Miya Cech plays Samantha “Samy” Sawyer-Wei
J-14: Tell us about your character! Who do you play?
Miya: I play Samy Sawyer-Wei. She’s the daughter of the flight commander of the Odyssey II spaceship, Rebecca Sawyer. She’s very smart and has aspirations of becoming an astronaut, too. So, she is the only one of the five kids who knows how the ship works and how to fly it [because] she’s been studying on her mom’s simulator for years.
J-14: Do you relate to Samy?
Miya: I do love space like Samy. I’m not a genius in school, but I do love science and math. I can be stubborn like Samy at times but I’m definitely more silly and goofy than she is.
J-14: Is it fun starring in a show about space? What was it like working inside the spaceship?
Miya: I love space and sci-fi. It’s definitely one of my favorite genres. I also love that we get to work with some of the coolest directors who really know how to make a space show! Our spaceship set is so amazing. On our first day, I was in awe of how detailed everything is. When we are filming, I feel like I’m actually on a ship.
J-14: Any fun behind-the-scenes stories you can share from on set?
Miya: I am a huge K-pop fan in real life, but in the show, Doria is the K-pop stan. The rest of our characters are supposed to be clueless about K-pop. In any scene involving SuperM or K-pop, it was so hard for me pretend like I was clueless.
J-14: What’s your favorite scene that you’ve filmed so far?
Miya: I loved filming the scenes when I’m floating through the spine of the ship. I get to hang by wires and pretend like I’m floating. Basically, any time I get to fly on wires is awesome. I also have a very emotional scene later in the season that was very challenging but so cool to film.
J-14: Do you get along with your costars when the cameras stop rolling?
Miya: We all lived in the same building during filming, so after work it was easy to run to each other’s rooms and hang out. We also really liked hanging out at the pool and grabbing dinner together. We all love boba tea so that was usually our go-to dessert.
J-14: What was your reaction when you found out you were cast on The Astronauts?
Miya: Nickelodeon came to me with the script for The Astronauts and told me that Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Imagine Kids & Family were involved. I was so excited because I had just finished working on season one of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which had been such a cool experience. I was excited to get to continue working with Nickelodeon and work on a very real and grounded space adventure. Also, Samy’s story line was basically everything I could ever ask for in a dream role.
