Conversations at Home with Alan Tudyk of RESIDENT ALIEN

Hey, welcome to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Conversations at Home program. I’m Damian Holbrook from TV Guide Magazine.

Before we are joined by our guest today, I want to let you know that the SAG-AFTRA Foundation is a non-profit organization that relies entirely on donations to provide emergency assistance and free educational programs to SAG-AFTRA artists.

This conversation is made possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Over the past year, the Foundation has given nearly seven million dollars in COVID relief to more than seven thousand performers.

If you are a SAG-AFTRA artist and need help, please ask. And if you can help, please give. Information can be found in the description of this video.

Thank you for your support. Now, without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce actor Alan Tudyk from Resident Alien.

Damian: Hey, welcome to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Conversations at Home program. I’m Damian Holbrook from TV Guide Magazine.

Before we are joined by our guest today, I want to let you know that the SAG-AFTRA Foundation is a non-profit organization that relies entirely on donations to provide emergency assistance and free educational programs to SAG-AFTRA artists.

This conversation is made possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Over the past year, the Foundation has given nearly seven million dollars in COVID relief to more than seven thousand performers.

If you are a SAG-AFTRA artist and need help, please ask. And if you can help, please give. Information can be found in the description of this video.

Thank you for your support. Now, without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce actor Alan Tudyk from Resident Alien. Alan, hello.

Alan: Hello!

Damian: I feel like we have chatted many times recently. It’s always my favorite part of the season when we get to do press.

This show is just a delight, and also a really big hit. Syfy is reaping huge rewards from it with great ratings and Rotten Tomatoes scores.

But I want to go back to 2018 when you guys first shot the pilot. This is a show that took forever to get here. How did this project come to you?

Alan: I was evidently very late in the process for the creators. It came to me like any normal project. I just got a call and the script, and I read it and said, “Oh yeah, that sounds like something I would do. It seems really fun.”

They’d already seen over 100 people. I don’t know who to talk to about that — my agent, the casting director? Why didn’t you think of me before 112 people came through the door?

They were ready to put it on hold, because according to Chris, they hadn’t found the alien guy. So I went in thinking, “All right, I’ll give it a shot.”

I auditioned, and it was one of those projects that went really fast. They said, “Oh hi, hi, hi, can you come back tomorrow?” I think I came back the very next day, maybe with Chris Sheridan. Actually, I must have met with them all at once — that seems more likely.

It was 2018, right? Exactly — pre-pandemic times. Chris was on a video conference because they were already up in Canada. They gave me a couple of directions, taped it, and then I had the job pretty fast.

Damian: Wow. Looking back at that time, it’s very possible they didn’t come to you sooner because you were already busy with Dirk Gently, voicing Young Justice, doing Santa Clarita Diet, The Tick. Maybe they thought you weren’t available.

Alan: It’s possible. I remember saying that. It was difficult in the beginning, because I had just agreed to do Doom Patrol. I had to fly to Vancouver to start Resident Alien, then leave and go to Atlanta to shoot the Doom Patrol pilot, then fly back to start Resident Alien.

It became a back-and-forth thing for a bit.

Damian: Had you been aware of the comic books at all?

Alan: No, not at all. Zero.

The comic book is great, but it’s very different. There are similarities — an alien lands on Earth — but in the comic, he’s always an alien when drawn. People don’t react to him as mean, but there’s no little kid who sees him. People just figure it out.

Characters are different too — the sheriff is older, the mayor is older, and everybody’s white except Asta and her father. The alien is green. The comic feels almost like a procedural — he’s always discovering things and solving crimes.

Damian: The look they chose for the alien in the show is also different than in the comic.

Alan: Yes. He’s very pointy-eared in the comic, almost like My Favorite Martian.

Damian: Did you have any say in the design of the costume?

Alan: No, that was all decided beforehand. Those sketches were probably made a year or two before. It’s great though — I love the little arms that come out and grab things.

I tried to put those in. If you watch season one, especially early on, when he’s just become human, he touches things and grabs them in a three-fingered little-hand way, like he’s still getting used to human arms.

Damian: Did you create a kind of schedule for how he would evolve physically and socially?

Alan: No, we went script by script. If something felt too advanced for him, I’d bring it up. Chris Sheridan, who created the show, is very collaborative with the actors and all artists on the show.

Damian: Had you known him before?

Alan: No. Chris is a good-looking guy, like six foot five, athletic build, but he cares about women’s issues and has total nerd cred. He came from The Simpsons and now he’s doing this alien show.

