot his Congressman sister-in-law Gabby Giffords in the head.

In an exclusive Sunday Mirror interview, Scott today tells how he tried to comfort his twin brother Mark, Gabby’s husband, while on board the International Space Station almost 250 miles above Earth.

Scott says: “I hope the show makes people think more about the sacrifices astronauts make.

“It can be very emotional leaving those you love behind. Video conferences and calls are your only link to home and if something happens that’s challenging.”

Scott was on a six-month mission to the ISS when Gabby, 50, was shot in 2011.

Gunman Jared Lee Loughner blasted her in the head with a pistol before firing on the crowd during a constituency meeting in a store car park in Arizona.

Six people died including a judge, one of Gifford’s staffers and a girl aged nine.

Fellow astronaut Peggy Whitson, 60, broke the news to him.

Scott, 56, said previously: “The way I dealt with it was to do the best I could to support my brother and his family and my family on the phone.

“But eventually you realise you need to focus on your job, on the stuff you can control and ignore the chaos there on Earth with my sister-in-law. Some news outlet was even reporting she had died, but later I spoke to a good friend who said she was alive.”

Gabby made a miraculous recovery and she and Mark have become advocates for sensible gun legislation.

Show creator Andrew said Scott’s story inspired Away. He said: “He’s obviously not able to be there for his family during this incredibly traumatic time.

“And he’s trying to figure out how to support them from this extraordinary distance. It’s an incredibly powerful moment.”

Andrew did not consult Scott, but the astronaut appears not to mind. “I’ll definitely be watching it,” he says. “I don’t know how realistic it will be but it looks really cool.”

Scott was on board the ISS in 2015. In a year-long posting scientists measured the effects on his body – before comparing them with twin Mark back on Earth.

Scott says it was hard to leave behind daughter Samantha, now 25, and son Charlie, 16, who lived with his former wife in Virginia.

He says: “It was challenging because I was in a relatively new relationship and was leaving my children behind.

“It’s emotional but I explained to them the importance of my mission and NASA does a good job in supporting families. We had a video conference once a week and spoke on the phone regularly.

“The kids were pretty excited about the whole thing. I hoped they would miss me but there was also a lot of excitement and some nervousness.

“A year in space is a long time and a lot of stuff can go wrong.

“Being up there, I felt part of something so much bigger, Earth seemed small and fragile.”

It helped that Scott’s partner Amiko Kauderer, now his wife, worked for NASA and relayed his adventures on social media.

Scott adds: “We video-conferenced every day. I didn’t do it the first week because I didn’t want to set a precedent and for her to worry if I couldn’t call. But I pretty soon realised I needed that daily contact.” Hilary shaped her character after interviews with astronauts including Scott’s crewmate Peggy Whitson, who has done 10 space walks and is the first woman to twice command the space station. But the actress says the role is about so much more than that.

She says of Away: “It’s that humanity underneath. It transcends gender and race. I hope that people are left with that feeling of hope, and that hope is really all we have, and it’s so important to hold on to it every single day. Peggy was wonderful and she shared with me both the smallest and biggest details. I was able to pick her brain and that was really helpful in terms of what it means to be a commander, the responsibility that comes with that and how that is shaped in a man’s world.”

Hilary has often suffered for her art but Away was one of her most demanding roles yet.

She and co-stars were suspended in air wearing 30lb suits as they faked zero gravity.

And she suffered terrible claustrophobia in her space helmet. “You need really strong glutes and abs in order to hold yourself up like that and not look as though you are working,” Hilary says.

“You have to make it look effortless. There were some episodes where I wondered whether I was going to be able to do it physically.

“I have major claustrophobia and when I put on my spacesuit I almost passed out.”

It’s not the first time Hilary, 46, has had to be in peak shape for a role.

She spent a month living as a man and shrank her body fat to seven per cent to play murdered trans teenager Brandon Teena in Boy’s Don’t Cry.

And she trained for three months solid to portray a female boxer in Million Dollar Baby.

Real astronauts, of course, train for years.

In 2016, Tim Peake became the first British astronaut to walk in space. He was on the ISS at the same time as Scott, who describes him as an “awesome guy”. He adds: “I’ve been in space with around 40 other people and Tim was one of the best.”

But it could be decades before any explorer heads to Mars, like Hilary’s character in Away. Scott adds: “We might get there one day but right now we are pretty far off. We can always hope – but hope is not a plan.”