For All Mankind wouldn’t be For All Mankind without Joel Kinnaman as Ed Baldwin. Whether it’s the sense of honor Palmer talked about that made Ed one of his heroes, his long-running rivalry and partnership with Danielle Poole, his love for his family, his many gutsy moves over the years, or any number of other things, he’s part of what’s kept us coming back for years. (Decades, even, in the show’s timeline.) We’d never exactly call him perfect, but Ed has often remained a character that viewers can’t help but connect with. Lately, though…something has felt off. And, for a deeper understanding of the character, his motivations, and even what it’s like to get to play Ed at so many stages of his life, Fangirlish participated in a roundtable interview with Kinnaman and a handful of other journalists.
(Warning: Spoilers up to and including For All Mankind 4×06 beyond this point.)
When we reconnect with Ed at the beginning of Season 4, he’s not who we expect. And he doesn’t even make good, much less consistent, choices. One minute, he’s refusing to consider the downstairs workers’ concerns. The next, he’s some kind of pro-union, pro-strike, hero. But the most difficult thing to wrap our brains around is how he’s…essentially hiding on Mars, giving Kelly and Alex excuse after excuse for why he still isn’t home. After Shane died while Ed was on the moon in Season 1, and Karen was one of the Johnson Space Center casualties in Season 3, something about this just didn’t sit right with us. And he also just goes way, way past his usual limits with how much he’s willing to lash out. (Yes, it still hurts to think about those two recent arguments with Danielle — especially the one in For All Mankind 4×05 — again…)
So, what’s motivating these decisions to push his family away when he should, probably, be holding them closer? And how does compare to the Ed we’ve come to know and love? Well, let’s look at who he’s always been first. To Kinnaman, the character “has always been [a] physically capable, strong man who never doubts his decisions.” Up until now, “he’s been able to make decisions in a fraction of a second in a life-threatening situation. And has always had the confidence that he’s gonna figure it out.” He was, as the actor explained earlier in the interview, “this American archetype, this all-American hero” on the surface. But “what’s interesting is what this show wanted to do is sort of the dismantling of that archetype…something that happens over the course of the decades.”
Well, now we’re really seeing the result of that “dismantling” in Season 4. It “becomes really prominent,” especially as “aging becomes a much bigger factor.” In Ed’s case, getting older totally affects who he is as a person, specifically because of the way it changes his abilities. This season, we’ve seen the tremors in his hands and how he’s tried, desperately, to cover them up. But, ultimately, he fails in hiding his condition. And, once she knows what’s going on with Ed, Commander Poole has to remove him from flight status — for his safety and others’. And, well…we’re right back to our earlier comment about those heartbreaking fights Ed and Dani have in the fourth and fifth episodes.
(To quote Kinnaman on those scenes, “it got emotional.” Additionally, he pointed out some of his scenes with costar Krys Marshall, who “got a lot of meat to deal with on this season. And she really, really stepped up and put on a really impressive performance,” were his “favorites of the season.”)
Here’s how we can explain it all — from the way Ed treats the people he cares about, to the poor judgement, and even the wild inconsistency. At this time in Ed’s life, Kinnaman told us, he feels like “his body starts failing him.” As a result, “his confidence — literally his confidence, as a man, is starting to wane.” Additionally, “he starts making big mistakes that have the consequences of the loss of lives of people he really cares about.”
Put “that together with having lost so much, lost one of his children and his life partner…it just makes him into a different person. And I think a person that has never had fear, who all of a sudden becomes guided by his fear and starts to avoid the difficult things, [like] facing the people that he cares about. And he starts to hide in himself — that’s a different person.” Kinnaman finished the answer, noting that Ed’s journey is “a fascinating process to get to try to portray and wrap your head around.”
Later in the interview, in a response to a question from another journalist, Kinnaman came back around to this idea of playing what the actor called, “the identity crisis of an aging man.” This job, and being “singular in your focus,” is quite simply, “completely ingrained in his being. This is who he is.” But as Ed ages, his story “becomes less adventurous and just a little bit more tragic.” Now, “fear starts to become part of the equation. And actually going back to Earth means facing your grief and your sadness — and also, maybe even more importantly, facing living without any real purpose or not feeling that you’re needed.”
Of course, none of this would be possible without loyal For All Mankind viewers. As in, no viewers, no renewals, no Season 4…no chance for Kinnaman and his costars to explore “more than half of a life” for their characters. “I think we all felt grateful that the show found this audience and that it became a success,” he told us. Same, Mr. Kinnaman. Same.
New episodes of For All Mankind Season 4 stream weekly on Apple TV+, now through January 12, 2024.
