Resident Alien's Edi Patterson on Wearing Alien Prosthetics: It's "Like You're in a Weird Dream"
With all those prosthetics weighing them down, Edi Patterson and other actors become as helpless as baby birds on set.
There's no denying that the practical alien costumes and makeup effects on Resident Alien are impressive, but keep in mind: The actors are actually wearing those alien costumes. So we couldn't help but wonder: Does it get a little uncomfortable?
"I’d say extremely," guest star Edi Patterson told USA Insider with a laugh. It's an understandable response, considering how Patterson spends hours at a time buried under the complex get-up required to transform her into the Blue Avian named Heather, who returned to Earth in Season 4, Episode 4 ("Truth Hurts") with the news that she had given birth to Harry's babies.
Edi Patterson talks strange sensation of wearing the Heather costume for Resident Alien
"It’s more [the fact that] it’s weird, if that makes sense," Patterson continued. "Once the foam gets on your ears, you can't really hear anything. Everything’s muffled. And then the foam that's on your upper lip, the second you take a sip of water, even through a straw, that foam gets soaked. It's weird, and then you've got wet foam in your mouth. And then the pinholes of the eyes are not in the middle, but they're kind of like in the corner of your eyes. You just feel like you're in a weird dream. People have to help you down off of things and grab your arm and walk you different places. You do get used to it. The prosthetics and stuff like that are no biggie. It’s just the feeling like you're in a cage, and then the wings are very heavy."
Thankfully, the application of the entire costume only takes just over two hours.
"It's definitely not one of those that you hear about where they're like, 'I have to show up at 2 a.m. to do my six hours of prosthetics.' It's not that, thank God," Patterson added. "The team doing all that is incredible, and I think they've managed to streamline all of it."
Once Heather assumes a human form, however, it's nothing but smooth improv sailing for Patterson and series lead Alan Tudyk (Harry Vanderspeigle).
"We just really make each other laugh," Patterson said when we asked about fun, behind-the-scenes anecdotes from their shooting days together. "He's originally from Texas, and I'm originally from Texas. There's a weird shared language in that. I can reference very niche or weird things and he knows what I'm talking about. I just think we have a ball. I know that may sound boring. You probably want like a prank story or something, but I just like the dude and I like hanging out with him. I think he's great."
Season 4 of Resident Alien drops new episodes on Fridays on USA Network and SYFY. All episodes will be available to stream exclusively on Peacock one week after they air.
