RESIDENT ALIEN – Season 3 key art | ©2024 Syfy

RESIDENT ALIEN is back for its third season Wednesday nights on Syfy, with Seasons 1 and 2 now available on Netflix. Alan Tudyk stars as the title character, an extraterrestrial who has taken on the identity of Colorado small-town doctor Harry Vanderspiegle.

Initially, Harry was sent here to destroy humankind. Since then, though, Harry has made human friends like bestie Asta (Sara Tomko), and decided he wants to save Earth. Good thing, too, because now we’re being menaced by Grey aliens. Harry has warily teamed up with stern Gen. Eleanor Wright, played by Linda Hamilton, to protect the world from this threat.

Tudyk works constantly. The Texas native is reprising his role as the android K-2SO from ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY in the TV series ANDOR, recently voiced the talking baby goat Valentino in WISH, and played Mr. Darling in the film PETER PAN AND WENDY. Tudyk was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for playing Wray Nerely in the series he created, CON MAN, and won an Annie Award for voicing King Candy in WRECK-IT RALPH.

Tudyk is at a party thrown by NBC Universal for its various networks and the Winter 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour. Earlier in the day, he participated in a Q&A session for RESIDENT ALIEN. This interview combines comments made at the panel and a one-on-one follow-up at the party.

Tudyk reveals that Season 3 was actually shot before the 2023 Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes shut down production. We ended a day before the strike started. It did postpone our post work, because [executive producer] Chris Sheridan, who’s the show runner and who edits for us, even though they were given permission to edit, he stopped in solidarity.”

Now that Harry has come to care about both individuals and the Earth, how has that changed Tudyk’s approach to playing the character?

“Well, he was definitely more open to killing humans in the very beginning. Now that Netflix is showing those again, I watched them, it was like, whoa. I’ll kill anybody. I’ve got a knife out here. I’m going to kill the boy, her him, her him. He has emotions now. Season 3 is sort of the teenage years of Harry, he’s left the nest a little bit from Mom, and he really falls in love with the Blue Avian [alien] that’s played by Edi Patterson. So, these emotions, it’s very different from how he was in the beginning, because now he has access to all of that, and it’s hitting him for the first time. He comes from a species that doesn’t have emotion at all. On their planet, nobody has emotion, so he’s becoming more human, and now he’s feeling love – not necessarily the best love, but the most intense love, and he’s going through that, and it’s a lot of fun, and it makes for some funny scenes, and some good story.”

Alan Tudyk in RESIDENT ALIEN – Season 3 | ©2024 Syfy

Tudyk was instrumental in the casting of Patterson as the Blue Avian. “I first suggested her [after] I had done an improv at Groundlings. She’s one of the main players there, when she isn’t working on THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES, and she’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, so when they talked about a love interest for me, she was described as the most beautiful woman in the world, and some of the names that they were throwing around were typical model-turned-actress – good actresses, beautiful women, but I wanted someone who also brought a dynamic that could be playful with Harry, because now he has an alien for the first time who’s his partner. They get to poke fun at the world and poke fun at humans, that they see them in the same way.”

Also, perhaps Harry’s idea of the most beautiful woman in the world might be different from a human’s notion of this? “Right. Well, she’s a bird. It’s her bird-ness that is so sexy.”

Speaking of different alien makeups on the show, has Tudyk’s relationship with Harry’s alien guise changed over the seasons? “Well, we lost the creator of the alien mask, who passed away. So, this season, the alien head is being done by a new shop, which is great. I think we evolved, because we were back to Season 1, when we were learning with each new application. But as far as putting it on, and wearing it, it’s all the same. If anything, it’s more comfortable. Every season, I would lose layers of skin off of my nose. By the end of the season, I would always walk away with open sores on my face, not the best thing for an actor – or anyone really, that has a face. And there was none of that last season. So, that’s a plus.”

Like show runner Sheridan, Tudyk affirms that he believes in aliens. “They exist. There’s so much [information] now that’s just out. It’s weird how it’s come out. The government’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, aliens, yeah, sure. Yeah, we’ve known about it, whatever, whatever, whatever, anyway, coming up next …’ It’s like, ‘Wait, no, can we get more into this?’ So, it’s tough to know what is true and what isn’t true. But it seems like the reality of aliens is there. So many people have similar experiences.

“We were asked by Chris to read COMMUNION [by Whitley Strieber]. This book is very unsettling. I recommend you read it if you want to be unsettled. Or you can go on YouTube, and Roddy McDowall reads it. It’s even creepier because of that guy’s voice.

“So, yes, I do believe in them. I’m not one of the people who’s waiting for them to come and save us all … I think it’s too hard to understand who they would be … They’re sort of with us and ‘We’ll snatch one every once in awhile and probe you a little bit here and there.’ But I don’t think they’d want to mess with us too much. They just kick back and watch the show.”

Alan Tudyk as Harry Vanderspeigle and Sara Tomko as Asta Twelvetrees in RESIDENT ALIEN – Season 2 – “Radio Harry” |©2022 Syfy/James Dittiger

As RESIDENT ALIEN has gone on, are there things Tudyk either would like Harry to do or stop doing? He hesitates to give a definitive answer. “I know some things that are coming. If we get a Season 4, I know some things that I wanted are going to come. In the beginning, he was a much darker character, and then as he’s gotten feelings, he’s softened up, and he’s become more human, and he’s like a child, he’s become a bit goofy. I think the goofiness will always be there, but I’d like for him to get dangerous now and again.”

Tudyk will tease that we will see Harry’s alien son, Baby, once more. “There will be Baby.”

As for working with genre icon Hamilton, “She’s a doll. She’s a sweetheart. It’s been fun to work with her. I actually finally have scenes with her. When I met her, I was having to sneak into the sets when she was working to introduce myself and go say hi and thank her for coming on the show. But on the show, the characters are very much leery of one another, and don’t trust one another. And they shouldn’t. They were enemies. They have a common enemy now, but they’re hedging their bets.”

And what would Tudyk most like people to know about RESIDENT ALIEN Season 3? “It’s our best season so far.”

Related: Exclusive Interview with RESIDENT ALIEN Creator Chris Sheridan on the end of Season 2

Related: Exclusive Interview with RESIDENT ALIEN actor Alex Barima on Season 1

Related: Interview with RESIDENT ALIEN Creator Chris Sheridan and cast Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko talk Season 2

Related: Interview with RESIDENT ALIEN Creator Chris Sheridan and actress Sara Tomko

Related: Interview with Alan Tudyk on Season 1 of the new Syfy extraterrestrial comedy series RESIDENT ALIEN

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Exclusive Interview with RESIDENT ALIEN actor Alan Tudyk on Season 3 of the Syfy series

Related Posts: