Monday night saw the launch of Stars on Mars on Fox, and while crew-member Christopher Mintz-Plasse (pictured above) was the first celebrity to land on "Mars," following a disastrous mission to save the communication tower during a windstorm he was also the first team member deemed "non-mission-critical" and be extracted from the base. Mintz-Plasse is best known for his role as McLovin in the 2007 film Superbad, but after his experience on Mars he's hopeful people soon forget his time on the red planet. "It's already bad," he joked with MediaVillage during an exclusive interview following his departure.
"When I did my pre-show interview, I said, 'I just don't want to be the first one voted off because everybody remembers the first one voted off,'" he recalled. "They don't remember the second, third or fourth, but they always remember the first. [There's] a sense of embarrassment being the first, and of course I spoke it into existence. I should have done the opposite and [said], 'I'm going to make it far!' I'm going to be remembered very poorly for my effort in this."
Mintz-Plasse was one of 12 celebrities that also includes remaining cast members, Lance Armstrong, Natasha Leggero, Marshawn Lynch, Adam Rippon, Ronda Rousey, Tom Schwartz, Richard Sherman, Tinashe, Porsha Williams Guobadia, Tallulah Willis and Ariel Winter, to partake in the Big Brother in space series and admits he really didn't know what he was signing up for - - especially when it came to the onset bathroom arrangements. "We didn't know that there was going to be a [elected] commander," he revealed. "We didn't know that we were bunking, or what the bunking situations were. And we didn't know about the shared bathroom situation.
"I mean, you saw when Marshawn was voted commander just how stoked he was to have his own bathroom," he added. "And he wouldn't let Lance Armstrong take a [crap] in it. It was so funny to me that he wouldn't even let him in there, and he was asking so nicely. I'm bummed I never got to be space commander as I don't know what living in that special room with your own bathroom would have been like."
When agreeing to partake in the experience, the reality television newcomer was okay with not knowing exactly what he was signing up for, but he did have one caveat. "They didn't really want to tell us who the [others] were," he explained. "But I wasn't saying yes unless I knew who was on the show. They told me about Marshawn, Richard and Ronda, so I was like, 'Okay, they're getting great people.'
"Then they told me William Shatner was the host," Mintz-Plasse continued. "I was like, 'He's the original space boy! That's a big deal!' I was very excited to meet him, and my dad was very excited for me to meet him. He gave me a William Shatner cup that he had from 1980 or something for him to sign. Then I got to Coober Pedy, where we filmed, in the middle of the Australian Outback, and I was like, 'There's no way they're flying 92-year-old William Shatner here. He's not getting on a 16-hour flight, a three-hour flight, and another three-hour flight to the middle of the Outback! So, I didn't get to meet him sadly. Coober Pedy was an opal mining town with a population of about 2000 people who mostly live underground or in caves because it gets so hot there in the summers. It wasn't a glamorous place to be, but the people who live there are very sweet."
Despite his mission being cut short, Mintz-Plasse has no regrets about embarking on it and was so impressed with the show's attention to detail with production. "They wanted me to be the first one in, which was cool," he said. "It was such a beautiful set, and I got to show the place off to the audience for the first time. I was immediately impressed with how much money they put into this show -- you're not getting Lance Armstrong for cheap! The space suit was a pain in the ass to wear and takes a lot of effort to get into. Then once you have the helmet and the pack on it weighs like 35 pounds.
"Before the rebuilding of the satellite mission, we had to wear it for like an hour," he continued. "A lot of people were in pain for sure and my back was seizing up. I also have really bad asthma and that mission was really intense. You could see it a bit in the show, but on the day, they flew in like $20,000 worth of fake dust and giant fans to pummel us. Oh, and our helmets weren't closing, so we were inhaling a lot of dust. I was actually very scared for my health, so I stayed away from the mission, and as far away as I could from the dust.
"Seriously, we'd all be so dead if it was actually Mars," he laughed in closing. "Those helmets closed a little bit, then around the rim there was an open slit, and all the dust was getting inside. But I met some great people and am just bummed I didn't get to try some of the other missions as those look like fun, and maybe I'd still be there.">