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If an alien was walking the sidewalks in your city, you probably wouldn’t think that Google’s definitions for “Douchebag” and “taint” would be high on his list of priorities. But, hey, even aliens sometimes want to fit in.
welcome to Foreign resident, The new Syfy / USA Network series that follows a shape-shifting alien (played by Firefly‘s Alan Tudyk) posing as a human doctor in a small town in Colorado. Although “Harry” never planned to walk on Earth, he crashes into his spaceship, losing an aircraft he needs to complete a mysterious mission in the process. When the show premieres on Wednesday, when the real city doctor eventually dies, Harry is dragged into society in ways he never expected, including helping with the puzzling murder case of the beloved doctor. But in the final moments of the episode, we learn what Harry’s true intention is: to kill all humans. Every last of them.
Will Harry’s plans change once he befriends the townspeople? Series Creator / EP Chris Sheridan (Family guy) spoke to TVLine about it and more, including why Tudyk was the right guy for the gig and what was to come later this season.
TVLINE | Alan Tudyk is perfect in this role. Was it written with him in mind?
I didn’t really write it with anyone in mind. When we started auditioning, we saw dozens of actors. I thought I knew what the character was until Alan arrived. I knew what he was doing was what it should be. It wasn’t far from what I’d imagined, but it was far enough away that I was ashamed that I hadn’t thought about it.
Alan came along and was able to do what the other actors weren’t doing, being an alien without being robotic, but also having enough humanity in him that people wouldn’t think, “This guy is from outer space.” It’s a really fine line. In a lot of cases, the choices were to play like a leading man, and as soon as you do, you forget he’s an alien. Then there were actors who came in and fair played the alien, and as soon as they did it feels like it’s never going to work because it’s not a cartoon. Alan was able to walk that line perfectly. He was one of the few who could do an alien take and being hysterical at the same time without it feeling broad or outlandish. His humanity passes because Alan himself has a lot of humanity. He’s a good person and has good energy, and it shows in his performance. [Harry] made bad choices in the pilot, so I was dependent on a little help from the actor to help the audience forgive him for some of the things he does, and Alan was able to do that for us. (Read what Tudyk had to say about the role here.)
TVLINE | Can you tell us a bit more about the design of the creature for the alien? Are these mostly practical effects, and is it really Alan in the Mask?
In the pilot, we didn’t have time to put Alan in the mask except for a scene that we had to redo. In Episode 2, we adapted Alan for the mask. It takes a few hours [to get in the mask] in what is already a very long day. I asked him, “Would you be prepared to do that?” because I felt we would have a better performance if he did it himself, and there was no doubt in his mind. He said to me, “Of course I do.”
The mask is cut into pieces and then painted. Bill Terezakas, who created the sculpture and the mask, did an incredible job. From the middle of the face down, he created what I think is silicon in a thinner layer, so that all the expressions Alan has in his mouth and on the lower part of his face show through the mask. Everything from the middle of the face is denser. All eye movements, blinks, eyebrows… are all a 2D digital overlay. Alan’s acting really shines through in this mask in large part because of the way Bill designed it. It really is a brilliant build.
TVLINE | It doesn’t take long for Harry and Asta to form a friendship. Despite Harry’s awkwardness, what brings them together so quickly?
Asta has walls up and is closed off to everyone, but finds herself opening up to Harry in the pilot in a way she hasn’t done with anyone else in a long time. Harry was there for her, and in his opening and giving Harry his positive energy, it hits Harry, who then brings down his alien walls a bit. A moment ago [in Episode 1] where Asta compliments him and says, “You did a good job,” and that’s the start, in my mind, of Harry gaining the knowledge of what it’s like to be human. He feels something hot at this point, and that’s the reason he’s protecting her in the pilot. It’s the thing that begins to connect them.
TVLINE | At the end of the premiere, the alien makes it very clear that he’s a villain who wants to destroy humanity. What can you tease about Harry’s relationship with humanity, and will that change over time?
Harry comes to Earth without caring about humans at all. Her alien species has no emotions or feelings, she has missions to accomplish. They look at us like ants or like the moth in the cupboard that eats your crackers. When he comes down here and takes over the body, he realizes that he’s actually infected with human emotions, so he starts to feel those things that humans feel… love, fear, hate, all of them. those things he had never had before.
One of the things I realized very early on was that his journey is really that of a child. It’s the kid in the playground pushing another kid and when that kid starts crying, the first one feels bad and says, “Oh, maybe I don’t want to do this again. I don’t like how I feel when I make this child cry. As Harry slowly begins to acquire these human emotions, he slowly acquires empathy like a child does. We will see Harry slowly begin to learn what it is to feel and to be human.
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