In the original Alien, the crew of the Nostromo was entirely over their heads in attempting to not only survive, but also hopefully neutralize the threat of the frightening xenomorph. What audiences witnessed in Aliens, though, was a highly trained group of Colonial Marines arriving much more prepared for a terrifying situation, only for them to also see massive casualties. In the upcoming Alien: Earth, a task force from the Prodigy Corporation hopes to contain the threat of monstrous beasts who crashland on Earth, but whether having a homefield advantage could lead to a more successful mission is yet to be seen. Alien: Earth premieres on FX on August 12th.
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FX describes the series, “In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. In this Corporate Era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). The first hybrid prototype named ‘Wendy’ (Sydney Chandler) marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides into Prodigy City, ‘Wendy’ and
the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.”
Starring as Prodigy’s response team are Alex Lawther as Hermit, Diêm Camille as Siberian, and Moe Bar-El as Rashidi.
ComicBook caught up with the stars of Alien: Earth on the set of the series to talk the new adventure, how it’ll surprise longtime fans, and more.
ComicBook: What did Alien mean to you before this opportunity came about? What was your connection with the franchise?
Alex Lawther: I had definitely seen the first film. I was a big fan of Ridley Scott’s work. I’d done a film with Ridley a few years ago called The Last Jewel. I had also concurrently been a fan of Noah’s work, Noah Hawley, our showrunner. The meeting place of the two seemed really exciting.
Diêm Camille: I’m a fan. I’m not like, “Oh, I know what they said in this scene.” I will let the superfans do that, but I’m a fan of storytelling and I’m a fan of the franchise and how they made horror films that I could watch, because I usually wasn’t a fan of horror films until I watched Alien. It was just so inspiring to see how they made a near-future story that I could connect to somehow, even though it seems so unrealistic. There are so many parts and so much core and heart that is relatable. And Sigourney Weaver is always relatable. She’s the Queen Bee.
Moe Bar-El: I saw the first Alien when I lived in Iran and I didn’t really speak English properly, so I didn’t quite understand that. I just remember the visuals of the Alien coming out of the stomach and everything. Those images stuck with me. Then when I got the job, I rewatched Alien 1 because I don’t like to get too lost in the universe of whatever it was before. I rewatched Alien 1, loved it, and I was like, “I’ve seen enough to know the direction of the show and how it works,” because we’re kind of keeping the ’70s vibe for this series. I just ended it there. I can’t wait to watch Prometheus, especially because I’m a huge [Michael] Fassbender fan, as well. But just Alien 1, for me, and I’m sticking to that for now.
So with what you knew of Alien and not even knowing the story necessarily because of when you first saw it, do you feel like that impacted you at all with how you approached your character and the way you viewed it as a kid of not even necessarily knowing what they were saying, but just what they were conveying through their body language and facial expression?
Bar-El: I think yes and no. I think yes, because, again, it was a film that came out in the ’70s and because Noah made it specific that we want to keep that ’70s vibe through costume, through hair, which is why I have this George Michael hair going on at the moment. They dyed my hair brown and gave the highlights and whatnot, I think just to keep the vibes of the show, but for my character specifically, no. I approached it just fresh. Like, who is Rashidi, where’s he come from, what’s his background? I kept the original Alien completely separate to my character-building.
Based on that legacy, what surprised you most about Alien: Earth, once you dove in and got the scripts?
Camille: I was very — not surprised, but very excited about how much the script is a page-turner. I knew that Noah was a great writer, obviously. We all know that. But when I read it, I was like, “He’s one of the best writers I’ve ever met.” Like, “What is this? How does he do this?” Because he just knows all the shifts, all the twists and the turns, and the way he writes is super exciting. I could see the images unfolding. I know that viewers can totally expect tear-jerking visuals. This is going to be insane.
But also, because there are themes about family, about love, loyalty, friendship, that I really, really relate to and love about the scripts. That is going to ground the show, as well. So as soon as it gets like, ‘Oh, my God,’ it sucks you back in to the reality of it.
Lawther: I find sci-fi really thrilling because you get to explore potentialities, you get to explore things, take an idea and say, “Well, what might this look like in the future? Or what would happen if the trajectory we’re currently on went this way instead?” So I think sci-fi is like a really … It’s quite a philosophical realm of genre. Quite a philosophical genre.
And I think this show, coming at it from my own perspective as Hermit, is trying to explore that quite-blurred line between something alien and something human and where one ends and the other begins, and I find that question really exciting and tricky.
Once you got the part, did you go back and dive into the lore, or knowing that this was so much its own thing, did you try and just stick with what the material was?
Lawther: I revisited some of the films, just because you do whatever you can before you start working, but then actually since being here, it’s been as useful watching Noah’s previous work and getting an understanding of his rhythms and cadences as a writer as anything else, because what’s so thrilling about Noah is his imagination. Not just what he’s written on the page, but then when he’s on set as a director, he’s so playful and unusual and detailed. It’s been about embracing that, really.
There’s a theme of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan in the show itself, and that feels replicated in how the cast comes from so many different corners of the world to land in Bangkok. What has it been like collaborating with your co-stars? Were you able to pick up the dynamics immediately or was there, maybe not a learning curve, but preparation off set to get in that mindset?
Lawther: We actually did have a lot of prep time, which was doing stunts and doing hand-to-hand combat. So that physical work was really useful. I think they brought us here early also to just acclimate or acclimatize to the weather here and the time difference and us all coming from different parts of the globe. Essentially, a big part of the cast, we’re of a similar age, which has been lovely, so we’re a bunch of like late 20-somethings in Bangkok.
