Interview with the cast of “Resident Alien”

TV Interview!

 

Sara Tomko, Alice Wetterlund, Corey Reynolds, Levi Fiehler and Meredith Garretson of "Resident Alien" on Syfy

Interview with Sara Tomko, Alice Wetterlund, Corey Reynolds, Levi Fiehler and Meredith Garretson of “Resident Alien” on Syfy by Suzanne 2/6/24

It’s always wonderful to speak this cast. I love everything about this show, especially the actors and the writers. It’s been great to speak with them the last few years. Unfortunately, I didn’t get an opportunity to speak with Alan Tudyk this time, but it’s fine. I’ve spoken to him several times before.  All of the actors are very kind and enjoy talking about their characters and the show. I know you’ll enjoy this upcoming season 3 as much as I have, and these videos. I can’t wait for you to see them!

Meredith Garretson (“Kate Hawthorne”) and Levi Fiehler (“Ben Hawthorne”)

Collage of Levi Fiehler and Meredith Garretson of "Resident Alien" on Syfy

I was originally paired with another reporter, Allison Hazzlett-Rose, but she had technical problems. I haven’t edited these videos, so you will hear me just chatting with the actors at the beginning, before we get to the actual questions. It was a lot of fun to have these 10 minutes.

Corey Reynolds (“Sheriff Mike Thompson”)

NEW YORK COMIC CON -- "Resident Alien World Premiere Screening & Panel" -- Pictured: Corey Reynolds -- (Photo by: Astrid Stawiarz/SYFY)

Originally, I was supposed to speak to Elizabeth Bowen (“Deputy Liv Baker”) and Reynolds, but Elizabeth couldn’t make it. Allison was still having technical problems. This meant I had the full 10 minutes with him. It was pure joy, I admit.

 

Sara Tomko (“Asta Twelvetrees”) and Alice Wetterlund (“D’Arcy Bloom”)

Sara Tomko and Alice Wetterlund of "Resident Alien" on Syfy. Photo from Tomko's Instagram.

Finally, Allison was able to be included in our chat with Sara and Alice. It was an awesome conversation. Both women are so entertaining and love to talk. We had 11 minutes, and the moderator had to cut off the actors because they were running out of time.

Sara Tomko, Alice Wetterlund and Meredith Garretson of "Resident Alien" (from Syfy's Facebook page)

MORE INFO:  Official Site   Trailer

RESIDENT ALIEN -- Pictured: "Resident Alien" Key Art -- (Photo by: SYFY)

Based on the Dark Horse comics, SYFY’s “Resident Alien” follows a crash-landed alien named Harry (Alan Tudyk) whose secret mission is to kill all humans. In season three, Harry is vowing to work with General McCallister (Linda Hamilton) to rid the Earth of the Grey aliens – a task made more difficult when he discovers that the Grey Hybrid Joseph (Enver Gjokaj) has taken a job in town as the new Deputy. Joseph isn’t Harry’s only obstacle – Harry struggles to balance business and his personal life when he falls in love for the first time. Meanwhile, Asta (Sara Tomko) and D’arcy (Alice Wetterlund) move in together and struggle to discover their purpose in the world, Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds) and Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen) continue their quest to find out who killed the Alien Tracker, and Ben (Levi Fiehler) and Kate (Meredith Garretson) are forced to deal with the subconscious repercussions of their alien abductions.

From UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, “Resident Alien” was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan. Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg of Dark Horse Entertainment, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank of Amblin TV, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Nastaran Dibai also executive produce.

NEW YORK COMIC CON -- "Resident Alien World Premiere Screening & Panel" -- Pictured: (l-r) Chris Sheridan, Executive Producer, Writer, Resident Alien; Alan Tudyk; Sara Tomko; Corey Reynolds -- (Photo by: Astrid Stawiarz/SYFY)

Sara Tomko

Asta Twelvetrees, “Resident Alien”

Sara Tomko stars in SYFY’s “Resident Alien” as Asta Twelvetrees. Strong and sarcastic, she works with Harry at the town’s health clinic.

Tomko is known for her recurring roles on “Sneaky Pete” and “Once Upon a Time,” as well as her appearances on “The Leftovers” and “The Son.”

She started her career in experimental theatre and musicals in Virginia, later moving to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue film. Her first independent film roles aired on SYFY, and she is thrilled that her TV career has brought her full circle. She is an actor, singer, producer, poet an artist.

Tomko is represented by Bohemia Group and KMR Talent.

Alice Wetterlund

D’Arcy Bloom, “Resident Alien”

Alice Wetterlund stars in SYFY’s “Resident Alien” as “D’Arcy Bloom,” the charismatic bartender at the local pub who, as a former Olympic snowboarder, is also a part of the avalanche control team.

Wetterlund has performed her non-yelling brand of comedy nationally at colleges, clubs, and festivals such as Just for Laughs, Bridgetown, Moon Tower, Women in Comedy, SF Sketchfest, RIOT LA, Bonnaroo and more.

She is known for her character “Carla” on HBO’s “Silicon Valley” and played “Kelly Grady” on TBS’ “People of Earth.” She can also be seen in the movie “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” as “Cousin Terry.” She has performed her stand up on “Conan” and currently co-hosts the popular podcast “Treks and the City” with Veronica Osorio. She recently wrapped “Search & Destroy” for Hulu, produced by Carrie Brownstein. Wetterlund can currently be seen on the latest season of Netflix’s “Glow.” Her hourlong stand-up special premiered on Amazon in August.

Corey Reynolds

Sheriff Mike Thompson, “Resident Alien”

Corey Reynolds stars in the SYFY drama “Resident Alien” as Mike Thompson, the local sheriff who runs the town with a chip on his shoulder, a cowboy hat on his head and an iron fist.

Reynolds is best known for his role on “The Closer,” which he starred on for six seasons. He will next be seen as a guest star in Apple’s “The Afterparty.” He’s recurred on “All American,” “Red Line,” “Criminal Minds,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Masters of Sex” and “Murder in the First.” He has guest starred on “Seal Team” and “Chicago P.D.”

On the film side, he was last seen on screen in “Straight Outta Compton” and also appeared in “Selma,” opposite David Oyelowo and Common.

Reynolds was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Broadway’s production of “Hairspray.”

Levi Fiehler

Mayor Ben Hawthorne, “Resident Alien”

Levi Fiehler stars in the SYFY drama “Resident Alien” as Ben Hawthorne, the naive town mayor whose 8-year-old son is suspicious that the new local doctor is an alien.

Fiehler was born in Juneau, Alaska where he trained as an actor at Perseverance Theatre. His career took off when he booked a lead role on “Fetching,” which was an original series for Michael Eisner’s company, Vuguru. Prior to “Fetching,” Fiehler was a series regular on Ron Howard’s series “Mars” for National Geographic. Other work includes “The Fosters,” “Ray Donovan,” “Murder in the First” and “CSI.”

Meredith Garretson is a theater, television and film actress based in New York and Los Angeles. She received her MFA from NYU’s prestigious Graduate Acting Program. She also trained for two years in Meisner Technique at the Maggie Flanigan Studio. In 2021, she starred as Ali MacGraw in the acclaimed limited series THE OFFER on Paramount Plus. She plays Kate Hawthorne in the hit series RESIDENT ALIEN on Syfy and Peacock. She is a founding member of SOCIETY Theatre Company in New York City.

 

Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler, Elizabeth Bowen, and Chris Sheridan and San Diego Comic-Con (photo from Syfy's Facebook page)

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Interview with “Resident Alien” actors and showrunner

TV Interview!

Chris Sheridan, Alan Tudyk, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler, Corey Reynolds, and Elizabeth Bowen

Interview with showrunner Chris Sheridan and actors Alan Tudyk, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler, Corey Reynolds, and Elizabeth Bowen of “Resident Alien” on Syfy by Suzanne 8/8/22

This was from a fun press day to promote the return of the show for the second half of season 2. First there was a TCA panel (Television Critics of America) where all of these actors plus star Sara Tomko (Asta) answered some questions. Then we had 3 junkets with the other actors and Chris Sheridan. You’ll see videos of those below.

During the TCA panel, we saw this excellent trailer that you should watch as it reminds us where we left off back in March!  They also announced, for those of us who hadn’t heard, that the show was renewed for season 3 “due to its incredibly passionate fan base!”  So, yay, fans!  Below are the highlights from the TCA panel.

Showrunner/creator/writer Chris Sheridan shared that they do allow for a lot of improv on the show. He was asked specifically about Harry’s alien language.  Most of that is all Alan Tudyk’s doing. Alan also joked that at the recent San Diego Comic-Con, they expected him to speak in the alien language at the drop of a hat, which he wasn’t prepared to do. He promised that he will learn to do that before the next con, though.

Sara was asked about what her character goes through this season. She replied that they had a lot of scripts to shoot in a very short time (and more than last season), but Chris lets them know ahead of time what their characters will be experiencing, so they can prepare a little better. She spoke quite a bit about being the only person in the main cast that’s not a comedian. She enjoys reacting to them, and laughing at their jokes, but she’s not funny like they are. There’s a point in one of the upcoming episodes where Asta is very happy because of an alien thing that happens to her, and it took Sara a bit to wrap her head around that because Asta is normally not very happy, so she had to talk to Chris to get an idea about what she should be like. She concluded, “I just really tried to make it as organic and truthful in the moment.”   Later in the panel, when the cast were all asked if they ever felt like an alien, she shared that she felt a bit like one, being the more serious person amidst all the comics.

The actors were asked what they learned from their characters. Alice was almost the only one to take the question seriously. She analyzed D’arcy, saying that she’s “self-absorbed” and doesn’t realize how her actions not only hurt herself but others around her.  She’s starting to understand that, and she thinks it’s good to keep that in mind. Elizabeth also said that she’s learned that “listening and observing will teach you a lot more than talking.” That’s very true! I need to learn that, too.

Alan joked that he learned that he loves pizza, but then he explained that he has a lot of food allergies, so they made him special pizza that he could eat. That was very cool to learn because I have that, too. I hope he can learn to make his own pizza or can find some other people to make them for him. At the mention of food, Sara added that she doesn’t like it when actors don’t eat on the set when there’s food there. She has to eat food if it’s in front of her.  Levi and Sarah both agreed that they hate tight jeans. Levi has had to wear a lot of those as his character.

Alan was asked whether he’s content to be doing so much scifi.  Alan reflected for a moment and then said with a laugh that he’s happy. He enjoys all the work he gets. He noted that he did a play in L.A. right before season 2, which he really enjoyed (doing live stage), but the great thing about playing Harry or doing any scifi is that you get to do all sorts of unusual things that you wouldn’t normally get to do. He mused that you can do everything, all in one. “There can be physical comedy, which you rarely ever get to do in television or in film, and it can also be very touching and have very intimate moments.” He went on to talk about how much he enjoyed working with the dog and the kids on the show. He said that the dog is very smart and a good boy.

Then they were all asked the question about feeling like an alien. Alan related it to being invited to a party that you really don’t want to go to, but you have to go and pretend to be having a good time. Corey shared that he has anxiety, so anything social like that makes him feel anxious.  Then Alice did this hilarious riff where she pretended to be a stuck-up socialite going into JC Penney’s for the first time.

Chris was asked about the third season, so he told us that it would be 12 episodes, which he’s already started working on.  It won’t be split up into two parts like season 2 was, and there will be one arc for the whole season. He explained a little bit about how the show was developed. First he envisioned it as 10 episodes per season, going 4 or 5 seasons. Then they had 16 episodes for season 2, which changed things. He added that these shows are “organic beasts” that change a lot, anyway. He explained, “things that you weren’t sure were going to work work really well. Things you thought were going to work don’t work well at all” so you constantly have to adjust for these changes. The show is “constantly evolving.”  He also said that the chemistry of the actors gives you more ideas about how to change the story.

He also spoke a bit about Asta and Harry’s emotional growth this season, which you’ll see more of in the upcoming episodes. Asta has to deal with the fact that she shot and killed someone, and Harry is dealing with the fact that he almost died.

Alan was also asked a semi-serious question about he and Nathan Fillion guest-starring on each other’s shows. Alan replied that it was just their friendship. He joked, “I was never on [an episode of] “Castle,” so I’ve got a lot of making up to do.”

The cast was also asked about whether they were worried when there was a big break in the middle of season 2. They were all fine with it, but some fans were worried and impatient.

The trailer revealed that we’ll see more of Terry O’Quinn’s character. Also, there’s a new detective that joins the show named Lena Torres, played by Nicola Correia-Damude.

Here are the videos from the junket. We all laughed a lot, so I’m sure you will, too.

 

 

 

MORE INFO: Another Trailer

"Resident Alien" poster

Based on the Dark Horse comics, SYFY’s “Resident Alien” follows a crash-landed alien named Harry (Alan Tudyk) whose secret mission is to kill all humans. In season two, Harry is once again stranded on Earth where he must confront the consequences of having failed his people’s mission to destroy the human race. The second half of Season 2 picks up in the immediate aftermath of the shocking action Asta (Sara Tomko) took to save Harry’s life. They must deal with the emotional fallout of the night all while searching for the alien baby – a search that leads to big realizations for each of them. Meanwhile, Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds) and Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen) solve a big case, Ben (Levi Fiehler) attempts to sell Patience on a new resort, and D’arcy (Alice Wetterlund) fights the challenge of a lifetime. The series also stars Judah Prehn.

From UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, “Resident Alien” was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan. Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg of Dark Horse Entertainment, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank of Amblin TV, Robert Duncan McNeill, Christian Taylor and Nastaran Dibai also executive produce.

Alan Tudyk

Harry Vanderspeigle, “Resident Alien”; Devil, “Devil May Care”

Alan Tudyk stars in the SYFY drama “Resident Alien” as Harry Vanderspeigle, an alien who crash lands onto Earth and must pass himself off as a small-town human doctor.

He also recently voiced the role of Devil in “Devil May Care,” which also aired on SYFY. In addition, Tudyk voices the maniacal Joker in DC Universe’s “Harley Quinn” animated series on HBO Max. Tudyk also voiced Tuk-Tuk in the Oscar-nominated film “Raya and the Last Dragon” as well as Pico the Toucan in Disney’s hit film “Encanto.”

