"Space Cowboys" is about four ageing astronauts. What do you think of getting older?

I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel. I am about twelve and the rest of the guys are about fourteen. None of us sit and dwell on the age thing, and this particular film does deal with a sort of resurrection of some people who were very active in the 1950s in the space programme and did not get to go on the journey. It does have that sort of appeal - people getting a second chance in life.

Why is the film called "Space Cowboys"?

Maybe the title of "Space Cowboys" is a bit misleading because it is mostly about the pioneers of space. We were not really cowboys, but these men who did all the pioneering in the 1950s were going to the frontier of space in planes they were not sure could make it. They were being rocketed along on the ground faster than the speed of sound to see if the human body could take it, so I would say that the film is something of a homage to those gentlemen.

How difficult was it to make the film?

NASA was extremely co-operative and allowed us to play with a lot of their toys. We used their space shuttle cockpit simulator and virtual reality rooms. We could not have done the film as efficiently or as inexpensively without their co-operation.

Read about the other Space Cowboys: James Garner, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones