'Space Cadet' star Emma Roberts on her fear of flying and her next 'thriller' movie

In the new Amazon movie “Space Cadet” (streaming Thursday on Prime Video), Emma Roberts plays Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, an unlikely savior for a U.S. space mission gone awry. But in real life, don’t expect Roberts in orbit anytime soon. The actress says that she’s claustrophobic and has a hard enough time with aircrafts that stay in the atmosphere.

“I do not like flying on planes, I'm not a good flier,” Roberts, 33, admits to USA TODAY. “I don't like it if I start thinking about it too much. I start to freak out. Like my hands are itching (now) thinking about it.”

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Roberts recalls one shoot that required her to fly from her home in LA to New York. The actress’ anxiety about the flight reached a point where she floated the idea of driving cross-country. Eventually, she relented and boarded the plane.

Roberts found herself flying east for “Space Cadet,” as parts of the movie were filmed in New Jersey and Alabama. Her character Rex is a bartender who lives in Florida and once had dreams of space exploration. After her high school reunion, she applies for the space program. Rex gets accepted thanks to her best friend (Poppy Liu) taking a few “creative liberties” with her resume.

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“Space Cadet” also stars Gabrielle Union.

Roberts hopes to take the rest of the summer off, then will reunite with the movie’s producers in the fall for “Fourth Wall.”

“I play a has-been teen star that gets kidnapped and that's about all I can say,” she says. “It's a genre-bending thriller.”

It’s perhaps a return to the type of material that fans know Roberts for: Although she, too, was a teen star on Nickelodeon, the actress is also known for starring roles on “American Horror Story” and “Scream Queens.”

Roberts was born in Rhinebeck, New York, a village about 100 miles north of Manhattan to mother Kelly Cunningham and father Eric Roberts, brother of Julia Roberts. The family moved to New York City before relocating to LA. While the actress doesn’t remember much about Rhinebeck from her childhood, she’s grown fond of the area. 

“We went back when I was older and it's just so beautiful,” she says. “I love upstate New York. ... As I get older and having a 3-year-old, there's just so much more to do upstate. I just appreciate it way more.”

The only thing Roberts probably doesn’t appreciate about it is the flight there.