In 2016, Tudyk appeared in Lucasfilm’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” as the scene-stealing security droid, ‘K-2SO.’ Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film grossed over $1 billion at the global box office and was the first live action Star Wars spin-off. He also voiced characters in two Academy-Award nominated animated films, playing the ‘Duke of Weaselton’ in Disney’s “Zootopia” and the rooster ‘Hei Hei’ in Disney’s “Moana.”

Tudyk is also the creator, executive producer and star of the Emmy nominated series “Con Man,” which was funded via Indiegogo with a record-breaking $3.2 million donation from over 46,000 fans. “Con Man” debuted at Lionsgate’s Comic Con HQ in 2015 and later aired on SYFY. Loosely based on Tudyk and Nathan Fillion’s experiences starring in “Firefly,” “Con Man” centered on the post-show life of ‘Wray Nerely’ (Tudyk) after “Spectrum,” a sci-fi TV series canceled before its time that later became a cult classic. In 2016, Tudyk, along with Fillion, also launched “Con Man: The Game” based on the series which allowed players to build and host their own comic book conventions.

Tudyk has shown audiences wide versatility in numerous television shows and a plethora of feature films. Recently, he co-starred in the Jay Roach 2015 SAG Award nominated feature “Trumbo,” opposite Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren and John Goodman as well as 2014’s “Welcome to Me” with Kristin Wiig. In 2013, Tudyk co-starred in the well-received Jackie Robinson biopic, “42,” opposite Chadwick Boseman as former Philadelphia Phillies manager ‘Ben Chapman.’ He made his feature film debut in 1998, when he first appeared opposite Robin Williams in “Patch Adams.”

Tudyk’s role in the Disney animated feature, “Wreck-It Ralph,” garnered him an Annie Award for his role as ‘King Candy.” He can also be heard in its sequel, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” as ‘KnowsMore.” Tudyk has also loaned his voice to ‘The Duke of Weaselton’ in Disney’s Academy Award-winning film “Frozen,” ‘Alister Krei’ in “Big Hero 6” and ‘Ludo’ and ‘King Butterfly’ on the Disney Channel series, “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.”

His additional film credits also include: “28 Days,” “A Knight’s Tale,” “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” “Death at a Funeral” (the original UK version), “Knocked Up,” “Tucker and Dale vs Evil,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “Serenity,” “Premature,” “Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter” and “Transformers 3.” Additionally, Tudyk motion performed the lead robot, ‘Sonny,’ in “I, Robot” opposite Will Smith.

In television, Tudyk can currently be seen in DC Universe’s “Doom Patrol” and season three of Netflix’s “Santa Clarita Diet.” He was a series regular on the critically acclaimed ABC comedy, “Suburgatory” as well as on NBC’s workplace comedy “Powerless” and BBC America’s “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. His work on Joss Whedon’s “Firefly,” has been highly lauded by fans and has gained him a strong cult following. Tudyk also appeared in “Strangers with Candy,” “Dollhouse,” “Frasier,” “Justified” and “Arrested Development.” He also was the host of “Newsreaders,” written and produced by Rob Corddry and David Wain, on Adult Swim.

Tudyk attended the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and has starred on Broadway opposite Kristin Chenoweth in “Epic Proportions,” played ‘Lancelot’ with the original cast in Monty Python’s “Spamalot,” as well as the lead role of ‘Peter’ in “Prelude to a Kiss” opposite John Mahoney.

Tudyk grew up in Plano, Texas and currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife.

He is represented by The Coronel Group and Gersh.

Chris Sheridan

Executive Producer, “Resident Alien”

Chris Sheridan serves as executive producer of SYFY’s “Resident Alien.”

Five-time Emmy nominee and BAFTA nominee, Sheridan has been a television writer and producer for 26 years. He has produced more than 400 episodes of television, including 17 seasons on the Fox Network animated hit, “Family Guy” where he acted as co-showrunner from 2004 to 2009. He remains a consulting producer on “Family Guy,” and has a feature film in development with Josephson Entertainment.

Corey Reynolds

Sheriff Mike Thompson, “Resident Alien”

Corey Reynolds stars in the SYFY drama “Resident Alien” as Mike Thompson, the local sheriff who runs the town with a chip on his shoulder, a cowboy hat on his head and an iron fist.

Reynolds is best known for his role on “The Closer,” which he starred on for six seasons. He will next be seen as a guest star in Apple’s “The Afterparty.” He’s recurred on “All American,” “Red Line,” “Criminal Minds,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Masters of Sex” and “Murder in the First.” He has guest starred on “Seal Team” and “Chicago P.D.”

On the film side, he was last seen on screen in “Straight Outta Compton” and also appeared in “Selma,” opposite David Oyelowo and Common.

Reynolds was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Broadway’s production of “Hairspray.”

Alice Wetterlund

D’Arcy Bloom, “Resident Alien”

Alice Wetterlund stars in SYFY’s “Resident Alien” as “D’Arcy Bloom,” the charismatic bartender at the local pub who, as a former Olympic snowboarder, is also a part of the avalanche control team.

Wetterlund has performed her non-yelling brand of comedy nationally at colleges, clubs, and festivals such as Just for Laughs, Bridgetown, Moon Tower, Women in Comedy, SF Sketchfest, RIOT LA, Bonnaroo and more.

She is known for her character “Carla” on HBO’s “Silicon Valley” and played “Kelly Grady” on TBS’ “People of Earth.” She can also be seen in the movie “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” as “Cousin Terry.” She has performed her stand up on “Conan” and currently co-hosts the popular podcast “Treks and the City” with Veronica Osorio. She recently wrapped “Search & Destroy” for Hulu, produced by Carrie Brownstein. Wetterlund can currently be seen on the latest season of Netflix’s “Glow.” Her hourlong stand-up special premiered on Amazon in August.

Elizabeth Bowen

Deputy Liv Baker, “Resident Alien”

Elizabeth Bowen plays Deputy Liv Baker on the hit SYFY series “Resident Alien.”

Bowen was raised on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo, British Columbia. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts – West before moving back to Canada to work on improv comedy while pursuing film and television roles.

Bowen credits her role in season two of FX’s “Fargo” as a career turning point. Bowen’s other credits include recurring roles on Amazon’s “Upload” and Hulu’s “Woke,” as well as the Freeform holiday movie “Angry Angel.”

She is based in Vancouver, B.C.

Levi Fiehler

Mayor Ben Hawthorne, “Resident Alien”

Levi Fiehler stars in the SYFY drama “Resident Alien” as Ben Hawthorne, the naive town mayor whose 8-year-old son is suspicious that the new local doctor is an alien.

Fiehler was born in Juneau, Alaska where he trained as an actor at Perseverance Theatre. His career took off when he booked a lead role on “Fetching,” which was an original series for Michael Eisner’s company, Vuguru. Prior to “Fetching,” Fiehler was a series regular on Ron Howard’s series “Mars” for National Geographic. Other work includes “The Fosters,” “Ray Donovan,” “Murder in the First” and “CSI.”

Sara Tomko

Asta Twelvetrees, “Resident Alien”

Sara Tomko stars in SYFY’s “Resident Alien” as Asta Twelvetrees. Strong and sarcastic, she works with Harry at the town’s health clinic.

Tomko is known for her recurring roles on “Sneaky Pete” and “Once Upon a Time,” as well as her appearances on “The Leftovers” and “The Son.”

She started her career in experimental theatre and musicals in Virginia, later moving to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue film. Her first independent film roles aired on SYFY, and she is thrilled that her TV career has brought her full circle. She is an actor, singer, producer, poet an artist.

Tomko is represented by Bohemia Group and KMR Talent.

SciFiVision’s interview with Alan Tudyk and Chris Sheridan

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Tudyk, Reynolds, Bowen and Correia-Damude

Interview with Corey Reynolds and Alan Tudyk

TV Interview!

Corey Reynolds and Alan Tudyk of "Resident Alien" on Syfy

Interview with Corey Reynolds and Alan Tudyk of “Resident Alien” on Syfy by Suzanne 1/10/22

This was a short but fun call. I always love talking to these guys! They’re so fun to listen to, and so funny, both on and off the show. I gave them a rather weird question, but they handled it very well, like the professionals they are. Don’t miss the season premiere January 26 on Syfy!

Question:   This year, it looks like you guys have been set up as more foes than allies. What can you tell me about the investigation?

Corey:   Well, you know, at the end of last season, we found out who killed Sam Hodges, and this season we’re going to delve more into the why. You know, what exactly was the actual, the first, human Harry Vanderspeigle? What was he up to, and what type of chaos did Alan’s character inherit by taking over his life.? But [there’s] still a tremendous amount of hijinks that takes place as we pursue said leads in the case.

Alan:   Yeah, as foes, out of respect, they both have their amount of being idiots. Out of respect.

Corey:   Fact.

Alan:   Fact. So, as foes, I think that’s where the hilarity that ensues comes from, is that they’re both idiots, but, I mean, we started off as foes from the very beginning.

Corey:   Yes. You know, it’s the joke you made about the black truck from the very, very first moment that they met that set the tone in a way that they’re still trying to recuperate from.

Alan:   From the first “kung kung.”

Suzanne:   Hi, guys.

Corey:   Hi Suzanne.

Alan:   Hey.

Suzanne:   So, on the videos– we’ve seen a promo video. A lot of you guys [the cast] were saying that you believed in aliens, or that you saw aliens or ships. Recently, NASA was working with theologians and faith leaders to discuss how aliens visiting Earth might affect religion and religious people. Sorry, it’s such a deep question for early in the morning, but… how do you think people might react to the idea that humans are not the only sentient beings in the universe?

Alan:   Corey, I think you probably –

Corey:   I think we – I can’t remember exactly who said it; it might have been Reagan. I hope I’m right. someone’s going to look me up and either say I’m an idiot, or “my God, he knew that; he’s a genius,” but he said something about the arrival of aliens being a good thing, because basically, it would unify all of humanity. It would help us to see ourselves as a race of beings as opposed to beings of different races. And I’d like to believe that that’s what would happen, but over the last couple of years, there’s been this pandemic that’s taken place that I think has been a stress test of society, that in a lot of ways we’re failing. So, honestly, aliens could either be the thing that unites everyone or could be the thing that makes everyone go, “Okay, fuck. It’s a free for all. Let’s just tear it all and burn it all down.” So, I don’t know, but I know they exist, whether or not they want to come here – You know, I mean, I’m not getting on a cruise ship right now. It’s a giant soup of nastiness. So, we might be the COVID cruise ship of planets to aliens. You know what I mean? They may not want to go here, because we’re so polluted and rude and sick and angry and all of these things that we should be better at. So, I wouldn’t come here. I wouldn’t go house shopping in a fucking shed that’s built by the railroad tracks either. So, I don’t know that aliens would want to come here, if I’m being honest. I just ate up all the time with that.

Suzanne:   I like that, the COVID cruise ship…

Corey:   …of planets. That’s probably what we are.

Suzanne:   Alan, what’s your take on that?

Alan:   Oh, you know, I would love it if aliens would come here and help us with our problems….I don’t think we understand what would… what would happen. I don’t know. If they wanted to come here and remove carbon from our atmosphere or something like that, that would be great. Otherwise, they could just leave it alone as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think it’s going to be good. Soylent Green is people. You know, that’s mainly where I stand. Soylent Green is people.

Suzanne:   All right. And as a short follow up, what– how is it working with Nathan Fillion again, the octopus voice?

Alan:   Oh, it’s fantastic. It’s fantastic. He’s great this season. He’s a puppet. I mean, he is also CGI, but there’s a actual puppet on set in the tank that is being puppeted by people. And just having a Nathan Fillion octopus puppet that I’m having arguments with, and that’s my job; I’m pretty, pretty excited about that.

Suzanne:   Great. Thank you guys so much.

Question:   So, really quickly, one of the things I love about the trailer is that Mike’s just not buying this whole alien thing, and I don’t think he’s kind of bought it from the very beginning. So, kind of for the both of you, do you feel like that’s going to continue to be to Harry’s advantage this season, or are we gonna see Mike sorta kind of lean over a little bit and maybe start believing a little more?

Corey:   Al, you want to field that?

Alan:   No, no, you go for it.

Corey:   I think he has a healthy skepticism of UFOs, and I don’t see that – without getting into too much of the season, but I don’t see that changing very much. I think Mike’s very much into what he can see, smell, taste, touch, you know?

Alan:   Also, simultaneously, Sheriff Mike would suddenly believe in the Chupacabra?

Corey:   Oh, absolutely! And he believes in Bigfoot.

Alan:   Then there’s that!

Corey:   You know, he says that Bigfoot lives up in Seattle. And he also believes that women love buckets.

Question:   So that’s the line.

Corey:   You know, the aliens line is the line he won’t cross. That’s the one –

Alan:   They don’t love buckets? This is news to me. That explains why Christmas was so bad in the Tudyk household.

Corey:   Yes, the ladies love the buckets.

Alan:   I got my wife several buckets for Christmas. Hmm.

Corey:   [unintelligible]

Alan:   No, no. Dang it.

Corey:   So yeah, I think his skepticism of aliens remains pretty firm thus far.

Alan:   Lucky for me.

Publicist:   All right. We’re just trying to get you guys back on schedule.

Corey:   Oh, I understand. I ran a little long on my alien answer.

Publicist:   No, no, you’re good. You’re good. It makes it so hard when when they’re around tables to be quick. This next one is a one on one though, so I’m hoping we can kind of try to get us back on [track].

Alan:   TV week, you’ll see probably in Canada. It’s amazing. Like my wife and my dogs were attacked by a coyote by Stanley Park, and my mother in law heard about it across the country on her nightly news.

Publicist:   Yeah, everyone picked that up

Alan:   And then like suddenly my wife disappeared from the stories very quickly. There’s just I think me who was attacked.

Publicist:   Isn’t it funny how that happens?

Alan:   Yeah.

Publicist:   He should be joining any moment.

Alan:   Man, I’m terrible at the new Halo.

