Corey Reynolds as Sheriff Mike Thompson in in RESIDENT ALIEN – Season 3 – “Homecoming” | ©2024 Syfy/James Dittiger
RESIDENT ALIEN has its Season 3 finale on Wednesday, April 3, on USA and Syfy, and streams on Peacock. Previous seasons are available on Netflix.
In the science-fiction comedy series, adapted by Chris Sheridan from the Dark Horse Comics, an extraterrestrial has assumed the identity of Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle (Alan Tudyk) in the small town of Patience, Colorado.
Corey Reynolds plays Patience’s sheriff, “Big Mike” Thompson. This isn’t Reynolds’s first series regular role as a representative of law enforcement. From 2005 through 2012, he played LAPD Detective David Gabriel on THE CLOSER, which earned him three SAG nominations.
Reynolds, who hails from Richmond, Virginia, was also a regular on MURDER IN THE FIRST (in which he played a district attorney). His feature credits include STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON and SELMA. Reynolds also has a background in stage, and appeared in the Broadway musical version of HAIRSPRAY.
Reynolds attends the Winter 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour, participates in the Q&A panel for RESIDENT ALIEN, and arrives at the network party afterwards – but leaves too soon for Assignment X to interview him.
A month later, Reynolds sits down for a one-on-one interview via Zoom.
RESIDENT ALIEN – Season 3 key art | ©2024 Syfy
Asked whether he was at the party or not, Reynolds explains, “I went to the party very briefly. I don’t know if you had a chance to read my shirt I was wearing, but it said, ‘I came, I saw, I had anxiety, so I left’,” he laughs. “I was there for like fifteen minutes.”
Before coming in to audition for RESIDENT ALIEN, Reynolds says, “I was aware of Dark Horse Comics, but not RESIDENT ALIEN. I was aware of HELLBOY.”
What did Reynolds know about Sheriff Mike at the time of his audition? “I didn’t know anything about the character, outside of how he was described in the original pilot. He’s in the car with Deputy Liv [Elizabeth Bowen] as they’re approaching Harry’s cabin. It was like, ‘He steps down into the snow with his burly muscles rippling.’ I first read that, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not getting this gig. I don’t have muscles. This is not going to be for me,’” Reynolds laughs.
“But I loved it. It was really one of the best pilots I ever read, and immediately, I heard the voice of the character that I play now. I’ve been waiting for a role like Mike. I had wanted to do something different – not just different for me, but different than any other Black character I had seen on television before. My goal is to break molds, change the game, not have to be relegated to specifics of what I’m supposed to be, based on who I look like, or what I look like. And so, Chris and Dark Horse and NBC/Universal all gave me an opportunity to swing for the fences, and try something really different, and unique, and I love it. My favorite character.”
While RESIDENT ALIEN is set in Colorado, Sheriff Mike has a Southern accent. Reynolds confirms that there is a back story behind this. “This is the stuff that Chris and I have discussed, to how [Mike] became how he is. Mike is originally from D.C., and he grew up there. When his mother died, his grandfather, who grew up in the Deep South, ended up moving with them, and was with Mike day-to-day as his dad, who was an officer in the D.C. police department before Mike, was at work. So, he was with his grandfather all the time, who, I think we determined, he may have been from Mississippi or somewhere far deeper South. So, that’s where he got this accent, is being around his grandfather as much as he was, growing up.”
This may also be where Sheriff Mike got his retro notions of male/female gender roles, which have been sabotaging his love life. “Well, I think that’s from Dad and from Grandpa. And I think the men of their age probably would have given him those types of guidelines of what men are supposed to be, what women are supposed to be, how men are supposed to act, how women are supposed to act.
Corey Reynolds as Sheriff Mike Thompson in RESIDENT ALIEN – Season 2 – “Radio Harry” |©2022 Syfy/James Dittiger
“But I think what Mike is confronting from the very first season, starting with Deputy Liv, is that thinking and that mentality doesn’t serve his reality. People are very resistant to change things about themselves, and sometimes it’s through that realization of what you have to lose that forces your hand to maybe change something about yourself. I think that’s what Mike is dealing with. He’s stubborn. He doesn’t want to change, but he also doesn’t want to be alone. And it’s part of what I think is, his issues are these things that are the foundation of who he is, colliding with the reality of what he wants. And those things don’t always work together for him.”
Did playing a more conventional detective for years on THE CLOSER help with playing Sheriff Mike? Reynolds laughs again. “Yeah! Mike is very different. In the Corey-verse, where all of your characters live – I think I’ve just coined a phrase, I’ve never heard an actor refer to their acting resume as its own universe – that aside, I’d like to believe that he and Gabriel are cousins that bump into each other every once in awhile at a cookout, and they are like, ‘Hey, I’ll call you the next time I’m in wherever,’ and ‘I’ll call you,’ but they never call. That’s what I think of those two guys. But yes, he’s very different. I like him, though. He’s a fun guy.
“As unorthodox as I am playing Mike, he’s still an investigator, he’s still a cop. I don’t think he would have gotten to where he is if he didn’t have any investigative ability, so I think that having that dramatic foundation of portraying a law enforcement officer definitely serves the undercurrent. I think it would have been harder to go from Mike to Gabriel than it would have been to go from Gabriel to Mike.”
Reynolds says that his theatre background has also been an asset. “It definitely helped with the karaoke [scene], but we were singing at 6:30 AM in the morning, which wasn’t really good for my voice. I think theatre is great for any actor. It comes into everything. Theatre is the boot camp for the actor.
