EXCLUSIVE: Interview With The Author Of THE MARTIAN Andy Weir

CBM:  The Martian is a scientifically brilliant, blood pressure raising novel about being stranded on Mars. What inspired you to write this book and tell this story? 

Andy:  Apollo 13 was a big inspiration.  It is one of my favorite movies of all time.   I had an idea of a story of what in may be like to have a man stuck on Mars.  This was the basis of the beginning of the book.  With this book it has given me the opportunity to pursue my dream of becoming a full time author.  I never really try to prove a point with my writing.  My goal is for people to pickup the book, read it and be entertained, that’s my purpose in writing.

CBM:  The technical side of the book was so well done.  Did you have a specific process for research?  Was the whole story understood and then you filled in the blanks scientifically or did you adapt it as you went?
  
Andy:  Well I knew how I wanted the book to end, but I didn’t know how to get there.  That was one of the biggest challenges was figuring it out along the way. The technical part was cool,  I really loved doing the technical part and all the research. All of my research was done on Google.  I had no connections in Aerospace at that time, only me and Google. I do have those connections now and I shamelessly use them to leverage other projects I’m working on.

CBM:  I imagine one of the more anxious yet glorious moments in the movie is when Mission Control and the World find out Mark is alive.  In regards to the movie, do you have a favorite moment?

Andy:  This may be a boring answer, but I loved how they made the landscape of Mars appear in the movie.  The detail is amazing and really well done.  As an author you can’t go too much into detail about landscape without people losing interest.  They nailed it in the movie, exactly like I wanted and pictured in my mind.


CBM:  What was your first reaction to hearing Ridley Scott and Matt Damon teaming up in the adaptation of your film? 

Andy:  Well, I’d never really heard of those to two.:)  I was very excited when I heard they both would be working on the movie.  When I heard my first reaction was is this really happening. Matt Damon completely nails the character of Whatney. He's exactly the way I Imagined him.

CBM:  You released The Martian on your website chapter by chapter, editing and changing along the way was brilliant.  How did this process affect your overall approach and timeline of the book? 

Andy:  Well it challenged me to keep writing, because I would get emails from readers as I released a chapter.  The first readers were all the hardcore science and math people.  The cool thing was is I would get corrected by them, telling me that my math or a calculation was wrong and I would receive hundreds of answers on how to correct it.  It forced me to continue to write and research along the way.  It was also good to have hundreds of people helping me without having to pay them.

CBM:  We here at ComicBookMovie love to see the adaptation of Comic’s, Books, or TV’s shows into Films. What books, movies, or TV shows if any did you draw upon in creating the Martian? Did you create the book with a potential movie deal in mind?

Andy:  Again Apollo 13, was a big inspiration to me.  Honestly, the television series MacGyver was something I drew upon.  I never wrote the book with a movie deal in mind.  All authors dream of getting a major movie deal with one of their works.  Initially I thought only my small group of followers would ever read it, never thought it would turn out like this. My intention was purely to entertain not to prove some type of point or sway people’s views one way or the other.

CBM:  The book made wanting to be an astronaut cool again. I’m sure the movie will add fuel to that fire. My dad’s dream in life was to go to space. Do you think the Martian will affect this in a positive way?

Andy:  I do think that it will affect things in a positive way, but not a much as people are making it out to be.  I feel like the movie and book is part of a positive cycle of movies and books about space travel currently.  It happens to be during this time and is helping the movement towards more awareness about space.  Again, I never wrote it with the intention of trying to pursued people or decisions about NASA funding a certain program.  It was meant to strictly entertain the reader.

CBM:  The complexities of life I’m sure have increased for you as your fan base grows, I assume after the release of the move this will only happen more so.  Do you enjoy the roller coaster ride you’re on? 
  
Andy:  Well, Yes and No.  It was fun going to the Red Carpet premier in Toronto, walking down the red carpet with all the stars. Getting to pretend like I was a big deal.  I’m probably in my 8^th minute of my 15 minutes of fame.  That part of it has been enjoyable.  To be honest, it has been a bit taxing over the past few weeks promoting the movie and doing many interviews.   I’m hoping that after a long and successful run with the movie and people don’t think I’m as big a deal anymore things will die down a bit.  I look forward to when I can get back to writing and working on my other projects.  Overall I’m grateful for all that has come about because of The Martian.

CBM:  You really made us think what it would be like to survive in such a foreign environment, making calculated decisions knowing they were life or death.  This was done masterfully.  What challenges did you experience in writing The Martian with this in mind?
 
Andy:  For the most part the book is problem, solution, problem, solution, thats fine as long as the problem have a reason for being surserial and happening in sequence like that, and usally I got away with it usally I can say it follows its cause because of the solution to his previous problem but sometimes I would have to say ok there is going to be a new problem how do I make that happen and how do I make it not some alarming coincidence so at one point  losing contact with NASA I had ran out of things for him to do so until this other thing happens. I wanted him to lose contact with NASA so he is on his own and  how do I that. There are so many ways he could break his radio how do I do that such as it ties into the current thing that he is doing I couldn't just have him accendintely break his radio at exacly the time it would be intersting in the plot no instead he was modifing the rover so i have him accidentally destroy the radio, by placing the drill down while he's working on the rover incorrectly. the biggest challage is making sure that the problem came at a reasonable place and it didn't seem to contribed.