Corey:   I’ve been playing with my kid. We finally got the new Xbox X series. His Xbox that was so fucking overpriced. You pay like 750 bucks each for those things, because we have to get to, you know, because we both play, so that was part of the hang up was needing to get two of them at the same time. I threw it on – he’s been playing the online mode. I’m not there yet, because I don’t want to get murdered by eight-year-olds. You know what that means? You know, these ten-year-olds are killing us.

Alan:   Yeah, man. I’m destroyed they’re like playing a different game. I can’t. I’m last place every time, and I put so many hours into this game. But now the game has changed enough – what you want to do when you have a new a new version of it, Ii’s changed enough that you have to relearn it. But I think I’ve crossed the threshold. Old man.

Corey:   I’m with you, dude.

Here is the video version of it.

Interview Transcribed by Jamie of http://www.scifivision.com

MORE INFO:

Resident Alien poster

Based on the Dark Horse comics, SYFY’s “Resident Alien” follows a crash-landed alien named Harry (Alan Tudyk) whose secret mission is to kill all humans. In season two, Harry is once again stranded on Earth where he must confront the consequences of having failed his people’s mission to destroy the human race. On his new quest to protect the people of Earth, Harry struggles to hold on to his alien identity as his human emotions grow stronger by the day. In an adventure that takes Harry and Asta (Sara Tomko) all the way to New York City, Asta brings Harry into the arms of someone he can call family. While back in Patience, Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds) and Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen) find themselves closer to unraveling the mystery of Sam Hodges’s murder. “Resident Alien” also stars Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler and Judah Prehn.

From UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, “Resident Alien” was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan. Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg of Dark Horse Entertainment, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank of Amblin TV, Robert Duncan McNeill, Christian Taylor and Nastaran Dibai also executive produce.

Proofread and Edited by Brenda

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Alan Tudyk and Corey Renolds in "Resident Alien" on Syfy

Interview with the cast of “Resident Alien”

TV Interview!

Creator Chris Sheridan with Alan Tudayk, Sara Tomko, Alice Wetterlund and Corey Reynolds of "Resident Alien" on Syfy

Interview with cast of “Resident Alien” on Syfy by Suzanne 12/9/21

It’s always great to talk to these people! They’re just very fun and hilarious! Much like the show. There may be some spoilers here, so you may not want to read it before watching the second season.

NBCUNIVERSAL VIRTUAL PRESS TOUR

SYFY

Resident Alien

Corey Reynolds, Talent, “Sheriff Mike Thompson” Sara Tomko, Talent, “Asta Twelvetrees” Alan Tudyk, Talent, “Harry Vanderspeigle” Alice Wetterlund, Talent, “D’Arcy Bloom” Chris Sheridan, Executive Producer/Creator

Virtual via Zoom

December 9, 2021

Š 2021 NBCUniversal, Inc.  All rights reserved.

PAM BEER:  Hi.  I am Pam Beer to introduce our panel for “Resident Alien,” which we announced this morning will launch it’s second season on Wednesday, January 26th, at 9:00, on both SYFY and USA Network before moving exclusively to SYFY.  “Resident Alien” follows a crash‑landed alien named Harry, whose secret mission is to kill all humans.  In Season 2, Harry is once again stranded on Earth where he must confront the consequences of having failed his people’s mission to destroy the human race.  On his new quest to protect the people of Earth, Harry struggles to hold on to his alien identity as his human emotions grow stronger by the day.  Here is a clip from behind the scenes of “Resident Alien.”

In the top row are executive producer Chris Sheridan, Alan Tudyk, and Sara Tomko.  In the bottom row are Alice Wetterlund and Corey Reynolds.  We are now ready for your questions.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  Thank you, Pam.  And welcome to our panelists.  Just a reminder to use the “raise hand” function if you have a question.  Our first question comes from Mike Hughes and Suzanne Lanoue is on deck.  Mike, go ahead.

QUESTION:  Yeah.  Alan, you get to do a lot of weird things in this show, but I wanted to ask you about two of them.  One of them is running off with that, sort of, octopus in your hands, what was that like?  And the second one is getting to pronounce your actual real name from your planet, how hard was that to learn to pronounce that, and how difficult is that to do?

ALAN TUDYK:  Oh, yes.  Well, that’s excellent.  I forget you guys have seen the three episodes.  I haven’t seen that.  Running with the octopus was great because it’s made of rubber, some kind of silicone, and it does its own acting.  You just give it a little jiggle, and it really comes through.  It’s a great scene partner.  That was a blast.  We shot that in Ladysmith, which is a little town that (inaudible).  And running down the streets of Ladysmith with an octopus was fun to do.  I think it was popular with the local residents as well.  Anytime Harry speaks his language, it’s always fun.  I don’t know that it will ever be a language like Klingon where you go to conventions and people actually speak it as a language.  It’s much more illusive.  It’s very illusive.  So it’s like it’s a back‑and‑forth between me and the editors.  It switches up a little bit every take, and then they find the best string of sounds and probably facial expressions to go along with it that makes for the best scene.

QUESTION:  Okay.  Thanks.

ALAN TUDYK:  Thanks, man.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  Our next question comes from Suzanne Lanoue, and Abbie Bernstein will be on deck.  Go ahead, Suzanne.

QUESTION:  Good morning.  Nice to see you guys again.  Chris, I enjoyed the three episodes, and I love the music in the first three episodes that we saw, especially the “MASH” theme at the end.  Who chose the music, and will there be any more singing in this season?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  I chose the music.  I have some music supervisors that help.  But I will say, the “MASH” theme ‑‑ these are all spoilers, by the way.  I can get into the specifics from these episodes that, probably, you can’t write about quite yet.  But the “MASH,” yeah, there’s that moment at the end of 3 where ‑‑ again, this is not to be revealed, but ‑‑ D’Arcy gets in the helicopter.  I had sent a picture of Alice in a helicopter to ‑‑

ALICE WETTERLUND:  A video.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  ‑‑ a video of Alice in a helicopter to Alice Wetterlund, and she sent it back to me with the wonderful “MASH” theme attached to it, and I was determined from that point on to put that in the episode.  So, we are in the process of playing ‑‑

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Lily, your daughter, Chris, is obsessed with “MASH.”

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  My daughter is obsessed with “MASH.”

ALICE WETTERLUND:  So, we are, kind of, always ‑‑ it’s in the zeitgeist of the show.  It’s conversation ‑‑

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Yeah.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  ‑‑ because it is in the zeitgeist.  And, so, I saw that footage, and it just ‑‑ a lot of the footage from the show ‑‑ and you can write about this ‑‑ is very beautiful.  We have incredible DPs.  And it just looked like film to me.  It looked old and gorgeous.  And I just was, like, “Oh, you’ve got to put the theme song.”  But in terms of who chooses the music ‑‑ and you should probably write this ‑‑ it’s mostly me and Levi.  And he does have a music supervisor that no one has ever met, but it’s really cool because Levi and I do a radio show for the cast and the crew.  And sometimes, every once in a while, Chris is nice enough to pick one of the songs that we’ve played on our radio show to put on the show, the actual show.  So, yeah, feel free to write about the radio show.  No one ever cares.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Yes, I do.  I definitely use the radio show to find music.  So, it’s all very helpful.

QUESTION:  And did you hear my other part of the question about will we see any singing this season?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  We will.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Oh, you know we will.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Well, we will see singing.  We will see ‑‑ Alice will get to sing this year, which we are very excited about.  I don’t know which episode it is, but we will get to see Alice Wetterlund sing this year, which is going to be fantastic.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Well, there is a karaoke machine in the bar that you’ve written in for the season.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Yeah.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  So, you kind of ‑‑

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  I had to go back to it.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  It seems like everybody is going to make their rounds.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Yeah.  Alice is next.  We’ll see who goes next, maybe Sara.  Sara is good.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  I think so.

QUESTION:  Thank you so much.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  Our next question comes from Abbie Bernstein, and Jamie Ruby is going to be on deck.  Abbie, go for it.

QUESTION:  Hi.  I have two questions, actually, one for Mr. Tudyk and one for Mr. Sheridan.  I won’t print this until after the episodes have aired.  But, Mr. Tudyk, when Harry is playing other people, do you study those actors?  Do those actors go to Alan Tudyk school?  Does everybody just wing it?  How does that work?

ALAN TUDYK:  I recognize you.

QUESTION:  Hello.

ALAN TUDYK:  Hello.  I recognize your voice.  How is it going?

QUESTION:  Good.

ALAN TUDYK:  It is good to hear you.  It’s ‑‑ they’ve watched the show.  So, they, sort of ‑‑ I think they just go to Alan school, I guess.  And, yeah, it’s really up to them.  I make myself available if they want to talk about my process and how I go about it.  But, yeah, I mean, I guess you’ve seen the first three episodes.  So, is Alice born?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  The first three episodes.

ALAN TUDYK:  So, you’ve seen that.  So, yes, Alice is just naturally an alien, I think.  She just has that about her, and it’s not just the probing.  She just comes across that way.  But I think Sara could probably speak to this a little bit as well because you had to do it, right?

SARA TOMKO:  Yeah.  I was going to jump in and say, I don’t remember what episode, but I had a small little part where I got to be Harry.  And I was going to ask you for advice, Alan, but I also was, like ‑‑ I think I just wanted to watch you.  I think I started really just, kind of, creepily staring at you as I got closer to that scene.

ALAN TUDYK:  I remember, when I woke up from my nap in my trailer, you were standing over me.

SARA TOMKO:  I was like this?

ALAN TUDYK:  It was a little odd.

SARA TOMKO:  Do you know what, Alan?  I have to say, the small, little time I got to be you, it’s very physical.  At least it was for me.  I felt like my whole body was stiff.  I felt like I had very mechanical movements.  Chris actually suggested I do this hand motion towards the door because that’s something you had done in a previous scene.  So, I did that.  But I also just felt like there’s a lot more than, I think, the audience can even see that you are doing.  I don’t know.  To me, it just felt like a full‑body workout.  And I was really, like, “Man, if I had to do this all the time, every day, I would be exhausted.”  So, I’m super proud of you.

CHRIS SHERIDAN: (Inaudible) with those, Sara.  That was Sara playing Harry playing Asta.  I mean, that was no ‑-

SARA TOMKO:  Yes.

ALAN TUDYK:  Right.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  ‑‑ (inaudible) good too.  Get Corey in on that.  Maybe Corey is the next one whose body Alan takes over.  I don’t know.

COREY REYNOLDS:  I’m looking forward to it.  I told you, I think that would be a really fun thing to jump into Harry’s body.  I think that would be great.  I think that’s one of the unique components of this show is that ‑‑ not to ‑‑ making sure I’m not giving away any spoilers here because I see this transforming thing is a potential spoiler, but I think that’s one of the really cool components of this show is that there’s this aspect of everyone getting a chance to ‑‑ or everyone Harry needs to embody getting a chance to provide their interpretation of Harry and of Alan’s performance of Harry.  I think that will be fun.  I look forward to it.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  About ten minutes before Alan’s (inaudible) scene playing Harry, I went up to her, and I said, “Do you want to spend some time with Alan?”  I said, “Alan is gracious as an actor, and he would want to spend time with her if she wanted to watch his movements or whatever.”  And she said, “I’m good.”  At least she had studied it on her own, but I was, like, “All right.”

QUESTION:  And, Mr. Sheridan, is the series still following the graphic novels, or has it taken off in its own direction now?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  It took off in its own direction early on in Season 1, not that we don’t still pay homage to the novels.  We even look for different framing of some shots and some different shots from the graphic novels that we try to use in the show.  That first graphic novel was about the murder of Sam Hodges, which is continuing into the second season.  So that is still alive for us.  There is an episode where that is, sort of, pulled from one of the graphic novels that we are doing this season where Harry and Asta go to New York in search of an alien, and that is directly from one of the ‑‑ or indirectly ‑‑ directly and indirectly off of one of the graphic novels.  That was one of my favorite comments of theirs that they did.  I thought Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse did an incredible job with that one.  As soon as I read it, I thought that would be a great training for her, Alan, and Sara to do.  So, we worked that into the season.

SARA TOMKO:  At the time we talked about that, Chris, we were not in a pandemic.  So, I think we all thought, “We get to go to New York.”

ALAN TUDYK:  Yes.

SARA TOMKO:  And that didn’t happen.  But Vancouver is a pretty cool second New York.  I think they did a great job.

COREY REYNOLDS:  You guys went to Newcouver.

SARA TOMKO:  Newcouver.

COREY REYNOLDS:  Newcouver.

QUESTION:  Thank you very much.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  Our next question comes from Jamie Ruby, and then Jamie Steinberg is going to be on deck.  So, Jamie Ruby, go ahead.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Jamie.

QUESTION:  Hi, guys.  Thanks for talking to us today.  Alan, I want to know if you can talk about working with Judah because you two are so hilarious together.  Yeah.  Can you just talk about that and what it’s like working with him?

ALAN TUDYK:  I enjoy working with Judah.  I think he’s a great kid.  He’s funny.  He’s naturally funny.  So, I guess I have a lot of respect for him.  That probably helps.  He’s really funny.  It’s, like, his instincts are of a comedic instinct.  He sees what’s funny and can top it.  We did some improv this season.  There is a scene where ‑‑ it’s probably in the episodes you saw where he gets a spanking.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Yeah.  That’s enough.

ALAN TUDYK:  And so, yeah, he loved getting to just riff on “That doesn’t hurt.”  “You are doing it wrong.”  Anything he was saying during that, those were all things he came up with, and he really enjoyed it.  He’s come into this season very curious about the show.

COREY REYNOLDS:  “Longer than ever.”

ALAN TUDYK:  He’s just a cool kid.  I don’t have kids.  So, I like to think of him as not my own child but as, like, a child that my dog might own.  So ‑‑ we have a dog.  So, I can relate.  So, it’s sort of a distant child in that way.

SARA TOMKO:  I can relate that way too.

QUESTION:  Thank you so much.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  Next up is Jamie Steinberg, and Valerie Milano will be on deck.  Jamie, go ahead.

QUESTION:  I love getting to see Alan with Alice.  I just think it’s kind of, like, two comedy giants playing off of each other.  Talk a little bit, Alan, how much of your scenes are improv, how much of it is scripted, and just in general working with Alice.

