For All Mankind star Cynthy Wu talks about Kelly Baldwin's challenging journey in season 3 and the unexpected events that occur with her character.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from For All Mankind season 3, episode 8!

Cynthy Wu's Kelly Baldwin plays a pivotal role in For All Mankind season 3, as she finds herself at the center of the race to Mars in the 1990s. Wu joined the cast of the Apple TV+ series in season 2 as Ed (Joel Kinnaman) and Karen (Shantel VanSanten) Baldwin's adopted daughter from Vietnam. When season 3 begins, Kelly works on a scientific research base in Antarctica.

She later joins NASA's Mars team, rejecting her father's offer to travel with Helios' crew. NASA's Sojourner 1, led by Commander Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), lands on Mars first despite taking a detour to rescue the stranded Soviets. Kelly's story takes an intriguing turn when she strikes up a romance with Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Poletov (Pawel Szajda), which paves the way for the news of her pregnancy revealed in the closing moments of episode 8.

Wu's projects outside of For All Mankind include the 2017 film Before I Fall and American Vandal season 2. She also recently guest-starred in Station 19 season 5.

Related: Kelly Is More Important To For All Mankind's Mars Story Than You Think

Wu spoke with Screen Rant about Kelly's riveting journey in For All Mankind season 3 and much more.

Screen Rant: Obviously, there’s that decade-long time jump in-between seasons and Kelly has gone from being at odds with her parents over her future to becoming a full-fledged scientist and astronaut. How did it feel for you to reprise this role and really see Kelly flourish as an individual this season?

Cynthy Wu: It was just so gratifying to start season 3 and know that she had accomplished much of what she had set out to do, going to the Naval Academy, being a pilot, and now, independently, having found her path in science — specifically microbiology. I was definitely so stoked that like, "Yay, she's not off doing something completely random, but something that's really great and accomplished." It was super fun to reprise this role.

In season 3, we really see these family legacies resonating particularly with Kelly and Danny. In Kelly’s case, where do you think she falls in terms of living in Ed’s shadow versus choosing her own path and making a name for herself at NASA?

Cynthy Wu: I think it's a tricky one. She obviously is Ed's daughter and in episode 3, at family spaghetti night when she told her dad that she was picking NASA over Helios, she said, "I love you dad, and I love flying because of you." She understands what her father gave her, which is the ambition and the dream to be a pilot. But as all young adults come into their own, they realize, "Oh, this thing that I may have fallen in love with as a kid, and watched you do, and that I used to think was super cool, I also kind of found my own thing that I really like that has nothing to do with you."

I think she thrives in that, so I'm happy that she's obviously a confident and accomplished woman being a scientist in Antarctica, doing her own research, and having her purpose there. But I also definitely think that the shadow of Ed is a big one — that she actively acknowledges the purpose and how it has brought her to where she is — but I think she's excited to forge her own path, and that's always exciting to watch.

Kelly and Ed both travel to Mars, but with different crews. If Kelly had joined Helios, that may have been the more predictable outcome. So, how do you think Kelly sticking with NASA and having Danielle as a mentor serve her development differently than a father-daughter dynamic would have in this situation?

Cynthy Wu: I think it's great and much healthier. I would have advocated for that — the journey that Kelly is on with being part of the NASA team and working under Commander Poole. Having a woman commander, and especially Danielle Poole, guide her and be the leader, I think it's important see women, and especially women of color, to lead and be in positions of power, and do it with brilliance and grace. I think if she had gone with Helios, she would absolutely been absorbed by her father's shadow.

I think she's obviously trying to break free from that. There's just so much she wouldn't be able to define and challenge herself when her father would be right there. You want to feel like you earned something — at least that's me. When I do anything, I want to feel like I earned it and to know my place in it. I think if she had gone with Helios, she would have really not gotten that experience.

Season 3 is the first time we see Kelly in space. What was your experience like acting on those sets, especially filming scenes that depict a zero-gravity environment?

