Alien: Earth is out on Hulu and FX with its first two episodes on August 12th. The show recently had a press conference with the cast and crew including Noah Hawley (creator/EP/writer/director), David W. Zucker (EP), Sydney Chandler (Wendy), Alex Lawther (Hermit), Timothy Olyphant (Kirsh), Babou Ceesay (Morrow), Samuel Blenkin (Boy Kavalier). The action in Alien: Earth shifts from deep space to Earth in the year 2120. To kick it off, Noah Hawley had some interesting ties to Blade Runner in addition to the original Alien.

“It was Ridley who made Alien and then went to make Blade Runner. He introduced this idea of synthetic beings, and then he went on to explore that in more depth in Blade Runner. What I would say is, by exploring the synthetic beings in Alien, I’m certainly not trying to make Blade Runner, but I understand how the comparisons can be made, certainly aesthetically.”

There are plenty of synthetics in Alien: Earth including Kirsh played by Timothy Olyphant. He and Wendy are the main synthetics in the series. They both have different views on humanity than previous synthetics in the series. Kirsh, in particular, is more benevolent, but as the series goes on, his true intentions come out. Here’s what Hawley had to say about that.

“We talked a little bit about the programming that goes into a Kirsh, and this idea that maybe, not only is he programmed not to harm his boss in any way, but disagreeing with the boss is also discouraged. Getting angry at the boss is verboten. If you don’t seem to see eye-to-eye, maybe just give him a little smile and tell him ‘Fuck you’ with your eyes.”

Here’s what Hawley closed out on Blade Runner talk with.

“You could look at Blade Runner and think, Well, that must be what Earth looks like in Alien. It’s raining all the time, etc. But I would say to the department heads, ‘If you find yourself making Blade Runner, you’re making the wrong Ridley Scott movie.’”

Wendy’s Childlike Wonder And Being An Adult

FX’s Alien: Earth — Pictured: Sydney Chandler as Wendy. CR: FX

Sydney Chandler really embues Wendy with a wonder. Here’s her process on the character.

Yeah. Wendy is very much a blank page. You can’t research a hybrid. I feel like Noah was  able to create a very layered, grounded character. As far as balancing the two, it really depended on who I was  acting with on the day and in what scene? You know, every actor would bring a different color to the work,  which would kind of give me more information of who I am playing. It was kind of a collaboration of finding  Wendy that way. But I would have this image of, you know, two magnets kind of pressing up against each  other, and you just can’t get them to touch as far as the mind, which is known, and this body, which is  unknown territory. It’s kind of like what’s in the middle—what’s that void?—is what she’s seeking.

Finally, Noah Hawley talked about making the show and what went into it.

I could talk a little bit about the origin, which is, you know, if my job is to render the emotional  experience of watching Alien into a new delivery system, which is this television show, then one of the critical  feelings is the discovery of the life cycle of the Xenomorph. I mean, it’s really four monsters in one, and each  step is worse than the last, right? And so, part of the horror—what scarred Babou so much, right—is first, it’s a  facehugger, which is terrible, and then you think, “oh, that’s over,” and like Sam said, you go have a little lunch  and then something bursts out of your chest.

So, there’s this discovery process that after seven movies, we  can’t get back. But if I introduce new creatures and you don’t know how they reproduce or what they eat, then  you feel that dread every time they’re on screen; or they’re not visible but you know they’re out there because  you’re not sure what’s going to happen next. And for me, it was really just function over form. What function  do they need to provide in the story? And then I just tried to gross myself out as much as possible, you know,  as I went through the process. And then the design process that we went through with Wētā and the creature.

You can check out Alien: Earth on Hulu and FX, the first two episodes are available now.

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