ALAN TUDYK:  Working with Alice is fantastic.  I’ve loved her work for a very long time.  I’m a big fan of “Maisel,” and that she joined us this season was fantastic, and that she got to be my love interest was even more ‑‑ my love interest or just the object of my affections was brilliant.  It was a lot of fun.  Her relationship with Chris goes back a long way.  You can see it when the two of them are together.  They have a really strong friendship.  It was really fun to watch them, really more than anything, together.  And we embrace some in that scene, I’m remembering.  As far as improv goes, there’s leeway.  And everybody can speak to this because everybody does this.  Chris is a very generous creator in a lot of ways.  But as far as listening to the actors when we have dialogue that could possibly be a little more in our character voice, we have something, like, a word ‑‑ there’s a lot of stuff, like, from Harry that he’ll say, “Can I say this word instead of this word? because, the way that my process is, Harry wouldn’t say this word.  Can we substitute this word or this phrasing?”  There’s a lot of that.

And then we usually have, I know for myself, an opportunity to, kind of, play, especially if it’s a joke.  If it’s just a joke, the punch line, you can do the punch line as many different ways as you want — or the out of the scene.  Yesterday, we were shooting something with a scene, and there was, like, “Oh, what if I’m sitting at my desk.  What if I had a glass of Alka‑Seltzer?  Yeah, can we get a glass of Alka‑Seltzer?  All right.  I’ll do the plop, plop, fizz, fizz, and I’ll be watching the fizzing of the thing, and it’s confusing to me why it’s floating and then have the scene.  Sara and I will have a scene, and then I’ll drink it, and it will be disgusting, and I’ll almost throw up.  I’ll sit there, fizzing through the scene.”  And then it was taking too long to get the Alka‑Seltzer because they had to go to the store.  I was, like, “Well, what if we do this with this, or what if we did this?”  And we’d just throw out ideas, and we came up with something that actually turned out to be more fun.  I know Alice herself does a lot of improv because you are comedy.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Oh, yeah.  Well, I was going to say ‑‑

ALAN TUDYK:  You are comedy.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  ‑‑ that is a really high praise coming from you, but there is something to say.  I mean, Chris is so generous.  Robbie is generous to the point that I’m testing it.  You say he gives us as many takes as we want as long as there’s a punch line, and I’m counting.  And, eventually, I’m going to find out how many is the most and is the cap for that because I’m getting to it, I feel like.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Well, Corey is the same way.  Corey had a scene last year where I was so confident in Corey’s improv abilities.  It was when he was interrogating the lanky stoner in that school classroom.  We wrote stuff, but I basically said to him, “This is going to be you.”  So, all of that stuff that was on the screen was just Corey being ridiculous.  So that was fun.

COREY REYNOLDS:  That is one of the best perks of this job for me.  During the course of my career, I’ve never had the opportunity to have as much influence over a character’s choices and voice, and that’s all a testament to Chris and Robbie and our leadership being open to allowing us to explore these different things.  And they are not all homeruns.  I’ll pitch something to him sometimes, like, “Hey, man, what do you think about this?  What if dah, dah, dah, dah, dah?”  And he’ll go, “Uhhhh,” when you know that that’s not necessary.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Let’s do another pitch first.  The Alan and Alice stuff, I will say ‑‑ they were doing one of the scenes that I’ve written, and I thought they should have a little fun.  So, I told the script supervisor, “I’m going to go in and maybe see if they can do the lab or whatever.  We can figure something out.”  She comes over, and she says, “Well, for me, I want to know what they are going to say.”  And I was, like, “I don’t know what they are going to say.  I don’t have it written.  I just figure these two people will come up with it.”  So, I just said to Alice, like ‑‑ I said, “Just ask Harry, like, does he like to travel and just see where it goes.”  And we laughed.  And they called “action,” and then Alan and Alice went on for between five and ten minutes before the scene started.  I can remember that.  It was unbelievable, something about (inaudible) and monkeys in cages.  It was unbelievable.  The first part of that show was 19 minutes long.

QUESTION:  The best SYFY for, like, a longer episode that time, can you just expand on that so we can fit in the improv?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  There’s a tremendous amount of ‑‑ actually, there’s a lot of incredible stuff that we can’t fit in the show from everybody, from everyone on this panel, I mean, just really great stuff.  You have to make your choices.  But, yeah, there’s a whole episode with all of their improv.  I’m sure somehow, we can piece that together.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  There’s a side show that I’m pitching with Corey, definitely, to get out of our ‑‑ because, like, we ‑‑ Corey and I were in one scene together so far this season, and I was, like, “Why don’t we get to do more episodes together, man?”  And then, when we started going back and improvising on top of each other, I was, like, “Oh, this is why.”

COREY REYNOLDS:  “Oh, this is why they don’t get us together.”  It takes me back to the bowling alley scenes, which is, I believe, my first day of filming.  And I think we went, like, three or four takes in before Robbie was, like, “Okay.  Guys, do you know what?  I think it’s important that we at least get one that’s, like, as written, you know, maybe just one.  Can we just get one?  Once we have one that’s on the page, we are good to go, but we should probably for safety.  Let’s get at least one that is what’s written,” because I think we just decided that “Oh, yeah, the script is just a suggestion.”  We just decided to go on our own little tangents there.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Having never worked with each other before at all.

COREY REYNOLDS:  It’s also the very first day.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  The behind‑the‑scenes arrest in Episode 10 from the first season ‑‑

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Yeah.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  ‑‑ Corey was arresting Alice.

COREY REYNOLDS:  Oh.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  And you were talking about pulling hair.  I think Alice ‑‑

COREY REYNOLDS:  Her fighting style was a mix of volleyball and capoeira or something like that.  It was just ridiculous stuff.

QUESTION:  Well, thank you all so much for bringing a little bit of levity to our lives during these times.  It means so much.

ALAN TUDYK:  Thank you.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  Our next question comes from Valerie Milano, and Janice Malone is going to be on deck.  Valerie, go ahead.

QUESTION:  This question is probably mostly for Chris but if any of the talent wants to chime in.  In the last episode, Harry must rely on Asta and D’Arcy for survival.  How does that change the dynamics of the characters, and will we see more of this in the second season?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  That’s a good question.  That was in Episode 8, I think ‑‑

QUESTION:  Yes.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  ‑‑ and in 10 as well.  Asta depended on it for survival.  It’s an example of Harry’s growing emotional state and ability to process human emotions where, in the first season, he learns to love and learns what friendship is and connects him to Asta, which is what ends up saving the human race.  I think his journey in Season 2 is, sort of, extending that humanity to people outside of Asta.  So, learning empathy and trying to realize that maybe there’s other people in this world ‑‑ at the beginning of it anyway, other people in the world who he can maybe care about as well in addition to Asta.  So that definitely continues into the second season, and it is going to be a slow burn.  We don’t want to do it too quickly where, suddenly, he’s caring about everybody because a lot of the comedy goes away at that point.  That’s not really going to happen until the very end of the series where he, sort of, figured it all out.  But, yeah, we are going to continue that.  As far as has it changed anything, I don’t think ‑‑ D’Arcy saving his life I don’t think really did much for him.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  No.  Almost, like, less.  I want to hear from Sara because, like, I’ve seen this from what I’ve seen in their interactions this season, that Sara ‑‑ the Asta‑Harry connection, it’s super deep now, and there’s a familiarity that is familial.  I just watch.  Like, he is getting to know the world, holding hands with you, and it’s, like, he has this safety net in you, and it’s really touching to watch.

SARA TOMKO:  Yeah.  There’s this really beautiful scene we have together once again in a really cool location where we were looking out over the lake.  In Season 1, we are looking out over the mountains while I’m barefoot in the snow, and in Season 2, it’s kind of the summer version of that, not quite barefoot but still looking out over a body of water, over the lake.  And we have this great conversation about that family is not just who you are blood‑related to, but it’s chosen and that there are people in your lives that you really care for, and you need to figure out who those people are.  And it kind of occurs to Asta, after she has a talk with her dad, that she’s maybe the only one that Harry cares for, and that’s a lot of responsibility when she’s got the whole world on her shoulders.  So, then she starts, kind of, pushing him out of the nest, which Alice is right.  We started having what felt like a mother‑son relationship a little bit.  She was, like, “You’ve got to get out there and meet people.”  And she has to have conversations with him, talking to him about his feelings, about pain, about fear, about family.  All the while, she’s still trying to connect with her daughter, and she’s also still learning about how to ask for help.  She’s going to, you know, without telling any spoilers, end up coming to D’Arcy for guidance in a way she never has before.  So, I think, once again, you are going to see Harry and Asta in this very similar trajectory in Season 2 where they are both still learning how to reach out and ask for help, which is pretty special.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Very well put.  Also, I think, in a way, Harry is so childlike.  I think it’s, sort of, Asta learning how to be a mother.

SARA TOMKO:  Yeah.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  And if she ever comes back around and has a real relationship with Jay, she can take that learning that she’s gotten from Harry to be a better mother for Jay someday.

SARA TOMKO:  Definitely.

COREY REYNOLDS:  She will be prepared to change Harry at some point.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Absolutely.

COREY REYNOLDS:  If he needs a change of some kind.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Yeah.

SARA TOMKO:  What did you say, Corey?  What did you say down there?  Can you hear me at the angle you are at?

MATTHEW LIFSON:  All right.  Our next question comes from Janice Malone, and Arlene Martinez will be on deck.  Janice, go ahead.

QUESTION:  Yes.  Hello.  This is such a fun show.  I’m so glad to see you guys come back for another season.  I’d just like to ask the entire panel here, has anyone ever, ever had what might be considered a UFO, extra‑terrestrial citing, or do you think you’ve ever met an extra‑terrestrial?

ALICE WETTERLUND:  I’ve done ‑‑ that’s a question an extra‑terrestrial would ask.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Yeah.  Does anybody else have anything?

ALAN TUDYK:  Chris.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  I did see a UFO once.  I was on my honeymoon.  I was at the beach.  I told this before, but I’ll tell it again.  It was 10 o’clock at night in the Bahamas.  It was very, very dark.  You could see every star in the sky, and suddenly, this star on the horizon started rising up.  We looked at it, like, “Why is that moving?”  And then it came at us, and within two or three seconds, it was above us.  It was a triangular shape with, like, six lights on the bottom of it.  It was light in the front, and it hit us right in the face.  The ship didn’t hit us.  The light hit us.  That would be a story.  And then it kept going, and that was it.  And even in that moment, I’m, like, “Did we just see that?”  I made a mental note to not let myself forget the fact that that was real.  So, I don’t know what it was, but it was certainly alien.

ALAN TUDYK:  And it made no noise, right?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  It made no noise.  It was literally upon us from the horizon to above us in about three seconds.  It just moved way faster than anything that we know of as humans on this earth.  So that definitely happened to me.  And, honestly, doing this show, I’ve met a lot of people who have come up to me and said, “You know, I’ll tell you, I saw this thing.”  A lot of people have seen this stuff, and there’s starting to be less stigma around it now.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Yeah.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  People are starting to come out with it.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Well, also, the government was, like, “Yeah, aliens are real.  Sorry.”  So that helps.

COREY REYNOLDS:  I mean, statistically speaking, it is virtually impossible that there isn’t alien life in the universe.  I think the biggest question comes the distance between stars or the distance between space time of getting to a place where they could actually get here or we could go there.  However, if you are talking about a civilization that might be millions or billions of years older than humanity, who is to say that they haven’t mastered space time travel, you know.  I think you’d be an idiot to think that we are the only intelligent life in the universe.  It’s stupid to think that.

ALAN TUDYK:  We are intelligent?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  I don’t think we can compare it to the (inaudible) movie when you taught him that (inaudible.)

COREY REYNOLDS:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  Thank you.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  It looks like we have time for one final question, and that is going to come from Arlene Martinez.  Arlene, go ahead.

COREY REYNOLDS:  No pressure, Arlene.

QUESTION:  Hi.  Nice to meet you all.  I was just going to ask you about what she just asked you guys about, UFOs, if you guys actually believe in it because I have a husband who is actually in Space Force, and we have arguments every time that we watch shows like this.  It’s, like, “No, there’s this.  There’s that.”  And he was actually watching, me with him, this show.  He’s, like, “Oh, my gosh.  So much,” and, like, “What do you guys” ‑‑ you know, he said about his experience, but I know we are not the only ones.  That’s my argument with my husband.  But do you actually believe there’s aliens out there?

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Wait.  So, your husband is Space Force and doesn’t believe in aliens?

QUESTION:  He always has an explanation for everything.  He actually works for space, the government.  So, he watches satellites.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  So, he’s a scientist, essentially?

QUESTION:  No, I don’t call him a scientist, but he just watches what happened here if we get missiles, and he just stops the missiles.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Yeah.  I think it’s the difference between believing and needing evidence.  If you need evidence, it’s not, like, a believer faith, right?

QUESTION:  Uh‑huh.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  I, for instance, have never had any alien experience or anything close to an alien experience, but I’m not closed off to the idea that there are ‑‑ I mean, I just know that the more science progresses and the more astronomy progresses and the exploration of physics, the less we know we know of things we thought we knew about.  And, so, what’s the point of saying there’s no ‑‑ there’s an explanation for everything?  I mean, okay.  Sure.  But, like, we don’t have all of the explanations yet, and that’s okay.  It doesn’t mean we are deficient as an intelligent species.  It just means where we are.

COREY REYNOLDS:  Apparently, there are.

SARA TOMKO:  Right now, we are a floating ball in the sky in a galaxy.  Do you know what I mean?  It’s freaking crazy.  So, I feel like our existence is alien, and maybe there’s theories, and everybody has their opinions, but nobody knows what we are doing here.  So why not?  There’s so many options, so many different stories to listen to.  Everybody has a different story to tell, and it doesn’t mean that we should be pointing fingers and saying, “No, you are wrong.”  You both are right, you and your husband.  And we all have a feeling and a way that we are existing in this world, but I personally think we are all alien.

