Meet Yulia Peresild, the first actor to film in space for The Challenge – the Russian film that beat Tom Cruise’s bid to shoot in orbit with Nasa and Elon Musk’s SpaceX
- The Russian actress and director Klim Shipenko blasted off on October 5, beating Tom Cruise’s US$200 million bid to film first aboard the International Space Station
- Peresild, who is a millionaire, previously starred in The Edge which was nominated for the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Russian actress Yulia Peresild is starring in the first film made outside Earth. Last week, the actress was blasted off to the International Space Station to film scenes for feature-length adventure film The Challenge.
Peresild will play Zhenya, a surgeon who saves the life of a cosmonaut in space. Peresild and Russian director Klim Shipenko will spend 12 days in space to film the 35-40 minute scenes before returning on October 17, according to The New York Times. They have to manage everything themselves, including camera work, lighting, make-up and production, in zero orbit.
She has Estonian roots
Yulia Peresild was born in 1984 in Pskov, a city located about 20km (12 miles) east from the Estonian border today.
Her surname comes from her Estonian great-grandparents, who were deported to Russia, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Her father was an icon painter and her mother worked in a kindergarten.
She got her star in acting early
Peresild dreamt of becoming an actress since she was a child and pursued it early. Starting from the third grade, she studied acting and singing, and also starred in school theatre plays.