The tagline for 1979’s “Alien” reads: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” But “Alien: Earth” was filmed on our planet, so Sydney Chandler’s costars probably heard her swearing when she realized a dead body prop was actually an extra.
The new TV series from Disney and FX takes place two years before the events of the original movie, and explores what happens when a handful of creatures, including the terrifying Xenomorph, crash-land on Earth.
Their arrival sparks a deadly race between Weyland-Yutani and Prodigy Corporation, two all-powerful companies that want to catch the bloodthirsty monsters to do nefarious experiments.
In an interview with Business Insider in London, Chandler, who plays a human-android hybrid called Wendy, recalled encountering what she thought were some particularly realistic dead bodies while filming on the set of the Prodigy building.
“I remember, especially in the higher parts of the Prodigy building, there’s a moment where there’s a good amount of stuff happening on the ground. I just remember getting real close going, ‘This looks so real!'” she said.
“I didn’t know one of them was alive! I thought it was a prop,” she added. “I remember I walked by and he went, ‘Hi.’ And I went, ‘Fuck! Hello! You’re doing so great at being dead!’ It’s amazing.”
“I’m a psycho for that stuff. I think it’s so cool,” Chandler said.
Chandler wasn’t the only cast member shocked by the gore in “Alien: Earth.” Babou Ceesay, who plays a cyborg named Morrow, told BI that the actors saw details that audiences won’t, like “body parts that have been ripped off that leave you feeling a bit ‘ugh.'”
He also described a scene in episode two involving the Xenomorph’s bloodthirsty handiwork as “disgusting.”
Recalling the gross prosthetics on set, Timothy Olyphant, who plays an android called Kirsh, told BI: “It makes you feel like a kid, being able to work with those things. Everyone ‘oohs and ahhs’ when you really get to work with them.”
The special effects on the show were so good that he joked they stole the spotlight from the actors.
“It is hard not to take offense to it! You’ve been acting your ass off all day, and the thing that gets all the applause is the egg. The egg with some KY Jelly, people go nuts,” he said.
“Alien: Earth” starts streaming on Hulu on August 12 in the United States and on August 13 on Disney+ in the United Kingdom.
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