COREY REYNOLDS:  If you think about it like this for a second, if you think about, like, the ocean ‑‑ right? ‑‑ to fish, we live in outer space, right?  And to fish, sometimes they get caught.  And you weigh them, and you measure them and this and that, and then you throw them back into the water.  And that fish probably swims down to other fish.  He’s, like, “Holy shit.  You are not going to believe this.  I was just abducted by these humans, and they probed me, they measured me, they took my weight, and then they just returned me.”  Like, “Dude, shut the fuck up.  You didn’t get taken into space or anything like that.”  Do you know what I mean?  So, to think that we couldn’t see that relatively happening to humanity as well like we are in space to fish.  Do you know what I’m saying?  We live in an environment that they can’t breathe in, that they can’t stay in for any sustained amount of time.  To be in this environment, they would need a life‑support system.  We are in space to them.  So, relatively speaking, I have no doubt that there’s something that comes down here and picks us up and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, and measures us and probes us and sticks shit in our asses, all of this stuff.  And they are just, like, “Oh, okay.  All right.”  And then they just toss them back.  I don’t see how that’s any different.  I think, if you use that as a metric, it’s clear to see that it’s absolutely possible, not only possible but quite feasible, that something like that happens to humanity.

ALAN TUDYK:  I need to get you to stop probing your fish.  That seems very invasive and unnecessary.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Hey, don’t knock it.

COREY REYNOLDS:  What did you learn from shoving your hand up that fish’s ass?

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  Just weigh it and put it back.  What are you doing?

ALICE WETTERLUND:  Oh, I’m sorry.  If something is in front of me, I’m going to probe it.

COREY REYNOLDS:  Sorry.  This hand ain’t made for probing.  Sorry.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  I don’t think we can top that.

COREY REYNOLDS:  This finger is radicular.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  So, I’m going to thank all of our guests.

SARA TOMKO:  A fish’s body, a fish’s choice.’ALICE WETTERLUND:  And you can keep that in.  You keep that in.  You write that stuff.

COREY REYNOLDS:  Right?  Absolutely.

CHRIS SHERIDAN:  It’s why fish are growing feet on land and fight us.

COREY REYNOLDS:  Absolutely.  This is the beginning of a giant battle that’s going to take place and what they feel is an interest, like, in space battle.  They’ve got their own Space Force.  They already have their own opinions about humans.  There we go.

MATTHEW LIFSON:  Well, I think we are ending on the highest of notes.  So, I’m going to thank the panelists.  That concludes the session for “Resident Alien.”  We will take a short break and pick back up with NCB’s “American Auto” at 10:45.

ALICE WETTERLUND:  And I’m going to be there for that too.  See you there.

Scifivision Interview with Chris Sheridan

MORE INFO:

Based on the Dark Horse comics, SYFY’s “Resident Alien” follows a crash-landed alien named Harry (Alan Tudyk) whose secret mission is to kill all humans. In season two, Harry is once again stranded on Earth where he must confront the consequences of having failed his people’s mission to destroy the human race. On his new quest to protect the people of Earth, Harry struggles to hold on to his alien identity as his human emotions grow stronger by the day. In an adventure that takes Harry and Asta (Sara Tomko) all the way to New York City, Asta brings Harry into the arms of someone he can call family. While back in Patience, Sheriff Mike (Corey Reynolds) and Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen) find themselves closer to unraveling the mystery of Sam Hodges’s murder. “Resident Alien” also stars Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler and Judah Prehn.

From UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, “Resident Alien” was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan. Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg of Dark Horse Entertainment, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank of Amblin TV, Robert Duncan McNeill, Christian Taylor and Nastaran Dibai also executive produce.

From UCP, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, RESIDENT ALIEN was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan (“Family Guy”). Mike Richardson (“Hellboy”) and Keith Goldberg (“The Legend of Tarzan”) of Dark Horse Entertainment (“The Umbrella Academy”), and Justin Falvey (“The Americans”) and Darryl Frank (“The Americans”) of Amblin TV also executive produce. David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) executive produced and directed the pilot.

Alan Tudyk

Harry Vanderspeigle, “Resident Alien”

Alan Tudyk stars in SYFY’s “Resident Alien” as “Harry Vanderspeigle,” an alien that crash lands onto Earth and must pass himself off as a small-town human doctor.

Emmy nominated Tudyk is a multi-dimensional actor whose credits span throughout stage, film, television and voiceover entertainment platforms.

In 2016, Tudyk appeared in Lucasfilm’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” as the scene-stealing security droid, ‘K-2SO.’ Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film grossed over $1 billion at the global box office and was the first live action Star Wars spin-off. He also voiced characters in two Academy-Award nominated animated films, playing the ‘Duke of Weaselton’ in Disney’s “Zootopia” and the rooster ‘Hei Hei’ in Disney’s “Moana.”

Tudyk is also the creator, executive producer and star of the Emmy nominated series “Con Man,” which was funded via Indiegogo with a record-breaking $3.2 million donation from over 46,000 fans. “Con Man” debuted at Lionsgate’s Comic Con HQ in 2015 and later aired on SYFY. Loosely based on Tudyk and Nathan Fillion’s experiences starring in “Firefly,” “Con Man” centered on the post-show life of ‘Wray Nerely’ (Tudyk) after “Spectrum,” a sci-fi TV series canceled before its time that later became a cult classic. In 2016, Tudyk, along with Fillion, also launched “Con Man: The Game” based on the series which allowed players to build and host their own comic book conventions.

Tudyk has shown audiences wide versatility in numerous television shows and a plethora of feature films. Recently, he co-starred in the Jay Roach 2015 SAG Award nominated feature “Trumbo,” opposite Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren and John Goodman as well as 2014’s “Welcome to Me” with Kristin Wiig. In 2013, Tudyk co-starred in the well-received Jackie Robinson biopic, “42,” opposite Chadwick Boseman as former Philadelphia Phillies manager ‘Ben Chapman.’ He made his feature film debut in 1998, when he first appeared opposite Robin Williams in “Patch Adams.”

Tudyk’s role in the Disney animated feature, “Wreck-It Ralph,” garnered him an Annie Award for his role as ‘King Candy.” He can also be heard in its sequel, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” as ‘KnowsMore.” Tudyk has also loaned his voice to ‘The Duke of Weaselton’ in Disney’s Academy Award-winning film “Frozen,” ‘Alister Krei’ in “Big Hero 6” and ‘Ludo’ and ‘King Butterfly’ on the Disney Channel series, “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.”

His additional film credits also include: “28 Days,” “A Knight’s Tale,” “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” “Death at a Funeral” (the original UK version), “Knocked Up,” “Tucker and Dale vs Evil,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “Serenity,” “Premature,” “Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter” and “Transformers 3.” Additionally, Tudyk motion performed the lead robot, ‘Sonny,’ in “I, Robot” opposite Will Smith.

In television, Tudyk can currently be seen in DC Universe’s “Doom Patrol” and season three of Netflix’s “Santa Clarita Diet.” He was a series regular on the critically acclaimed ABC comedy, “Suburgatory” as well as on NBC’s workplace comedy “Powerless” and BBC America’s “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. His work on Joss Whedon’s “Firefly,” has been highly lauded by fans and has gained him a strong cult following. Tudyk also appeared in “Strangers with Candy,” “Dollhouse,” “Frasier,” “Justified” and “Arrested Development.” He also was the host of “Newsreaders,” written and produced by Rob Corddry and David Wain, on Adult Swim.

Tudyk attended the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and has starred on Broadway opposite Kristin Chenoweth in “Epic Proportions,” played ‘Lancelot’ with the original cast in Monty Python’s “Spamalot,” as well as the lead role of ‘Peter’ in “Prelude to a Kiss” opposite John Mahoney.

Tudyk grew up in Plano, Texas and currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife.

He is represented by The Coronel Group and Gersh.

Sara Tomko

Asta Twelvetrees, “Resident Alien”

Sara Tomko stars in SYFY’s “Resident Alien” as Asta Twelvetrees. Strong and sarcastic, she works with Harry at the town’s health clinic.

Tomko is known for her recurring roles on “Sneaky Pete” and “Once Upon a Time,” as well as her appearances on “The Leftovers” and “The Son.”

She started her career in experimental theatre and musicals in Virginia, later moving to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue film. Her first independent film roles aired on SYFY, and she is thrilled that her TV career has brought her full circle. She is an actor, singer, producer, poet an artist.

Tomko is represented by Bohemia Group and KMR Talent.

Corey Reynolds

Sheriff Mike Thompson, “Resident Alien”

Corey Reynolds stars in SYFY’s “Resident Alien” as Mike Thompson, the local sheriff who runs the town with a chip on his shoulder, a cowboy hat on his head and an iron fist.

Reynolds is best known for his role on “The Closer,” which he starred on for six seasons. He will next be seen in the “Redline” and “Criminal Minds.” He recurred on “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Masters of Sex” and “Murder in the First.” He has guest starred on “Seal Team,” “Chicago PD” and “Criminal Minds.”

On the film side, he was last seen on screen in “Straight Outta Compton.” He can also be seen in the “Selma,” opposite David Oyelowo and Common.

Previously, he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance as ‘Seaweed’ in Broadway’s production of “Hairspray.”

Alice Wetterlund

D’Arcy Bloom, “Resident Alien”

Alice Wetterlund stars in SYFY’s “Resident Alien” as “D’Arcy Bloom,” the charismatic bartender at the local pub who, as a former Olympic snowboarder, is also a part of the avalanche control team.

Wetterlund has performed her non-yelling brand of comedy nationally at colleges, clubs, and festivals such as Just for Laughs, Bridgetown, Moon Tower, Women in Comedy, SF Sketchfest, RIOT LA, Bonnaroo and more.

She is known for her character “Carla” on HBO’s “Silicon Valley” and played “Kelly Grady” on TBS’ “People of Earth.” She can also be seen in the movie “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” as “Cousin Terry.” She has performed her stand up on “Conan” and currently co-hosts the popular podcast “Treks and the City” with Veronica Osorio. She recently wrapped “Search & Destroy” for Hulu, produced by Carrie Brownstein. Wetterlund can currently be seen on the latest season of Netflix’s “Glow.” Her hourlong stand-up special premiered on Amazon in August.

Chris Sheridan

Executive Producer, “Resident Alien”

Chris Sheridan serves as executive producer of SYFY’s “Resident Alien.”

Five-time Emmy nominee and BAFTA nominee, Sheridan has been a television writer and producer for 26 years. He has produced more than 400 episodes of television, including 17 seasons on the Fox Network animated hit, “Family Guy” where he acted as co-showrunner from 2004 to 2009. He remains a consulting producer on “Family Guy,” and has a feature film in development with Josephson Entertainment.

Proofread and Edited by Brenda

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Resident Alien poster

Dexter VS. Resident Alien

20 Ways in Which “Dexter: New Blood” and “Resident Alien” are similar!

Michael C. Hall as Dexter and Alan Tudyk as Harry

Dexter: New Blood

1. Dexter is a serial killer who has killed hundreds of bad people.
2. Dexter lives in a small, woodsy, snowy town in the fictional town of Iron Lake, NY.
3. Dexter has a cabin out in the woods, away from everyone in the nearby small town.
4. Dexter is dating a smart, pretty, intuitive Native American woman named Angela, who has a daughter. Angela adopted her daughter after her mother gave her up.

Julia Jones as Angela and Sara Tomko as Asta
5. Dexter says he loves Angela, but we’re not entirely sure he does or if he’s capable of that kind of love.
6. Dexter spent 10 years hiding out, trying to blend in and not to kill anyone.
7. Dexter chops up his victims and feeds them into the town incinerator (sometimes hiding them near his cabin).
8. Dexter’s teenaged son came to town, surprising him and creating conflict. They become close.
9. A mystery in the show is that someone else is murdering teenaged girls.
10. Dexter tries to avoid a handsome, suspicious African-American cop named Logan.
11. Sometimes Dexter hallucinates dead relatives, who guide him (really it’s his subconscious).
12.  Dexter is cute, in a goofy kind of way.
13.  We hear Dexter’s thoughts in voiceover.
14. The show is a one-hour black comedy, or a drama with many humorous elements.
15.  The show has excellent writing and acting.
16.  Many great actors have guest-starred over the years (in the original “Dexter” as well as the current show).
17. Dexter’s father’s name was Harry, and his son Harrison was named after him.
18. The show has many devoted fans.
19. Michael X. Hall (star of “Dexter”) was born February 1, 1971 (less than a month and a half before Alan Tudyk, star of “Resident Alien”).
20. Fans hope there will be a second season.

Resident Alien

1. Harry is an alien who killed the real Harry, a human, and took his place (after his spaceship crashed). Also, he spent the first season trying to fix his spaceship so he could complete his mission: to set off a device that will kill everyone on earth.
2. Harry lives in a small, woodsy, snowy town in the fictional town of Paradise, CO.
3. Harry lives in a cabin out on a lake, away from everyone in the nearby small town.
4. Harry is dating a smart, pretty, intuitive Native American woman named Asta, who has a daughter. Asta recently reconnected with her daughter, whom she gave up.
5. Harry and Asta have grown close and seem to have real feelings for each other, but we’re not sure if he’s capable of love, since he’s an alien.
6. Harry spent a year after arriving on earth, trying to blend in.
7. Harry chopped up the real Harry and hid him in his freezer.
8. The mayor’s young son, Max, can see the real alien and causes trouble for him. They become close.
9. A mystery in the show is that the real Harry murdered beloved town doctor Sam.
10. Harry tries to avoid a handsome, suspicious African-American Sherrif named Mike.
11.  Sometimes Harry hallucinates the real (dead) Harry, who acts as his subconscious.
12. Harry is cute, in a goofy sort of way.
13. We hear Harry’s thoughts in voiceover.
14. The show is a one-hour comedy, or a scifi drama with many humorous elements.
15. The show has excellent writing and acting.
16.  Many great actors guest-starred in the first season (and that will continue in the second season).
17. The alien that now calls himself “Harry” is the star of the show.
18. The show has many devoted fans.
19. Alan Tudyk (star of “Resident Alien”) was born March 16, 1971 (less than a month and a half after Michael C. Hall, star of “Dexter”).
20. Fans were elated to hear that there will be a second season (starting January 26).

