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Movies have been designed to tap into the kid within since the first reel was created. For a select period of time, audiences are able to get lost in their memories of youth, where rebellion, innocence and curiosity dominated much of the senses.

Which is where Relativity Media’s new action/adventure Earth to Echo comes in. The kid-meets-alien theme was cut from the same cloth as classics such E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Mac and Me with a modern twist. Kids these days are born with technological awareness in their DNA and the film pits three boys (and one girl) in a problem-solving arena where tools like GPS and YouTube prove extremely useful.

One of those kids just so happened to be Brian “Astro” Bradley, known to most as Astronomical Kid from The X-Factor. Hip-Hop Wired was proud to catch up with the 17-year-old prodigy as he relishes in his first movie role.

Cold feet, jitters, etc. are more than expected when venturing into the unknown but Astro tells us that he was able to channel any sense of nervousness he had into enthusiasm that helped propel his performance. “It was more like excitement,” Astro says when recalling his initial gut feeling on set. “Seeing how the movie thing works and being able to shoot in Valencia, Calif. for two months was pretty fun.”

Astro stars as Tuck Simms, a middle-class junior high student who leads his friends Alex and Munch through a journey to get a stranded alien they nickname “Echo” back to his home planet. Throughout the film, his character appears to take charge with audacity in many occasions but Astro defended his character’s demeanor as well as shoots down the notion that he’s the token Black guy.

Photo: Patrick Wymore

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