Posted in: SYFY, TV, USA Network | Tagged: edi patterson, Resident Alien

Resident Alien: Edi Patterson on Harry/Heather Dynamic, Alan Tudyk

Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones) spoke with Bleeding Cool about her return as Heather on SYFY and USA's Resident Alien and more.

Emerging from the world of voiceovers at the turn of the millennium, Edi Patterson burst into the live-action TV scene as a comedic force, appearing in shows like Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2 Broke Girls, Californication, and The League. She's also starred and recurring roles on Partners, Black-ish, Vice Principals, We Are Bears, The Fungies, The Last O.G., and The Great North. Her biggest role was on the HBO evangelical dramedy series The Righteous Gemstones as middle child, Judy Gemstone, for all four seasons. Patterson's latest is her recurring role as the Blue Avian, Heather, one of the few quirky alien characters of the SYFY/USA sci-fi comedy Resident Alien. She spoke to Bleeding Cool about her season four return unexpectedly saving the group from the Mantid (voice of Clancy Brown), getting into costume, meeting series star Alan Tudyk at the legendary improv group the Groundlings, and Heather's tragic love story with the alien who takes the form of "Harry Vanderspeigle" (Tudyk) before he reveals he's lost his alien form due to the Greys.

Resident Alien: Edi Patterson on Harry and Heather's Love Story

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Resident Alien', and how did you get involved last season?

The main thing that intrigued me was watching it and being incredibly blown away by what Alan was doing with the Harry character. Everyone on the show is genuinely so talented, to know that my scenes were going to be with him and we would be able to get into it, that's what initially intrigued me so much. I watched a bunch of the show and really enjoyed it.

Playing one of the few alien characters in the series, was there any additional inspiration you took to playing Heather, aside from the Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse comic? How do you feel about continuing the role this season?

I loved that I was able to come and continue the role this season. I was really happy that Heather showed back up, but I was not stoked for there to be a breakup between Harry and Heather, but I was stoked that their breakup is very heartbreaking. I felt that it should be. They're probably one true love, twin flames, or whatever you want to call it. I liked that it went that raw and real with them breaking up.

As far as my additional inspiration, it was to really mean it and try to make this [character] a real being. I did some research on how birds move their heads, and there comes a certain point where you're only capable of what you're capable of in all that get up, prosthetics, all the wings, and whatever. I did want her to, at times, move like a bird, even though she's not a full bird. She's a Blue Avian. I wanted it to seem like a true being that could exist, and I wanted to add a bit of bird stuff if I could, if I was able to pull that off.

Were you in full costume, or was it mocap? How did you do your scenes?

I was in full costume all the time for it, and then they went back and made me really tall. I wear green tights so that they can make my legs really long, but it's always fully me in all the stuff. I'm standing on platforms and doing different things to be taller than Alan. It's always me, I've always got full prosthetics on, full things over my eyes, foam filling my ears, and giant heavy wings on my back. That's all me.

Did it take a ton of hours in the makeup chair? How did you move? I can't imagine it was comfortable.

No, it's very much not comfortable, but the team that did all the makeup is pretty incredible, and so as much as something like that can be streamlined. They've figured that out. It was probably, all told, the makeup was maybe an hour and a half, and you definitely hear stories where that kind of thing can take upwards of four [hours], and you must get up very early in the morning for people. That was awesome, how great they were with streamlining all of that, and then, you probably add like a half hour to get all the you know the spacesuit on and zip all the under things that then turn into VFX, and then put the wings on the metal things on the back. Probably two hours and some change to get it all in

When you're filming your scenes with Alan, how did you guys feel each other out as far as energy goes? Was it something you guys prepped beforehand, or was it just something you jumped right into?

We, weirdly, a bunch of years ago…Alan had come and guested in an improv show I was doing at the Groundlings. We had met, but it had been a long time, but he knew I came from an improv background, and I knew he was capable of improvising. I would say, "We had an immediate comfort and trust, which is such a win and so lucky." I felt like from the get-go, we could go for it, and we were both improvising from a place of character, and we could let it rip, which was very fun. I felt comfortable with them immediately.

Resident Alien, which also stars Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler, Judah Prehn, Elizabeth Bowen, and Meredith Garretson, airs Fridays on SYFY and USA.

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