Alano Miller as Logan and Corey Reynolds as Mike

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Interview with Corey Reynolds and Alan Tudyk

TV Interview!

Interview with Corey Parker and Alan Tudyk of "Resident Alien" on Syfy

Interview with Corey Reynolds and Alan Tudyk of “Resident Alien” on Syfy by Suzanne 3/23/21

NBC/Universal had a wonderful virtual junket last week, where we were fortunate to interview many of their stars. This particular interview was supposed to just be with Corey Reynolds, but Alan Tudyk showed up as well (much to our delight). I didn’t actually get to ask them any of my questions, but you can see the other reporters’ questions and hear my exchange with them. It was pretty funny in parts.  This is a great show, and I’m so happy that they’re going to have a second season.

Don’t miss the season one finale Wednesday, March 31, 10/9c.

Here’s the transcript of our interview, which doesn’t include my own comments. Make sure you watch the video!

Question:   Good morning, Cory. Good morning, Alan, thank you so much for joining us. [I’m] a big fan of the show and such a big fan of you Alan. I don’t know if anybody else could have ever played this character. Oh my god. Can talk a little bit about that. You’ve played a lot of weird characters, inhuman characters, but this one, even in your human form, from the first episode and the evolution and everything, it was just mind blowing to see that. What’s your process and stuff like that, and how do you still humanize your characters while being so inhuman?

Alan:   Hmm. I think a few things, I guess. You know, you have to start with you, when you act in anything. That’s the best way to go. Whatever you’re doing, it all goes through the filter of you as a human, you as an actor. Then you add things on that are unlike you. Harry’s an alien, and he’s using this body as a sort of meat puppet. He’s having to learn how to move this thing around from the inside. He’s Jim Henson’s hand, which was going to be the title, and I really think it should have been. So, I think that way, sort of as if he’s an alien peering out through the eyes of this character. Like just immediately, if you start thinking yourself that way, that you’re like something just sitting at the rim of the eyes looking out, it’s creepy, and you end up becoming a little creepy when you put your head space there.

And it’s just adding on all those little things that are given to you in the script. We’ve got great scripts, and because everything’s a first for Harry, specifically for Harry, he doesn’t know anything about being a human. That gives me a lot of leeway to go as far as I want to in many directions, because he’s curious. He’s curious, like a child, and can be surprised very easily. There’re really very few things you can’t accept about his behavior. He can do some really crazy stuff, and you can go, “Well, that makes sense.” So, it’s a it’s a fun character in that there’s a lot of leeway, a lot of leeway there.

Question:   Right. You want to kill the child, and I’m still like, “Sure, go ahead.”

[laughter]

Question:   Which is what I’m saying. I was surprised in the writing and your performance in that sense. Like, how can you actually keep doing that and still root for this character, which I really think is a huge cheers to your performance and [the] writing for that matter. Absolutely. So, congratulations.

Cory, you are so damn hilarious from your first appearance. It’s mind-blowing. I mean, not many people can just go ahead and be the Big Black and still, you know, not feel offensive or feel like –

Corey:   I feel offensive.

Question:   But I want to get to that. Initial[ly], it’s a comedy, and you’re a fantastic actor, but the show kind of taps into this guy’s confidence in being surrounded by white and Native people, but they don’t have the confidence and everything, keeping it so funny, but still kind of acknowledging [it]. So, can you talk a little bit about that? The race aspect of this issue where there’s a fantastic character so confident in himself, but doesn’t acknowledge – that seems ignorant of, like, you know, the race. I’m not sure.

Corey:   Yeah, you know, I had a question come up at our New York City Comic-Con a of couple years ago about that. I had one of the interviewers ask me, “Did Big Black have any concerns about being in a mountain town surrounded by all of those white folks?” I believe that was the question that was asked. I think my response was something along the lines of, “If he does, he hasn’t mentioned it to me.” [laughs] I think, obviously, there is a component of race there, and it’s hard to ignore in the climate that we’re in, but I think one thing we’re going to come to discover about Sheriff Mike, about Big Black, is that – at least for me, and I’m not even really sure if I’ve discussed this as much with Chris, because, we’ve played around with the idea and talked about it, but we haven’t really like delved into it. I think, for me, personally, Mike feels like the sheriff’s department in his hands when it comes to that race component is the safest place for it to be, because despite his exterior, I believe that he sees police work as being 90% communication and 10% enforcement. I think that as long as he’s in that driver’s seat, when it comes to the sheriff’s office, he knows that everyone in that town is going to be treated fairly. He knows that everyone in that town is going to be given equal credence, and no one’s going to be mistreated based on their creed, based on what they look like, who they love, or how they pray. I think that his efforts to fit in, fueled by his insecurities of fitting in, have been what has really fueled his dynamic and downfall with Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen). Mike is trying desperately to prove himself, and we’re going to begin to discover more and more what that’s rooted in and why he is that way.

…Hey, can I just add, one key thing about about Alan as well, when we talk about nobody else being able to play this role, like it’s hard to do scene work with Alan, because he’s so fucking funny and his embodiment of this character. If you watch the show, there’re two things, two little moments, little itty bitty things when he first shows up at the crime scene. He’s holding his hands in the position of his second pair of hands, and he’s like, “This is awesome.” Then, most recently, in the episode where his wife is played by Elvy, [she] is laying in bed with him, and he’s laying there on his back with his hands. You know, that type of commitment to letting that character exist is kind of like always running in the background for him. So, you have the things that we’re seeing in the foreground, but then there’s also this undercurrent of Harry that’s there that’s always being played and suddenly found all over the place. It’s just, he’s great man. Seriously, l’m constantly blown away by Alan. He knows this though. I mean, he knows I am.

Alan:   Thank you very much.

Question:   Do you do the motion capture for the alien?

Publicist:   Sorry, guys, we have to we have to let someone else have a have a turn because we’re gonna have to wrap it [up].

Question:   This is such a hybrid. You have the mystery of sci-fi. It’s from a comic. Is there ever a point where you’re in a scene and you’re like, “What’s the tone here? How do I approach this?” to get the most out of it, you know, to to make the scene really pop? Do you ever have an issue with that?

Question:   Alan?

Alan:   I don’t. There are times we finish a thing in a scene and I’ll say, “This is a one-hour drama, everybody, a one-hour drama,” because it’ll be on the heels of something so very comic. I think Chris [Sheridan] has done a great job in creating a world that can hold all of it. That is no easy feat, and when it doesn’t work, it’s so easy for it not to work, and I think he’s done a good job of of getting it to work.

When we did the pilot, that was something that we all talked about, just play it like a drama, you know, play it like a drama and the comedy will be there. I think we do that for the most part, but again, there’s leeway to be a little bit – You know, there’s a scene where Elvy, or my wife that I didn’t know I had, she’s gone downstairs and she’s opened up the freezer, and she’s taken out steaks, and she’s made steaks, and I’m saying, “Where did you get those steaks?” She says, “I got them downstairs.” And I’m going to say, “It’s closed; that door is closed,” and I say, “That door is open.” I had two takes where I said, “That door is open,” or “That door is open!” or something like that. Then, the third take, I screamed it, and that’s the one they used. So, you know, they use [it] at their discretion also. They have options. But in the world, there’s this alien who has new emotions, and he’s starting to feel he doesn’t have a great governor on his emotions. His feelings can just come up and come up in a rush. So, you can excuse it away that it becomes a very comic “Open!” screaming moment. So, I hope that it holds it all, and we do – I think, Cory, your stuff is so funny. You have the same thing. Right?

Corey:   Yeah, it’s trying to find a way to keep these ungrounded characters somewhat grounded. You know what I mean? The sheriff is definitely over the top, but truth be told, listen, I grew up in Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, Chesterfield County, just outside of Richmond, and a lot of my family was up in Dodgeville County. I have an uncle named Flip. You understand what I’m saying? So, you know, I had an uncle named Butt Cut, so I know folks, not quite like Mike, but he’s not that foreign to me. Maybe his attitude is much bigger, but the person he is, is pretty – I know this guy; I know guy.

And as far as getting the scenes and stuff together, we block shoot. So, we shoot two episodes at a time, so it does require in moments – Like we’ll be shooting something from episode two and three, literally, in the same day. We might even be using the same location but having totally different emotions from scene to scene, because they’re two different episodes. So, we do have to get a reminder every now and again from our directors, or Chris, or our script supervisor, of what’s happened between what are we coming directly out of [and] what are we bringing into this moment, which is pretty standard overall, but when you’re block shooting, it does create a unique kind of challenge to make sure you’re staying in the right moment for the right scene.

Alan:   And I don’t do motion capture on this show. Just a heads up to answer that question from before.

Here is the video version of it.

Interview Transcribed by Jamie of http://www.scifivision.com

Check out Jamie’s interview with Corey Reynolds!

MORE INFO:

Read Our Review!

‘RESIDENT ALIEN’ BLOOPER REEL & DELETED SCENE REVEALED
Season Finale Airs Wednesday, March 31 at 10/9c
In advance of the season finale, we’re excited to share the hysterical season 1 blooper reel and deleted scene from episode 7.

Based on the Dark Horse comic, SYFY’s RESIDENT ALIEN follows Harry, an alien played by Alan Tudyk (“Rogue One,” “Firefly”) that crash lands on Earth and passes himself off as a small-town human doctor. Arriving with a secret mission to kill all humans, Harry starts off living a simple life… but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world. As he does so, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: “Are human beings worth saving?” and “Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?”

From UCP, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, RESIDENT ALIEN was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan (“Family Guy”). Mike Richardson (“Hellboy”) and Keith Goldberg (“The Legend of Tarzan”) of Dark Horse Entertainment (“The Umbrella Academy”), and Justin Falvey (“The Americans”) and Darryl Frank (“The Americans”) of Amblin TV also executive produce. David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) executive produced and directed the pilot. “Resident Alien” also stars Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund and Levi Fiehler.

Hashtag: #ResidentAlien

SYFY PICKS UP DARK HORSE COMICS’ ‘RESIDENT ALIEN’ TO SERIES

breaking news | May 30, 2019

Alan Tudyk Stars in Series from UCP, with Chris Sheridan Executive Producing Alongside Dark Horse Entertainment and Amblin TV

David Dobkin Executive Produced and Directed the Pilot

NEW YORK, NY – February 28, 2019 — SYFY today announced the series pickup of RESIDENT ALIEN, a comedic drama based on the popular Dark Horse comics series by co-creators Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse. From Universal Content Productions (UCP), in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, the series was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan (“Family Guy”). Mike Richardson (“Hellboy”) and Keith Goldberg (“The Legend of Tarzan”) of Dark Horse Entertainment (“The Umbrella Academy”), and Justin Falvey (“The Americans”) and Darryl Frank (“The Americans”) of Amblin TV will also executive produce. David Dobkin (“The Judge”) executive produced and directed the pilot.

RESIDENT ALIEN is a twisted and comedic fish-out-of-water story that follows a crash-landed alien named Harry (Alan Tudyk) who, after taking on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor, slowly begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his secret mission on Earth — ultimately asking the question, “Are human beings worth saving?”

Tudyk (“Doom Patrol,” “Rogue One”) is joined by series regulars Sara Tomko (“Once Upon A Time”), Corey Reynolds (“The Closer”), Alice Wetterlund (“People of Earth”) and Levi Fiehler (“Mars”). The series will begin production in Vancouver this summer.

About SYFY
SYFY is a global, multiplatform media brand that gives science fiction fans of all kinds a universe to call home. Celebrating the genre in all its forms, SYFY super-serves passionate fans with original science fiction, fantasy, paranormal and superhero programming, live event coverage and imaginative digital and social content. The brand is powered by SYFY WIRE (www.syfy.com), the premier portal for breaking genre news, insight and commentary. SYFY is a network of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

About UCP
UCP is a premium content studio that operates with a highly curated indie sensibility, while simultaneously leveraging the power and scale of NBCUniversal. As fierce advocates for creators with an eclectic point of view, the UCP team develops pioneering original programming with partners such as Amazon (“Homecoming”), Netflix (“The Umbrella Academy”), Hulu (“The Act”) and YouTube (“Impulse”). In addition, UCP produces high-caliber content for NBCU Cable networks, including Bravo (“Dirty John”), USA (the Emmy® and Golden Globe®-winning drama “Mr. Robot,” the Golden Globe nominated “The Sinner,” “The Purge” and “Suits” ) and SYFY (“Happy!,” and “The Magicians”). UCP’s content library also features 800 hours of award-winning and critically-acclaimed content, including the Emmy Award-winning “Monk,” the Peabody and Hugo Award-winning “Battlestar Galactica” and the Emmy nominated “Psych.”

About Amblin Television:
Amblin Television, a long-time leader in quality programming, is a division of Amblin Partners, a content creation company led by Steven Spielberg. Amblin Television’s co-presidents, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, oversee all development, production and programming for the company. Amblin Television currently has thirteen projects in various stages of production including “Bull” and “Tommy” for CBS, “Roswell, New Mexico” for the CW, “The Haunting of Bly Manor” for Netflix – the follow-up chapter to The Haunting of Hill House, “Amazing Stories” for Apple, “Halo” for Showtime, a straight-to-series order for “Brave New World” from USA Network, “Cortes and Moctezuma” for Amazon, “Animaniacs” for Hulu, “Why We Hate” for Discovery, “Resident Alien” for SYFY, and the documentary films “Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind” for HBO and “Laurel Canyon” for Epix.

Some of Amblin Television’s previous credits include the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning drama “The Americans” for FX, Emmy-nominated HBO movie “All The Way” starring Bryan Cranston, “Smash” for NBC, “Under the Dome” for CBS, “Falling Skies” for TNT, “The Borgias” and “The United States of Tara” for Showtime, and “Las Vegas” for NBC.

About Dark Horse Entertainment:
Dark Horse Entertainment was spun off from founder Mike Richardson’s Dark Horse Comics in 1992. The company’s first major hits—THE MASK and TIMECOP — were based on Richardson’s creations and DHE has since produced over 30 films and series, including an Emmy Award–winning documentary, MR. WARMTH: THE DON RICKLES PROJECT. Recent projects include THE LEGEND OF TARZAN with Warner Bros., the DARK MATTER television series for Syfy network and POLAR, adapted from Victor Santo’s noir graphic novel starring Mads Mikkelsen (Rogue One) at Netflix. Current projects include a reboot of Mike Mignola’s HELLBOY starring David Harbour (Stranger Things) directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent), and THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, a Netflix original series based on the comics created by Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) and Gabriel Ba.