Cynthy Wu: I got to work with Todd Schneider, our stunt coordinator, so I went to space camp, if you will. I had to practice movement and gliding, and being on the wires. It was really fun. I love a challenge and it certainly was a physical one. I had a lot of fun with that and also doing the stunts with the other astronauts who were also training.

There's a huge bombshell involving Kelly at the end of episode 8. As you were reading the scripts, did Kelly’s development later in the season take you by surprise, or were anticipating something like that?

Cynthy Wu: I did not anticipate it at all. Usually when I'm in an episode, I'm just kind of engrossed in the current situation and I don't see beyond until the writers send us the scripts. My jaw literally dropped, and I emailed the showrunners, and I said, "Oh my gosh, is this what I think it is?" and they're like, "Yeah." So, my jaw was on the floor when I found out there were repercussions to Kelly's actions, and of course, I was like, "Gosh darn it, Kelly. Why did you act like a fool?" But, of course, she's human, and you know, things happen.

When I received the news that Kelly was pregnant, I was not anticipating that and I was absolutely shocked. I definitely felt, as Kelly, a level of guilt, too, for the consequences to her actions and what her pregnancy means for the rest of the crew, putting everyone in a very vulnerable position and having to make choices possibly to their detriment because of what she did. So, that was really hard to grapple with. In episodes 9 and 10, there are other events that happen on Mars that also further place the crew at risk. The pregnancy was such a huge bomb that I could not have seen and it's something remarkable that we really see everybody pull together from different camps — Helios, NASA, and the Russians, as well. It was pretty remarkable.

One of For All Mankind’s strengths is its depth and consistency in character development that works so well despite the time jumps in between seasons. Which character arc in the show other than your own are you most fascinated by?

Cynthy Wu: I really enjoy Aleida Rosales' (Coral Peña) journey. When I was watching season 1, I loved the story of this young Mexican girl who had watched on television astronauts going to the Moon. She had this wild and big dream that almost seemed so unreachable and for everything that she and her family went through, for her to become an accomplished engineer and now to work at NASA and have achieved all of her dreams, I love following her journey and also her relationship with Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt). I'm very excited to see where Aleida's character goes.

In season 3, it feels like there’s a passing of the torch from older astronauts like Ed to newer ones like Kelly. What would you like to see in a continuation of Kelly’s arc in season 4?

Cynthy Wu: Moving forward, I would like to see Kelly continue her work, her scientific research, and just continue to search for signs of life on Mars or how life can be sustained on Mars. I think all of us are fascinated, just as people, on what's out there. I like looking up at the stars and I like looking through a telescope and seeing, "Are we the only ones here? What else is beyond?" I think that is my hope for Kelly.

In season three, the Red Planet becomes the new frontier in the Space Race not only for the US and the Soviet Union, but also an unexpected new entrant with a lot to prove and even more at stake. Our characters find themselves going head-to-head as their ambitions for Mars come into conflict and their loyalties are tested, creating a pressure cooker that builds to a climactic conclusion.

Check out our other interviews with For All Mankind star Casey W. Johnson and Edi Gathegi, as well as writers Ben Nedivi & Matt Wolpert. Screen Rant also spoke with the cast and EPs at San Diego Comic-Con.

Next: For All Mankind Season 3 Finally Pays Off Karen’s Seasons 1 & 2 Struggles

New episodes of For All Mankind air Fridays on Apple TV+.

Madeline Lapreziosa writes features and interviews talent for Screen Rant, covering TV and Movies. A 2022 graduate of Penn State University, she possesses dual bachelor's degrees in print/digital journalism and French. Madeline has extensively reported on both sports and entertainment in her writing career. Outside of her love for TV and films, Madeline enjoys reading and watching soccer. Her all-time favorite works of fiction are The Expanse, The Hunger Games, and Game of Thrones.