Laura Mennell as Mimi Hynek in Project Blue Book. Photo copyright of HISTORY.
Happy New Year! I thought I would kick off 2022 with a new round of Sci-Fi Blast From The Past posts. To new readers, Blast From The Past interviews appeared in-print only and not on-line. Today, the lovely and talented actress Laura Mennell talks about playing the real-world Mimi Hynek in the HISTORY Channel's Project Blue Book. Enjoy!
Last year was a very busy one for Laura Mennell, with the actress having worked on not one but three series, Loudermilk, The Man in the High Castle and HISTORY’s upcoming period drama Project Blue Book in which she portrays Mimi Hynek. The latter character was the real-life wife of J. Allen Hynek, an American astronomer, college professor and ufologist whose expertise and knowledge on the subject of U.F.O.s led to him serving as an advisor to the U.S. Air Force from the late 40s to late 60s. He was involved in three separate projects, the final one being Project Blue Book. In the series, Hynek investigates various U.F.O. sightings for the Air Force, and his hush-hush work involves travel, leaving Mimi on her own to keep the proverbial home fires burning in his absence. Unbeknownst to either of them, Hynek’s work with the Air Force will impact Mimi and their family, which, in turn, led to a multi-faceted story arc for Mennell to play.
“Mimi is a very supportive wife and dearly loves her family, but at the same time, we begin Project Blue Book with her maybe feeling a little stagnant in her domestic world.” says the actress. “There’s something missing. Mimi doesn’t really know quite what it is or what her inner potential even is yet, but life in the Hynek household is about to be shaken up with the introduction of Project Blue Book. I think the biggest initial challenge for me with Mimi was finding a jumping off point with her. I wanted to really bridge where we start off from a storytelling standpoint and interpreting my role on the page and sort of infuse it with a bit of the essence of what the real Mimi Hynek was like.
“That was tough at first because when we initially meet Mimi she’s not very self-assured and a bit sheltered in her domestic world. However, when I began some of my research, I was in contact with Paul and Joel Hynek, who are the Hynek’s sons as well as consulting producers on the series. They kept describing their mom as being very social and very much a part of her community, but at the beginning, that wasn’t the woman I was playing, so I felt a little lost. Luckily, Paul introduced me to his sister Roxanne, who’s about 16 years older than him, and she had a different point of view of who their mother was, especially when she was younger. Roxanne thought that her mother was more introverted, and being extroverted is something she had to cultivate over the years. That conversation was really beneficial as far as helping me get over some of those early struggles I felt with the role.”
Project Blue Book is not the only external force that will affect Mimi’s life and who she is as an individual. “For me, this first season of the show is really in many ways a journey of self-discovery in Mimi finding her inner strength,” notes Mennell. “That’s something I was really drawn to and felt that I understood even on a personal level. There are a lot of changes in Mimi’s life that shatter the sheltered world of domesticity that she’s been living in, particularly with, again, the introduction of Project Blue Book into the Hynek household, and also with a new and important friendship with a woman called Susie, played by the lovely and talented Ksenia Solo.
“Susie is the ideal woman of the 1950s,” continues the actress. “She’s glamourous, carefree, fashionable and confident, and in many ways is everything that Mimi feels she isn’t. Susie is really an intriguing character in that she draws Mimi in and they form a very fast relationship despite being so different from one another. Allen Hynek’s [Aidan Gillen] work for the Air Force is classified, so Mimi is left in the dark, and that puts a lot of strain on their marriage. It’s also quite scary at times for Mimi and she begins to wonder how much of a threat Project Blue Book will be for her family. Throughout this difficult time, Susie is there for Mimi, and their friendship is quite layered. I don’t want to divulge too many spoilers, but that bond develops in such a way that there are high stakes involved for both women in their respective lives. Their journey becomes very much an adventure of sorts, and one that’s fun, exciting, mysterious, dangerous and poignant at times, so there were a number of terrific elements to play with as actors.
“I can’t tell you how much I loved working with Ksenia and Aidan Gillen. Aidan is a very thoughtful, intelligent and humble man, and it was a joy to work with him because he’s an amazingly talented actor. The same is true of Ksenia. I found that she and I formed an immediate friendship. It was like we had known each other for years. I was really thankful for that because I think in many ways it came through on-camera, which was important for our characters’ relationship, especially as Mimi and Susie share a great deal of emotional intimacy in a number of scenes.”
Steve Eramo
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