When Hollywood wants to visit outer space, it often turns to NASA’s Bert Ulrich to help them get there.

As the agency’s multimedia liaison for film and TV collaborations, Ulrich helps facilitate and guide the massive demand for resources, insight, and permissions that NASA receives from the entertainment industry.

“[The requests run] the gamut from providing footage to permitting shooting on site,” Ulrich told Yahoo Movies last week. “If the movie is about climate change, we’ll try to hook them up with some climate-change scientists. If it deals with astronauts, we’ll try to have them talk with astronauts. Often they’ll go on tours of our facilities.”

Ulrich deals with over 100 documentaries and more than a handful of fiction films a year, and says that in the nine years he’s worked in the department, he’s busier than ever. Most productions approach NASA, but occasionally, the agency will reach out on its own.

“If we catch wind of a movie, we’ll reach out to a production as well, so we can say we’re here if you need any help,” Ulrich said. “Of course, we respect the creativity of the director and producer. If they want to have their independence, then by all means, we’re not gonna force them.”

Notably, the agency was hardly involved with any aspect of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic Interstellar, which puts a fictionalized (and largely dismantled) NASA at the center of its story. The film depicts the agency working underground, scraping together supplies on a threadbare budget so as to not enrage a starved population.

Nolan worked closely with famed theoretical physicist Kip Thorne on the science at the heart of the film’s futuristic adventure, and a former astronaut advised as well, but the filmmaker did not approach NASA, save for minor permissions.

“We did help them with footage, clearing footage and rights and stuff like that, although we really weren’t involved with the actual production,” Ulrich explained. “If a movie wants to go for accuracy, we’re there to help them, and we’re also here to provide them with scientists or astronauts to get it right, or other NASA personnel. But if they don’t, that’s fine, too.”

Last year’s big space epic, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, also tapped NASA for footage clearance, but likewise did little engaging with the agency for the core elements of the picture (though an astronaut did work with star Sandra Bullock on understanding what it’s like to be in space).

“I think Alfonso Cuaron wanted to have his artistic liberty, and we respected that,” Ulrich said. “But at the end, they came to us about logo use, which we permitted, and the movie was great.”

Some filmmakers and TV producers ask for far more involvement, including some you might not expect. Though the popcorn flick was about Bruce Willis using an oil drill to stop an asteroid from destroying earth, director Michael Bay worked closely with NASA on Armageddon to make accurate what elements he could, and returned to the agency for help on Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Sure, it was a movie about gigantic alien robots who disguise themselves as slick brand name cars, but the often-maligned Bay still did his best to get certain aspects right. “He actually visited with us and went through the storyline and wanted to incorporate NASA and wanted to keep NASA relevant,” Ulrich said, providing a perfect capsule explanation for why his agency is happy to facilitate the production of such far-out fantasy flicks.

“I think film and TV helps people think about going into space and can inspire them, because a lot of these productions are inspirational, and there’s a byproduct there that we really benefit from,” Ulrich said. “If you talk to a lot of astronauts and scientists that are currently working at NASA, the inspiration for them was that they saw scientists and astronauts on television and in [sci-fi] films as kids.”

The last few years have been a mixed bag for NASA; while the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars excited the public in 2012, just a year prior, the agency shut down the space shuttle program, with a sort of victory lap tour that signaled to some that NASA was closing altogether. As a result, Ulrich’s relationships led to several producers proactively working to include NASA’s priorities in its storylines.