Proofread and Edited by Brenda

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Interview with Corey Parker and Alan Tudyk of "Resident Alien" on Syfy

Interview with Chris Sheridan and Sara Tomko

TV Interview!

Chris Sheridan and Sara Tomko of "Resident Alien" on Syfy

Interview with Chris Sheridan and Sara Tomko of “Resident Alien” on Syfy by Suzanne 2/22/21

I love this show, and it was great to talk with these two, even for the short time I had with them. They had great answers to my question. There other questions came from the other press interviewers on the Zoom call.

Here’s the video of our interview!

Question:   What’s been the most satisfying aspect of the response to the show so far?

Chris:   Gonna preview this by saying that I thought I was the only one who didn’t read any reviews, and as it turns out, Sara doesn’t read any either. That being said, I know I did join Twitter, and I do try to live tweet for an hour during the show. So, I do get to see a little bit of what people are saying. For me, and I’ll let Sarah talk, but for me, I mean, it’s been a long road; it’s been five years.

So, to put all this effort into something – and by the way, this happens all the time  – you put all this effort into something, and it doesn’t work for one reason or another, or you think it works, but no one likes it. So, to put all this effort into something for the main purpose of getting people to feel maybe better about their lives or better about feeling human, or getting them through the day or [giving them] something to look forward to, and look forward to laughing, and finding out that people really are doing that and enjoying it and looking forward to it and even in a small way having it make their lives a little better. I mean, yeah, it makes all the hard work over the last – you know, for me over the last five years – worth it. So, that’s the greatest thing, for me, is just feeling like you’re touching people in a way, even making them lives a tiny bit better. So, I love that.

Sarah?

Sara:   Yeah, I, like Chris, do not read the reviews, just so I kind of stay grounded. I don’t think too much about good or bad. I just kind of wanted to separate between just doing the work and letting the work speak for itself.

But it’s impossible to not hear from family and friends, especially who will send me sometimes things…but it’s so lovely, because they’re obviously very excited.

Meredith Garretson and I, who plays Kate, she’s one of my best friends, and right before the show premiered, we were talking about [how] it never occurred to us. What if we just aren’t good? We were all like, “It’s been two and a half years.” Corey [Reynolds], especially, would hype us up, like, “Yeah, of course, this is gonna go. Of course, it’s gonna be good.” We would always have these pep talks. Then, you get to that point where you’re about to reveal, and you’re like, “Oh, god, what if it’s not good?”

So, to hear that it is exactly what we believed it was, to hear that people are not only enjoying it, they’re inspired by it, that it’s something that’s bringing them solace in a time of grief – We’ve had a lot of really wonderful people reach out individually to us, and we have a little alien thread that we have going on. So, people are always letting us know, like my friend said “this,” or, my cousin said “that,” and, you know, my family is just floored. It feels really lovely to be seen by them in that way. They’ve known for a long time I’ve been an actor, and they’ve seen me do other parts. But I can’t tell you how many of them were like, “You have so much screen time.” [unintelligible] like they didn’t quite understand that. I’m like, “Yeah, I’m the lead next to Alan…” So, that part’s been really, really rewarding, and I just want people to continue to like it and continue to watch it, so we can get that season two, and three, and four, and the list goes on.

Question:   Chris, what made this a story you wanted to tell in the first place, and for Sara, what made Asta an irresistible character for you to play?

Chris:   I’ll jump in. I fell in love with Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse’s  comic, Resident Alien. What I loved about it mostly was this outsider alien observing human nature and trying to figure out what it’s like to be human. Out of all the things I loved about it, that one thing to me is the soul of the comment that I wanted to capture in the show. I really wanted to be able to tell a story about humanity and be able to sort of pick it apart and figure out, you know, what it is that makes us human, that makes us good, that makes us bad. Being able to do that in a light hearted way, through the eyes of this is new being coming to earth, I knew it’d be entertaining, and I thought that would be a really fun journey for me, as a writer, to sort of go down. That’s what really drew me to it.

Sara:   The thing that’s so enticing and intoxicating about playing this role is how vulnerable I get to be, how honest. When I was younger, especially early in my career, I longed for a character like this, I really did. You know, you’re in the industry, if you get a role worth a damn, it’s like, that’s a win. As a woman, if you get a roll that doesn’t have to just do with how you look, that’s a win, and if you get a role that the story’s great, and then the cast is great. I mean, then on top of it, it gets picked up and people like it. It’s just one checkbox after another with this show. That doesn’t happen for everybody. So, I just really feel grateful that my very specific dreams came true, which was I wanted to play a raw, vulnerable, honest, multilayered, larger than life character, and I think that’s what I got with Asta.

I think that the whole cast was brought together by a fate that none of us can really explain, which makes me feel really confident about our future. Even if the show didn’t go on, I believe that we all have this synergy now that we will continue to create things together in the future, because it just it works so well.

And I just I love playing her. I love being able to also be a woman on screen who looks like a woman. I [don’t have] the perfect body, not the perfect temperament, like that. That’s no shame or anything; that’s just the truth of being a woman. I get to just be that, and it’s it’s not pretty all the time. In fact, she’s messy. So, it’s really nice to be able to show that and show that that’s what it really is like most days for most people.

Question:   [What does] Asta think of how he changed the more he’s around? And how might you react if she finds out the truth?

Sara:   Whoo, how has it changed? Well, we have to get in pretty quickly to her trusting him. So, I think right away, it’s obvious, because this town is so small and so reliant on the doctor, which is what everyone tells him, you know, as a therapist, as someone who was like a father figure to me. I mean, we have to really just allow Harry into our world and let him replace someone that was really the heart of the town is what it really feels like.

So, it changes for me, because Asta has this ability to really hear a man in her life tell her the truth, the honest truth, and nothing but the truth. So, she finally gets an experience with a friend and a man that is unlike no other. So, that, ultimately, leads her to rethink how she looks at life and how she trusts men.

I think that, ultimately, leads to this question for the audience of, “What’s going to happen when she finds out?“ But he’s lied to her this whole time. I mean, it’s a really big irony. When I took on the role, I really didn’t know what would happen if she ever found out. I think there are ways that maybe there’s an understanding somehow oddly to [be], “Yeah, that makes sense. It makes sense, but you’re weird; you’re that weird.” But I also think that there’s going to be a feeling of betrayal if she ever finds out that information. That will be something that Harry’s gonna have to deal with. And he’s not gonna like when Asta is mad at him. He likes watching her get angry, but he’s never had it at him.

Chris:   Aimed at him, exactly right.

Question:   For Mr. Sheridan, once you saw what Alan Tudyk was doing with the role, were there any things that you wrote towards or away from?

Chris:   That’s a great question, and there was nothing that I wrote away from and everything that I wrote towards, and that we all in the writers room did. I mean, he’s so gifted that there was actually – I mean, the very simple quick answer is, there’s a sequence in in Episode Two, where he comments that he can’t switch bodies; he can’t leave and switch bodies to someone else. It took him three weeks to learn this body, and we just do a quick montage of him trying to learn how to walk and trying to sit down and, you know, can’t brush his teeth. That was that sequence I specifically put in for no other reason than the fact that it was Alan. And when I realized how talented he was, I mean, this is a guy who went to Juilliard and literally studied clowning, and when I could see what he could do with his body and his movements and how he really encapsulated this character, it just gave you so many places to go and so many ideas. So, that sequence specifically was for his strengths, but so much of it is stuff that he’s just doing on his own, all of this stuff that he does, with his hands. Even in the pilot, when he leans over Sam’s body and looks at it like this, this is him just naturally as an actor, sort of mimicking his sort of alien little baby arms that he has. That wasn’t anything anyone told him; that was just him sliding into the role and the physicality of the role. So much of what he does in the show, certainly physically and stuff that he’s brought to it, it’s writing to all his strengths. It’s realizing he can kind of do anything.

The other aspect of it, I’ll say really quick, is there are scenes in it in this season where we will see – and there was one in the pilot in the beginning, but there are more scenes coming up, where we will see what the real Harry Vanderspeigle was like. That was put in specifically to show the range of Alan Tudyk. You really get a chance to see what he’s doing with this alien role when you see Alan playing the real Harry Vanderspeigle, who’s not an alien, and see the differences between the two. So, as an audience, you’ll have an opportunity to experience that as well as the season goes on.

Question:   How does playing opposite him inform how you play Asta?

Sara:   Yeah, I was just about to say, actually, I think it’s really awesome to see the range he gets to play. I think there’s a lot of people that understand his comedy in his career, but Episode Four, when we’re lying down in the field, and he’s talking about his wife that’s passed on, there was this look that he has in his eyes that I don’t know if anybody’s ever seen Alan portray that kind of an emotion. I got a chance to see it a couple of times while we were working together, and it’s really beautiful. It’s really something that I think people don’t realize is in his bag of tricks, and it’s not a trick, it’s him just truly having a moment of stillness and honesty.  So, most of the time, obviously, when I’m playing opposite of him, I just sit back and watch. All those reactions are real and organic.

My little brother was like, “I think Asta’s reaction is going to become like an Asta-ism,” like one of her claims to fame. There’s so much range to what he’s doing that I can’t keep making the same face, otherwise, it’ll just be one note. So, I appreciate that he switches it up, because then it gives me the opportunity to have fresh reactions to him every time that are very real, and it’s so fun. When you’re on set, you want to be able to be in the moment.

Alan and I had a scene that you’ll get to see towards the end of the season that was a bit emotional, a little explosive, too, and it was really interesting to witness how we both approached that work. You know, he shows up – and we talked about this later, he shows up, kind of wanting to work at it from the ground up, this idea of how to get into it, and I show up wanting to kind of explode onto the scene and like soften into it. So, even as characters, even as actors, we have this different way of approaching it, but we always find our way to the middle ground, and our chemistry is really, really wonderful. You know, to be honest, when Alan and I do takes, it’s like two, three takes and we’re done. It’s almost a little sad. It doesn’t last long enough, because we just both click in so quick. We’re like, “Okay, well, good to see ya.”

Suzanne:   Hey, guys, love the show. Sara, I want to know how you feel about playing a Native woman, who’s a major character on an American show, which seems very rare.

Sara:   Yeah, thank you for asking. To be respectful to the other Native actors on the show, I am not a part of a tribe or a community. So, it’s respectful to at least acknowledge and showcase that there are so many wonderful Native actors on the show. Chris has done an incredible job being so inclusive to that community and writing so respectfully and authentically. You have [actors] like Eugene Brave Rock and my adopted dad, Gary Farmer, my, as we now know, daughter, Kaylayla Raine, and even we have a woman in the writers’ room, Tazbah Chavez, just so many incredible –

Chris:   [unintelligible]

Sara:   Yeah, so much incredible Native talent that I’m very fortunate to be able to play this role, because I have my own thing that I’m searching for in my own life, for how I fit in into this community, into this world, and where I belong. It’s so lovely to be surrounded by so many true Native actors who guide us both, Chris and I, who provide such guidance on what is really honest about a modern day evolutionary world of living on or off the reservation. It’s so lovely to witness that as Asta, who is raised in the community, but she’s not really one of them. So, she struggles with that. It’s the same thing I think I get to experience as Sara. I have my own family, oral traditions, but it’s not that I was ever raised in that community. So, it’s a little bit opposite, and I have to really sit back and listen and respect those beautiful, talented Native actors around me and say, “Hey, thanks for being here and showing up for us and guiding us on what is right and what is respectful.”

Chris:   Yeah, and I made some adjustments in the show. In Episode Two, Asta reveals that Dan is not her real father. She was adopted into his family and was raised with the culture, but is not native in the show. One of the reasons we did that, is because it was important to me that Asta felt like she didn’t belong, because that was the thing that connects her with Harry. Harry comes here as an alien and doesn’t belong to this world, and the fact that they’re both outsiders is the thing that connects them. And yes, as Sara says, I mean, in the process then of representation, there’re so many amazing Native American actors that we’ve cast into the show. There’s incredible native music that we’ve added to the show throughout the season, and a lot of these indigenous artists are having people hear their music that have never heard them before, and we’re really excited about that.

Interview Transcribed by Jamie of http://www.scifivision.com

MORE INFO:

Read Our Review!

Based on the Dark Horse comic, SYFY’s RESIDENT ALIEN follows Harry, an alien played by Alan Tudyk (“Rogue One,” “Firefly”) that crash lands on Earth and passes himself off as a small-town human doctor. Arriving with a secret mission to kill all humans, Harry starts off living a simple life… but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world. As he does so, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: “Are human beings worth saving?” and “Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?”

From UCP, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, RESIDENT ALIEN was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan (“Family Guy”). Mike Richardson (“Hellboy”) and Keith Goldberg (“The Legend of Tarzan”) of Dark Horse Entertainment (“The Umbrella Academy”), and Justin Falvey (“The Americans”) and Darryl Frank (“The Americans”) of Amblin TV also executive produce. David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) executive produced and directed the pilot. “Resident Alien” also stars Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund and Levi Fiehler.

Hashtag: #ResidentAlien

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Chris Sheridan and Sara Tomko of "Resident Alien" on Syfy

Interview with Alan Tudyk #2

TV Interview!

Alan Tudyk in "Resident Alien"

 

Interview with Alan Tudyk of “Resident Alien” on Syfy by Suzanne 2/2/21

I was thrilled to be able to interview Alan, even if they only gave me about 12 minutes. He was very nice, and he was fun to chat with. I love this new show, and I can’t wait to see more.

Here is the audio version of the “Resident Alien” part of it, or you can hear the entire interview here.

Suzanne: Hi, Alan, how are you?

Alan: Hey, how you doing?

Suzanne: Oh, good.

Alan: I’m great.

Suzanne: I’m a huge– I’m a huge fan of yours, ever since “Firefly.”

Alan: Thank you very much.