He definitely has the mind for telling stories that matter, not just plot.

Damian: So you shot the pilot in 2018. We introduced it at New York Comic Con in 2020. Then the show premiered in 2021. You’ve been living as Harry for four years already.

Alan: Yes, and we haven’t even completed season two yet. That’s not bad considering the global pandemic in the middle. Some shows didn’t even get a second season because of that.

Damian: You filmed in Vancouver the whole time?

Alan: Yes, but we also shoot in a little town on Vancouver Island for the town exteriors, and sometimes in Whistler for glacier scenes. We take a helicopter up to an actual glacier — those are fun days.

Damian: And Vancouver Island has all those farmer’s markets and shops, right?

Alan: That’s Victoria. You’re thinking Granville Island.

Damian: Right. And it’s wild how many shows film there. At one point there were 65 shows shooting simultaneously.

Alan: Yeah, and because our show is set in Colorado, it really looks authentic. Some shows shoot in Vancouver pretending to be Metropolis, but we embrace the mountain town vibe.

Damian: Do you run into other actors from other shows?

Alan: Sometimes. I ran into Jesse Martin from The Flash once. The Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver is where lots of actors stay, but since the pandemic, my wife and I actually bought a place here. She’s Canadian, so we live in our own little house now.

Damian: That’s nice. And I just learned your wife choreographed the opening credits of Peacemaker. You were basically her dance muse, right?

Alan: “Dance muse” might be a little strong. She watches me dance and steals moves. James Gunn gave her ideas, she put them together, and I was the test actor. If I could do it, anyone could.

People online want the “Tudyk cut” released. We’ll see. Maybe for charity.

Damian: Did she help you with the drunk dancing in the Resident Alien pilot?

Alan: I definitely ran that by her, but mostly that was just me being an idiot — which is also what I call dancing.

Damian: When we first meet Harry, he wants to destroy Earth and even eat children if necessary. Did you judge the character?

Alan: He started out much colder, more of a killer. Now he’s sweeter, though still arrogant. He cares what Asta thinks, and his humor comes more from reacting emotionally to things — fear, sadness, sympathy — almost like adolescence.

Damian: That humanizing of Harry really only works because Asta, played by Sara Tomko, is extraordinary.

Alan: Yes. She’s the audience. If she cares about Harry, the audience can too. We never even did a chemistry read — we just lucked out.

Damian: You’ve worked with so many ensembles — Firefly, Rogue One, Resident Alien. Do you consciously keep working nonstop?

Alan: I used to. My wife actually told me to stop. I had Con Man, Powerless, Rogue One, and voice work all overlapping, then Doom Patrol, then Resident Alien. She finally said, “You’ve got a problem.”

Damian: And yet you still sneak in voiceovers.

Alan: Yes, those don’t feel like work. Nathan Fillion has a home studio — I can just text him.

Damian: This show seems like the whole package for you — voiceover, physical acting, comedy, effects, relationships, ensemble.

Alan: Yes, and I love that many of the cast are new to TV viewers. This season I even get more scenes with characters I hadn’t worked with before.

Damian: We even got Alex Borstein guest-starring this season.

Alan: She’s fantastic. Chris knows her from Family Guy. When he suggested her, I said, “Are you serious? She’s perfect.”

Damian: The show also deals with climate change — Harry rethinking humanity because of Earth’s condition.

Alan: Yes. From his perspective as an alien, Earth is beautiful but sick and damaged. That’s the most pressing planetary issue right now, so it made sense.

Damian: This season we learned Harry’s race is water-based, which explains why he can talk to octopuses.

Alan: Yes. Octopuses on Earth share DNA with his species. Nathan Fillion voices the octopus in the sushi restaurant.

Damian: Do you know much about Harry’s backstory?

Alan: Not a lot. I know about birth and death — his people send offspring into the Icewind Desert to see who survives. It’s brutal, not emotional. He doesn’t really care if he has children, except he once mentioned worrying about number 726.

Damian: With all of this, would you like to direct or write an episode?

Alan: I’ve thought about it. I’ve directed before, but since I’m in so much of the show, it would be tough. Maybe I could write one. Writing is hard — not like digging ditches, but like forcing yourself to clean your room. Still, it’s magical when it flows.

Damian: Well, maybe during hiatus you can.

Alan, this has been awesome. It’s always great to see you.

Everyone, don’t forget — Resident Alien on Syfy, currently in its second season.

On behalf of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, thank you for sharing your experience, process, and craft with your fellow performers and with me. Thank you so much.

Alan: Thank you, I appreciate it.