If an alien were walking the sidewalks of your city, you probably wouldn’t think that Google’s definitions for “Asshole” and “contamination” would be at the top of their list of priorities. But, hey – even extraterrestrials want to fit in sometimes.
Welcome to Inhabitant of another planet, The new Syfy / USA Network series that follows a shape-shifting alien (played by Firefly(it’s Alan Tudyk) posing as a human doctor in a small town in Colorado. Although “Harry” never planned to set foot on Earth, he landed with his ship, losing a device he needed to complete a mysterious mission in the process. At the show’s premiere on Wednesday, when the city’s real doctor ends up dead, Harry is pulled into society in ways he never expected, including help with the intriguing murder case of the beloved doctor. But in the final moments of the episode, we learn what Harry’s real intention is: to kill all humans. Each one of them.
Will Harry’s plans change when he befriends city residents? Series / EP creator Chris Sheridan (Family man) talked to TVLine about it and more, including why Tudyk was the right guy for the show and what’s to come this season.
TVLINE | Alan Tudyk is perfect in that role. Was it written with him in mind?
I didn’t actually write with anyone in mind. When we started the test, we saw dozens of actors. I thought I knew what the character was until Alan came in. I knew that what he was doing was what it should be. It was not far from what I had imagined, but it was far enough that I felt ashamed for not having thought about it.
Alan arrived and was able to do what the other actors weren’t doing, which was to be alien without being robotic, but also to have enough humanity that people wouldn’t think: “This guy is from outer space”. It’s a very fine line. In many cases, the choices were to play as a protagonist and, as soon as you do that, forget that you are an alien. So, there were actors who came and only played the alien, and as soon as they did that, you feel like it’s never going to work because it’s not a cartoon. Alan was able to follow that line perfectly. He was one of the few who was able to make an alien shot and be hysterical at the same time, without appearing wide or funny. His humanity arises because Alan himself is very human. He is a good person and has good energy, and that shows in his performance. [Harry] makes some bad choices on the pilot, so I was depending 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 little bit about the creature’s design for the alien? Are they mostly practical effects, and is Alan really in the mask?
At the pilot, we didn’t have time to put Alan in the mask, except in one scene that we had to re-shoot. In episode 2, we adjusted 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 willing to do that?” because I felt that we would perform better if he did it himself, and there was no doubt in his mind. He said, “Of course, I’m doing this.”
The mask is put in 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 whatever expressions Alan has on his mouth and the bottom of his face show through the mask. Everything from the middle of the face up is more dense. All eye movements, blinks, eyebrows … it’s all a 2-D digital overlay. Alan’s performance really comes through in that mask, largely because of the way Bill designed it. It is really a brilliant construction.
TVLINE | It doesn’t take long for Harry and Asta to form a friendship. Despite Harry’s embarrassment, what brings them together so fast?
Asta has erected walls and is closed to everyone, but finds herself opening up to Harry on the pilot in a way that she hasn’t done with anyone in a long time. Harry was there for her, and in his opening and giving Harry his positive energy, it hits Harry, who then drops his alien walls a little bit. There is a moment [in Episode 1] where Asta praises him and says, “You did a good job”, and this is the beginning, in my mind, of Harry acquiring the knowledge of what it is like to be human. He feels something hot at that moment, which is why he protects her on the pilot. It is what begins to connect them.
TVLINE | At the end of the debut, the alien makes it very clear that he is a villain who wants to destroy humanity. What can you suggest about Harry’s relationship with humanity, and will that change over time?
Harry comes to Earth without caring about humans. Your alien species has no emotions or feelings, they have missions to fulfill. They look at us as if we were ants or the moth in the cupboard that is eating their cookies. When he comes here and takes control of the body, he realizes that he is really infected with human emotions, so he is starting to feel these things that humans feel … love, fear, hate, all these things that he has never felt before .
One of the things I realized early on was that your journey is really that of a child. He is the child in the playground that pushes another child and when that child starts to cry, the first child feels bad and says: “Ah, maybe I don’t want to do that again. I don’t like what it is like when I make that child cry. ”As Harry slowly begins to gain these human emotions, he is gaining empathy in the same way as a child. We will see Harry slowly begin to learn what it is like to feel and be human.
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