Suzanne: And I loved “Con Man.” It was so funny, and I’m glad to say that “Resident Alien” is funny. I’m hooked on it. I watched the first seven episodes this weekend, and it’s just great. I can’t wait to see the next one.

Alan: Thank you, how brilliant. That’s great. Thank you.

Suzanne: You’re welcome. So, can you tell us how this role came about for you?

Alan: It came about in a very normal way, sort of like most roles that I’ve ever had. They’re all pretty much just a call, like, “Here’s the script. They can’t find this guy. Would you want to go in on this?” type of thing. They literally auditioned many people before.

I fell in love with it immediately, went and auditioned, and met David Dobkin who directed the pilot, and Chris Sheridan. They were, I think, on FaceTime. We didn’t even know about Zoom back then! They were on FaceTime, and I was in a casting office in Los Angeles, and it was one of the auditions that I got done with and walked away and said, “I think that went well,” because they seemed so happy. Not always the case.

Suzanne: When was it filmed?

Alan: Oh my gosh, so long ago we filmed this. We filmed the pilot two years ago. We started, and then Syfy liked it and said, “Okay, we’re probably going to pick this up. We’re going to pick it up. Yeah, we’re picking it up.” It took some time to come up with that idea. Then they said, “But we don’t know when we’re gonna shoot it,” and they kept – I don’t know what they were doing. I just assumed it had to do with scheduling and big corporate-y decisions that I wasn’t privy to.

So, we finally shot it, probably almost a year later we got into shooting the series, and then COVID came along and pushed us out another six months. We finished it just a few months ago, two or three months ago.

Suzanne: Had you worked with any of the other people on the series before this?

Alan: Never, nobody. It was great. Well, it was great, because we all got along, and they’re kind of like a whole new group of friends.

Suzanne: That’s great. There’re a lot of people in that cast.

Alan: I know. I know. I knew Corey Reynolds before, from his work, but I have to admit, I hadn’t met or hadn’t seen anybody else’s [work] from the cast prior. Everybody’s so great. I hope when people watch it, they enjoy the new faces. They’re so funny and good.

Suzanne: Even though it’s a big cast, they make each character so distinct that you don’t get confused. Sometimes, you watch a show and you’re like, “Who are all these people?” But they did a good job with it.

Alan: Right, yes, they did.

Suzanne: I heard that you went to clown school to help you prepare for the role. Is that true?

Alan: I did, well… I took a clown class in – my first clown class in the late 1900s, in 1993 or 1994 when I went to Juilliard. There’s a clown named Chris Bayes, and he runs a program at Yale, and one of his students Orlando [unintelligible] is a great friend of mine, who also went to Juilliard, but now he teaches clowning at NYU. I know lots of clowns. I love clowns, like real clowns. Clowning is a big part of theater training at the major schools around the United States, for sure.

When we did the pilot, I had identified… so much of who Harry was could be considered clowning because of his physicality, the challenges in the physicality, and his lack of knowledge. He’s just waved into situations without knowing the rules, the social rules, and he’s curious. You just have to put put your head in a place where you’re looking at the world where anything is possible. That’s kind of how clowns see the world, and I mean, I’m talking good clowns. These are like the Lecoq School of Clowning out of France. These aren’t the kind of clowns that hang out in sewers and kill children and make them float. These are the real kind of Charlie Chaplin type of Laurel and Hardy clowns.

Suzanne: It’s interesting that you brought up the physicality, because when they showed you learning how to walk and talk and all that, it really reminded me of like a comedy version of Jeff Bridges and “Starman” when he first arrives.

Alan: I saw “Starman” when that thing came out!

Suzanne: Yeah, me too.

Alan: Yeah, I love his performance in that. His breathing always freaked me out. [laughs] He went for real on that, like he was into the mechanics of how to – I don’t go that far, luckily, for me, because I can’t hear that sound again and again, but definitely the manipulating your mouth, you know, that sort of thought process behind some of the speaking when he’s learning to speak. It’s like you’re pushing air over the back of the tongue and you manipulate the tongue in this way to create these sounds and these sounds mean these things. So, he becomes alien pretty fast if that’s your thought process going on in your head.

Suzanne: When you’re looking like the alien, how long does it take for them to make you look like that?

Alan: Two hours. Two hours, and there is another version of the alien that we haven’t seen yet that is much more involved. It’s sort of torso piece that is closer to four hours, and that involves body shaving, and I’m not a hirsuite man, but any kind of hair becomes problematic. So, you try to go all swimmer with yourself and just lose all the hair. So, that’s no fun, but usually just the main one, whenever the kid Max sees me and you see me standing there in my flannel shirt with the alien head and hands, that’s a two hour process.

Suzanne: What was the best part for you, filming the series?

Alan: I love this stuff. Early on, you mentioned walking and talking and sitting and trying to figure out how to sit down. Any new experiences, especially the physicality stuff that is that the challenge for Harry, those are so much fun for me. I enjoy going to work and falling down. It’s just something I’ve done since I was a child. Then I learned to balance, and then I kept falling down, because I found it very funny. I like falling down and getting hit with things. So, anytime there’s more of the physical stuff, those are fun.

Suzanne: Thank you so much!

Alan: Thank you.

Interview Transcribed by Jamie of http://www.scifivision.com

MORE INFO:

Read Our Review!

‘RESIDENT ALIEN’ BLOOPER REEL & DELETED SCENE REVEALED
 
Season Finale Airs Wednesday, March 31 at 10/9c
 
In advance of the season finale, we’re excited to share the hysterical season 1 blooper reel and deleted scene from episode 7.
 

Based on the Dark Horse comic, SYFY’s RESIDENT ALIEN follows Harry, an alien played by Alan Tudyk (“Rogue One,” “Firefly”) that crash lands on Earth and passes himself off as a small-town human doctor. Arriving with a secret mission to kill all humans, Harry starts off living a simple life… but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world. As he does so, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: “Are human beings worth saving?” and “Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?”

From UCP, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, RESIDENT ALIEN was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan (“Family Guy”). Mike Richardson (“Hellboy”) and Keith Goldberg (“The Legend of Tarzan”) of Dark Horse Entertainment (“The Umbrella Academy”), and Justin Falvey (“The Americans”) and Darryl Frank (“The Americans”) of Amblin TV also executive produce. David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) executive produced and directed the pilot. “Resident Alien” also stars Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund and Levi Fiehler.

Hashtag: #ResidentAlien

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Alan Tudyk as Harry and as the alien on Syfy

Primetime TV Review of “Resident Alien”

TV Review!

"Resident Alien" on Syfy

“Resident Alien” on Syfy Review by Suzanne 2/5/21

I love this show. Syfy let me see the first 7 episodes because I recently interviewed the star of the show, Alan Tudyk. The first episode is good, but it gets better and better. There were many times I laughed out loud. The story is great, and it has many wonderful characters.

Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Doom Patrol) stars as an alien that crash-lands in the small, snowy town of Patience, Colorado. He finds this doctor in a nearby cabin and kills him, then takes his identity. His mission was to drop a small device that will kill everyone, but he ends up crashing instead. He then has to try to find his spaceship and the pieces of the device, out in the snowy wilderness.

However, the town doctor is found dead, so the alien, now posing as Harry, the doctor, takes over his office temporarily. It’s fun to watch Harry learn how to be human. We also hear his voice-over, which is very funny. There are many characters, but the writing is so good that you don’t get any confusion about who they all are. Harry makes friends with the doctor’s nurse, Asta (Sara Tomko), and her friend D’arcy (Alice Wetterlund), the town bartender. There is also a funny town sheriff, Mike (Corey Reynolds), his deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen), the mayor (Levi Fiehler), the mayor’s son, Max (Judah Prehn), and more. Max is the only one in town that can see the alien as he really is.

You’ll notice that the show will remind you of other scifi shows, like “Mork & Mindy,” “Starman,” “Alien Nation” and more. We’ve really never seen a scifi comedy like this one, however. Not only is it a comedy/drama/scifi show, but it’s also a mystery. For each episode, they really leave you wanting more. As the episodes progress, we see that Harry is not alone here and that there are some people who know he’s here (and are not friendly). Linda Hamilton (“The Terminator”) plays a general that’s hunting for the alien.

Asta and her family are native Americans, and it’s great that they showcase them because that’s rare on American TV. Canadian TV shows seem to show them much more often than we do on this side of the border.

If you’re a fan of scifi or comedy, you won’t want to miss this one.

MORE INFORMATION:

‘RESIDENT ALIEN’ BLOOPER REEL & DELETED SCENE REVEALED
 
Season Finale Airs Wednesday, March 31 at 10/9c
 
In advance of the season finale, we’re excited to share the hysterical season 1 blooper reel and deleted scene from episode 7.
 

Based on the Dark Horse comic, SYFY’s RESIDENT ALIEN follows Harry, an alien played by Alan Tudyk (“Rogue One,” “Firefly”) that crash lands on Earth and passes himself off as a small-town human doctor. Arriving with a secret mission to kill all humans, Harry starts off living a simple life… but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world. As he does so, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: “Are human beings worth saving?” and “Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?”

From UCP, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, RESIDENT ALIEN was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan (“Family Guy”). Mike Richardson (“Hellboy”) and Keith Goldberg (“The Legend of Tarzan”) of Dark Horse Entertainment (“The Umbrella Academy”), and Justin Falvey (“The Americans”) and Darryl Frank (“The Americans”) of Amblin TV also executive produce. David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) executive produced and directed the pilot. “Resident Alien” also stars Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund and Levi Fiehler.

SYFY PICKS UP DARK HORSE COMICS’ ‘RESIDENT ALIEN’ TO SERIES

breaking news | May 30, 2019Alan Tudyk Stars in Series from UCP, with Chris Sheridan Executive Producing Alongside Dark Horse Entertainment and Amblin TV

David Dobkin Executive Produced and Directed the Pilot

NEW YORK, NY – February 28, 2019 — SYFY today announced the series pickup of RESIDENT ALIEN, a comedic drama based on the popular Dark Horse comics series by co-creators Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse. From Universal Content Productions (UCP), in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment, the series was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan (“Family Guy”). Mike Richardson (“Hellboy”) and Keith Goldberg (“The Legend of Tarzan”) of Dark Horse Entertainment (“The Umbrella Academy”), and Justin Falvey (“The Americans”) and Darryl Frank (“The Americans”) of Amblin TV will also executive produce. David Dobkin (“The Judge”) executive produced and directed the pilot.

RESIDENT ALIEN is a twisted and comedic fish-out-of-water story that follows a crash-landed alien named Harry (Alan Tudyk) who, after taking on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor, slowly begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his secret mission on Earth — ultimately asking the question, “Are human beings worth saving?”

Tudyk (“Doom Patrol,” “Rogue One”) is joined by series regulars Sara Tomko (“Once Upon A Time”), Corey Reynolds (“The Closer”), Alice Wetterlund (“People of Earth”) and Levi Fiehler (“Mars”). The series will begin production in Vancouver this summer.

About SYFY
SYFY is a global, multiplatform media brand that gives science fiction fans of all kinds a universe to call home. Celebrating the genre in all its forms, SYFY super-serves passionate fans with original science fiction, fantasy, paranormal and superhero programming, live event coverage and imaginative digital and social content. The brand is powered by SYFY WIRE (www.syfy.com), the premier portal for breaking genre news, insight and commentary. SYFY is a network of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

About UCP
UCP is a premium content studio that operates with a highly curated indie sensibility, while simultaneously leveraging the power and scale of NBCUniversal. As fierce advocates for creators with an eclectic point of view, the UCP team develops pioneering original programming with partners such as Amazon (“Homecoming”), Netflix (“The Umbrella Academy”), Hulu (“The Act”) and YouTube (“Impulse”). In addition, UCP produces high-caliber content for NBCU Cable networks, including Bravo (“Dirty John”), USA (the Emmy® and Golden Globe®-winning drama “Mr. Robot,” the Golden Globe nominated “The Sinner,” “The Purge” and “Suits” ) and SYFY (“Happy!,” and “The Magicians”). UCP’s content library also features 800 hours of award-winning and critically-acclaimed content, including the Emmy Award-winning “Monk,” the Peabody and Hugo Award-winning “Battlestar Galactica” and the Emmy nominated “Psych.”

About Amblin Television:
Amblin Television, a long-time leader in quality programming, is a division of Amblin Partners, a content creation company led by Steven Spielberg. Amblin Television’s co-presidents, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, oversee all development, production and programming for the company. Amblin Television currently has thirteen projects in various stages of production including “Bull” and “Tommy” for CBS, “Roswell, New Mexico” for the CW, “The Haunting of Bly Manor” for Netflix – the follow-up chapter to The Haunting of Hill House, “Amazing Stories” for Apple, “Halo” for Showtime, a straight-to-series order for “Brave New World” from USA Network, “Cortes and Moctezuma” for Amazon, “Animaniacs” for Hulu, “Why We Hate” for Discovery, “Resident Alien” for SYFY, and the documentary films “Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind” for HBO and “Laurel Canyon” for Epix.

Some of Amblin Television’s previous credits include the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning drama “The Americans” for FX, Emmy-nominated HBO movie “All The Way” starring Bryan Cranston, “Smash” for NBC, “Under the Dome” for CBS, “Falling Skies” for TNT, “The Borgias” and “The United States of Tara” for Showtime, and “Las Vegas” for NBC.

About Dark Horse Entertainment:
Dark Horse Entertainment was spun off from founder Mike Richardson’s Dark Horse Comics in 1992. The company’s first major hits—THE MASK and TIMECOP — were based on Richardson’s creations and DHE has since produced over 30 films and series, including an Emmy Award–winning documentary, MR. WARMTH: THE DON RICKLES PROJECT. Recent projects include THE LEGEND OF TARZAN with Warner Bros., the DARK MATTER television series for Syfy network and POLAR, adapted from Victor Santo’s noir graphic novel starring Mads Mikkelsen (Rogue One) at Netflix. Current projects include a reboot of Mike Mignola’s HELLBOY starring David Harbour (Stranger Things) directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent), and THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, a Netflix original series based on the comics created by Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance) and Gabriel Ba.

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"Resident Alien" on Syfy