Eloise Mumford Sets Sail For The Stars In New Series 'The Right Stuff'
It’s fair to say that anyone who has been around a television or pop culture magazine in the last (verging on) ten years will be familiar – at the very least – with the novel-turned-movie trilogy 50 Shades of Grey. And if you happened to venture deeper into the frisky rabbit hole of the ‘50 Shades of somethings’ you’ll easily recall the best friend and roommate. The one we were often agreeable with. The one who kick-started the beginning of all the steaminess. That’s right, Kate Kavanagh – otherwise more broadly known as Eloise Mumford.
Eloise, now moving on from her role as instigator and ‘voice of reason’ to Christian’s Anastasia, is at the centre of her own love affair as Trudy Cooper in new series “The Right Stuff” – a series depicting Tom Wolfe’s non-fiction account of a space-oriented time in the ‘50s.
Both a wife to her husband Gordon Trooper, and a pilot in her own right, Eloise’s character as Trudy unveils the complexities of love and hints at the disregard for women’s rights, whilst also re-living the history of Mercury Seven and their pivotal race to space.
Set in a tasteful fashion era, with astronauts striving for the American space status and a sweet love affair to carry us through – what more is there? Only that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions co-produced the entire series!
Get ready for blast off.
When you heard about your role in The Right Stuff series, what was your initial reaction/feeling?
Eloise: I was at Huntington Gardens with my parents and my boyfriend at the time when I got the call that I was going to be Trudy… I burst out in tears and started pumping my arms in the air in a way that I'm sure confused all the people around me. I was so elated I didn't even think to try to be cool. I wanted to be a part of this project so badly. I knew from the second I read the pilot that it was really special and that getting to bring Trudy to life would be one of the greatest joys I've ever had.
Would you say there any similarities to yourself and Trudy Cooper?
E: I recognized so much of myself in Trudy - in her determination, her joy, and her undeterred passion. I also find deeply familiar the conflict between her inner strength and her deep sense of loyalty, leading her to both know she needs to leave a situation and also not want to give up on someone she loves. I [also] recognize her stubbornness in myself - both the strengths and weaknesses of that. Most of all, I relate on a very fundamental level to her deep frustration with the inherent sexism of our culture.
I aspire to be like her in so many ways and I feel like I learned so much from her; patience, resilience, gumption and seeing the big picture. I aspire to be the sort of mom she was when I have children and to inspire my daughters the way she inspired hers.
Obviously, the series is adapted from Tom Wolfe's nonfiction book, also titled "The Right Stuff" - had you previously been a Tom Wolfe fan?
E: The Right Stuff was the first Tom Wolfe book I read, and I was absolutely captivated. The way he talks about heroes fascinates me in the way he recognises their bravery and the unique position we put them in as a culture. I love how he is deeply interested in peeling back the layers of their humanity, finding what it is that makes them a hero and all the ways in which that is complicated. The way he examines sacrifice in relation to heroes, and the cost at which it all comes, blew me away.
Since your 50 Shades role as Kate Kavanagh, has that changed or shaped you in any way as an actress?
E: One way in which playing Kate really changed me is in my determination to portray female relationships in all their complexity and joyousness on screen. My female friendships are my dearest relationships in my life – other than my family – and will forever be my longest, most fulfilling partnerships. I feel lucky that we get to carry our friends through our whole lives, laughing with, leaning on, and learning from them. Playing a best friend on screen in 50 Shades made me want to highlight these platonic love stories in everything I do. The strength and brilliance of female relationships are not represented enough on screen and yet they are all around us. It's time to reflect that on screen more. And I try to dig into and excavate those moments now wherever I can in whatever role I am in.
“Getting to stand on the launch pads where these rockets lifted off from… Getting to drive the same roads the astronauts did… Getting to walk through the same gates they did… It was beyond powerful.”
Can you draw any parallels between your character as Kate and your character as Trudy?
E: One of my favourite things about being an actor is getting to explore – intimately and honestly – the ways in which we are all so much the same as humans at the core of it all, and how inherently different we all are in every other way. Our lived experiences, our privilege, our hardships, our successes and our failures all create lives that are simultaneously recognizable, and gorgeously unique. Every role I get the opportunity to step into becomes an exercise in excavating who this particular human is… So, I can tie them together in the same way I can tie most women together, which I'm deeply invested in, but it almost feels unfair to both of them to try to fit them in the same box.
Can you tell us about some of your favourite moments on set for The Right Stuff?
E: By far my favourite part of being on set was getting to be in the real places where [this] history was made. We filmed in Florida and got to actually go to Cape Canaveral and be where the action actually happened. Getting to stand on the launch pads where these rockets lifted off from… Getting to drive the same roads the astronauts did… Getting to walk through the same gates they did… It was beyond powerful.
“The low thrum of inequity is still a constant, and it is our duty to fight for increased opportunities for the next generation, in the same way women like Trudy Cooper and her contemporaries did for us.”
And equally, has there been any particularly tough moments that tested you as an actress whilst on set for this series?
E: The hardest part was really sitting with the extreme sexism that women [at the time] were facing in every second of their lives. Witnessing the overt sexism of the time and really allowing myself to feel what Trudy and women like her must have experienced in those moments felt honestly overwhelming. It gave me a great appreciation for how much has changed, and how much further we still have to go. Sexism now is less overt, but still inherent in so much of our culture. The low thrum of inequity is still a constant, and it is our duty to fight for increased opportunities for the next generation, in the same way women like Trudy Cooper and her contemporaries did for us.
Describe the love affair between Trudy and Gordon?
E: Trudy and Gordon were tied together by their shared passion of flying. Their love of each other is impossible to extricate from their love of flying and I think that is what kept them returning to each other, over and over, despite the incredible stress put on their relationship.
Portraying this complex relationship on screen was something both Colin O'Donoghue and I wanted very badly to get right, in all of its messiness and heartbreak. Many people stay in or return to unhappy situations, and the calculations that go into that are aching and very real. I have so much compassion for what Trudy was juggling, not just with her heart, but also with the pressures put on her by societal expectations and by wanting to be a good example for her daughters. It's incredibly complicated what being a good example looks like when it comes to a situation like this, and it often bumps up against the messiness of the human heart… Exploring that is something I am so grateful our show dives into.
Lastly, can you tell us how you prepare for your roles - particularly your role as Trudy Cooper?
E: I have long been a super nerd – at points embarrassingly so – but as I've gotten older, I have embraced it with a ferocity that makes jobs like this so dreamy. Usually, I read everything I can get my hands on, watch documentaries and follow whatever threads of emotional context feel like they will lead to understanding on a more cellular level. For this project, the amount of information available was overwhelming and awe-inspiring. Everywhere you look in the world of space is another fascinating avenue of information, and it felt like magic to get lost in it all. I consumed everything I could about the space race of the era and focused in particular in the ways in which women were, and were not allowed, access to that world.
I found incredible inspiration in learning everything I could about the women who would have been Trudy's heroes. Women like Amelia Earhart, Ruth Elder, Bessie Coleman, and Louise Thade who were phenomenal female pilots of the 1920s-1950s. History has not given these women the attention they deserve, and filling Trudy with their spirits felt like a grounded way to honour them.
Words / JESSIE PINK
Talent / Eloise Mumford
Photography / Storm Santos
Make up & Hair / Kimberly Bragalone