I think most of us, it’s our first time here, and we’ve just been welcomed, really open-armed by the Thai crew and the Thai team. It’s been quite an easy beginning to this adventure, yeah.
And you play Wendy’s brother in the series, did you have a different type of preparation with Sydney to form that bond?
Lawther: I think we share a certain quality in wanting to explore all different corners. We have a real curiosity, the both of us, of finding out what that relationship looks like specifically and what that past was that we shared, so many weekends spent just hanging out, really, and just chatting and sharing ideas and trying to find a shared language.
What was it about the character that, you read it and you immediately connected with? And then, also, what was the part of the character that seemed entirely unlike you?
Bar-El: I think what I could relate to was we both like to go to the gym quite a lot, as you will see in Episode 1. Also, he’s a very strong-willed character in a sense that he will go for what he wants and what he believes in, but then, at the same time, he’s following orders. He’s not going to make his own decisions and go the wrong way and be the villain. I think that was definitely relatable because I think me, personally, I have a very direct vision of what I want and how I’m going to get it and what I’m going to do to get it. I think Rashidi, in that sense, is the same way. He has a mission, he has orders, and he will do what he can to complete the mission and get him and his team back to safety alive.
What I couldn’t relate with was the military training. I went to a shooting range a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, “I’m going to be good at it because we had a couple of weeks of military training.” But the second I started shooting a gun, I was like, me and Rashidi have nothing in common in that sense, because he’s a badass, he knows how to handle a gun, and Moe has no idea how to hold a gun or shoot a gun.
Lawther: I really liked, in Hermit, in a world that seems otherwise non-human, maybe, and that includes the reactions for the … There’s characters in the show that operate in a very rational, unemotional way, and that’s their MO, their modus operandi. And Hermit, I feel, runs contrary to that and is led by deep feelings about what it is to be a human being and about community and about care, and I really loved that. There’s juxtaposition in a story called “Aliens,” and he’s a medic and he’s always trying to search for something that is human, and that’s his quest, I suppose.
And then the most foreign thing, was… He’s also a medic in a military environment, so that very tough, uncompassionate world was very foreign to me, and it was interesting trying to find the characters, that quite-soft character’s place within that quite hard framework.
Camille: I really love characters that get to be vulnerable, because I usually don’t get to be vulnerable in my roles. They’re usually very stereotypical or, just confirming tropes and stuff. The past year, I’ve picked up roles that are a lot more humanizing, finally, and offered more roles that are humanizing. This role is definitely a full human, and what really lured me in was the fact that she’s so strong, she’s so badass, and cool, but she’s also superstitious. Where does that superstition come from? Because she has people she loves that she’s trying to protect, and the fact that she has a thing with Hermit, where it’s like, he annoys her because people die around him, and she doesn’t want to die. She also doesn’t want the people she loves that could die, and he’s also bad at his job, in her opinion.
In her mind, when you apply yourself, you need to say that, you need to be focused and ready at all times as a Marine. Because she’s an E4 Corporal, she’s also responsible for other Marines. So it bugs her that people are not focused. It’s really cool to have a character that feels responsible, but is super cheeky at the same time, and really playful, brave, but at the same time, there are moments in the script where I realize, “Oh, she’s also a bit lonely.” That’s something that really appealed to me, because I was like, “There it is, the vulnerability that I’m looking for,” because I wouldn’t want to play someone who’s tough all the time, because no one is.
Once you actually got on set and got to bring those more vulnerable scenes to life, was it a reaction on your part of, “That’s right, this acting thing is really hard, or was it opening up the floodgates of, “I finally get to do all this stuff I haven’t gotten to do,”?
Camille: I actually had one of my favorite moments the first week of military training. Rob Inch, our stunt coordinator, showed me the previz of the stunts that I was going to do, and it was the biggest stunt. I was like, “Okay, good start.” Up until then, I had tried to stay calm about me getting the role, because I was like, you hear about the stories, people on set being replaced or recasted, whatever. So I was like, “Stay calm, stay calm, girl.” Then when I saw the previz, I started crying. He was like, “Wait, is she okay?” Like, “You’re going to do this,” and I was like, “I’m crying because I suddenly realized what I’m doing. I’m doing Alien.” It was such a beautiful moment. I feel like the way Noah has handpicked the cast and the Thai crew and the OG crew, is a testament of the confidence in him. And that’s the driving force of everything he does and writes.
Because we all came in with such gratitude and kindness and hard work, so when I’m gunning up all the time — every day, I’m with a gun. The gun doesn’t make me feel safe, but the people around me do. I think someone asked me, “Did you trust the people who had to do the stunts with you and everything?” I trust everyone because they’re here for a reason. That immediately makes me trust them.
Is there a specific episode that you are very excited about, without giving away details about what’s in it? But when the show premieres and people love Episode 3, is it going to be, “Wait for Episode 6,”?
Bar-El: It’s definitely one of those shows where you see the earlier episodes and you’re like, “Whoa.” And then when the further episodes come in, I know they’re still rewriting some stuff as well, so it’s not 100% confirmed, but the action gets a lot bigger as it goes on. I think the Alien fans will see a lot more of what they want to see, without giving too much away, but I think the Alien fans are getting what they want, for sure. They’re getting their money’s worth.
Alien: Earth premieres on FX on August 12th.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or Instagram.
Stay tuned for more of our Alien: Earth coverage, including exclusive interviews with the cast and crew, by heading here.
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