“To me, television is much easier than theatre. Theatre, you can’t yell ‘Cut!’, can’t yell, ‘Reset!’, you can’t go back to One and start over. There’s a discipline there that I think serves actors really well, who move from theatre into film or into television. I would go back and do some theatre, if the right opportunity presented itself. It definitely honed my comedic chops, my timing, is all driven by theatre, because you’ve got the audience in the palm of your hand. You can feel in real time whether they’re with you or not. Once you’ve established that ability to recognize that and to connect with the audience, it actually is a little bit of a challenge to move from theatre to film and television, because you get your response from the audience in theatre immediately. So, you know the joke worked. Set it up, set it up, land the punchline, bam, audience laughs, ‘ha, ha, ha,’ it worked just perfect.
Alex Barima as David Logan, Mandell Maughan as Lisa Casper in RESIDENT ALIEN – Season 1 – “Sexy Beast” | ©2021 Dale Klippenstein
“You can do all of that in film and television, but a lot of that trust is given to your directors and [crew], because no one’s allowed to laugh on the set. Funny things are happening, but everybody has to keep it down, because we’re filming. And then, you can tell, when people yell ‘Cut!’, and everyone busts a gut, but in that moment [of performance], you’re trusting that the people watching it are hearing that audience timing in their head.”
What does Reynolds think have been Mike’s big transitional moments so far? “The first one that comes to mind, obviously, is the karaoke. He realized in Season 1 that his insecurities that I feel character-wise were being driven the fact that he’s the sheriff, but it’s Deputy Liv who has the greatest sense of discovery, and her investigative skills are amplified by the fact that this is her hometown. She knows the town better than he does.
“I think that’s really exemplified in the chase in the school, when they’re going after the pharmacist in Season 1. And Mike is running all around, chasing this guy. By the way, that stunt guy was way too fast. I was having a hard time keeping up with him. But he’s running all around the school while Deputy Liv is strolling, because she knows the shortcuts, because she went to this school. So, I think for him, there was an insecurity there when it came to her, and losing her changed things for him. He realized that it was more important to have her than for him to be or to see himself as being a better investigator than her. You know what I mean? I think he realized that they work better together, that she is good for him, and she is a good investigator.”
I think, similarly, his experience with Lena [Mike’s detective ex-girlfriend, played by Nicola Corriea-Damude] is also one where what he believes is bumping up against what he wants, because those two worlds aren’t working together. What he believes is that a man is supposed to be this, a man is supposed to be that, a woman is supposed to be this, a woman is supposed to be that. Well, in this world, he has the woman he wants, but she’s not that. So, he’s going to have to decide: what’s more important, that or her? Is [she] worth more to you than maintaining your dogma and status quo? And sometimes, as silly as it is, because it’s such an obvious answer to me, as Corey Reynolds, some people struggle with that answer. And I think he’s one of those people. It’s hard to change.”
As an acknowledged genre fan himself, how is Reynolds enjoying the fandom that has grown around RESIDENT ALIEN? “I like Marvel and DC, I’m into all that nerd stuff. I think I haven’t really had too much fandom [directed] towards me. When we go to our events, our audiences are really receptive, I like it. Nerds will rule the world one day, and now a lot of stuff that was considered nerdy when I was coming up is now mainstream. Not only that, it’s cool. So, I’m all about the fandom. Be a fan, man. Get out there and do it. Be your own best fan, man.”
Alan Tudyk as Alien Harry in RESIDENT ALIEN – Season 2 – “The Wire” |©2022 Syfy/James Dittiger
Series creator Sheridan has declared that he believes in extraterrestrial life. Reynolds cites mathematical probability for his own opinion. “If you’re talking about the vastness of the universe, we’ve got billions and billions of galaxies, and within those billions of galaxies are billions, if not trillions, of stars. And we’re now discovering that most stars have at least one or two exoplanets. So, these numbers are exponential. And then, when you go beyond the exoplanets themselves, you could talk about exomoons. So, some of those planets might have moons orbiting them that could also harbor life.
“So, to me, it’s a no-brainer. Of course there are aliens, because statistically speaking, mathematically, there’s no way to get around it. I think the biggest question becomes, have they been here to Earth? And if you’re talking about that, you’re opening yourself up to, first of all, interstellar travel, let alone intergalactic travel. It takes technology that would be light years beyond our own. You need a civilization that would be old enough to do that. The universe is 13.5 billion years old, so there are probably civilizations that are old enough to have developed that level of technology. Do they come to Earth? I don’t know. I mean, I kind of wish they would, honestly. I wish they would put out an Amber Alert on everybody’s phone and say, ‘Hey, aliens are real,’ because I think it would make humans see ourselves as more of a family, as opposed to the kind of divided societies that we have today. So, I think it was Ronald Reagan who said something along the lines of, ‘If aliens came, then we would all see ourselves as the same,’ which I think is kind of brilliant.
“[In] the Drake Equation, they take all of those factors, and they add them all in some scientific formula, where [scientists] are on ladders and they’re writing on glass, and they take all of that into consideration, and through the Drake Equation, they determined that within the Milky Way alone, there are probably at least, I think, twenty-five thousand intelligent life civilizations. But the problem is, you’ve got billions of stars. You sprinkle twenty-five thousand around a few billion, you’re never going to find them. The vastness of space is just too much. We’re never going to find them – unless they come looking for us.”
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Article: Exclusive Interview with RESIDENT ALIEN actor Corey Reynolds on Season 3
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