Photos by: James Dittinger/SYFY
Alan Tudyk might be one of the most prolific actors working today with credits spanning across stage, film, television and voiceover entertainment platforms.
Among his work are roles in such varied projects as Disney’s Frozen, Big Hero 6, Moana and Zootopia, A Knight’s Tale, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Patch Adams, Wonder Boys, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Trumbo, Pixar’s Wreck-It-Ralph, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Suburgatory, and Dollhouse. In addition he has appeared on the DC Comics’ properties Doom Patrol and Powerless, as well as various animated film and series including portraying The Joker on Harley Quinn.
On Broadway he starred opposite Kristen Chenoweth in Epic Proportions and Prelude to a Kiss opposite John Mahoney, as well as portraying Lancelot with the original cast in Monty Python’s Spamalot. Tudyk also starred in the cult television series, Firefly and it’s follow-up film, Serenity, which led to his project Con Man, which he created and executive produced and starred in alongside Nathan Fillion, which was loosely based on their experiences making the series.
In 2016, he portrayed droid K-2SO in the first Star Wars spin-off film, Rogue One. His latest projects can both be found on the SYFY network. On Resident Alien, Tudyk plays Harry Vanderspeigle, an alien that crash lands onto Earth and must pass himself off as a small-town human doctor and on Devil May Care, he voices the impulsive and excitable Devil, who needs to impress and be liked and just wants everyone in there to be happy in his rebranded Hell.
Alan took some time this week to discuss his latest two series.
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FOG!: First of all, congratulations on Resident Alien. I watched the first 7 episodes and loved it. What drew you to the role of Harry Vanderspeigle?
Alan Tudyk: The first thing was the physical challenge of the role, because when he takes on a human body to go undercover, he has to learn how to use it. And that challenge is a lot of fun. It’s a great place for comedy to happen when you don’t know how to even shake somebody’s hand or how your anatomy is supposed to work. You’re like a baby basics on everything. But in his head, in many ways, he thinks he is an evolved creature.
He has a spaceship. He flies from another galaxy; there’s technology that his people we don’t have on Earth yet. But when it comes to being a human, he knows so little, but he maintains the arrogance of someone who knows so much. So that is really fun to play.
Then also just the humor and the drama together because it is an hour-long dramedy so there’s a lot of drama within it.
I love it when comedy and drama are mixed in a show.
That’s life.
Yes, it is. You hope. If it was just a drama, oh my God…
The TV series is a little different from the comic as Harry has a different agenda. One of the interesting things in the series is watching how Harry begins to connect with humans and actually finds himself as part of a community. Do you think Harry is still capable of fulfilling his mission to destroy the Earth or do you think his newfound emotions have changed him?
That’s his challenge, that’s his conundrum. That’s what he’s fighting.
His body starts to play on him. His human body starts to give him dreams initially and then emotions. And he feels things that he can’t figure out what they are.
He thinks he’s hungry, but it turns out that he’s just lonely and he’s feeling homesick and lost. I think for anybody, if you start to identify with your enemy, they quickly stop being your enemy. So that’s his challenge because he does need to destroy all humans and as the season goes on, it’s not just a grudge. He has real reasons, he needs to kill everybody. So the stakes are high, so that’s going to be fun to watch play out.
Well, the interaction between you and the kids is fantastic too.
Yes. He’s fun, man. Judah Pren and Gracelyn (Awad Rinke) also, she’s fantastic.
They’re smarter than me. They’re more mature and they keep outsmarting me. So, it’s just really fun to have that immature relationship with a kid where you’re name calling and making fun of one another.
He’s so inappropriate, my character, Harry. He’s also trying to kill him and then they get to a place of mutual respect because it’s that thing where, you know, nemeses, they can get to a place where they respect the game with one another.
That chemistry is fantastic. Over the years you’ve been involved in a number of comic book properties including the live action Doom Patrol, the underrated Powerless and countless DC animated characters including The Flash, Superman, Green Arrow, The Joker and Clayface. Are you a comic book fan and are there any other dream characters that you’d want to portray?
I don’t have a dream character in comic books that I’d want to play. I guess, anything that would be in the James Gunn show/movie world. He seems to find the characters that it’s almost like the characters that The Tick started out like shining a light on. And then Dr. Horrible came along and had a few like Moist as a character. Like, “I’m just moist”, that’s his talent. That’s his super powers being moist and dampening people.
I’m looking forward to The Suicide Squad because he’s pulled out all of those other odd characters that you’ve seen in the trailers. And I know a few people who are in it, so I know what their characters are and those types of characters. I want the ones that have major flaws within their superhero-ness.
My problem with comics is I am an impatient, impatient person.
Do you read mostly collections?
Yes! I need a lot of them and then I just burn through them. And then once they stop I guess I move on. The last comic I really got into and I think it’s still going on is Saga.
Saga‘s been on hiatus and it’s coming back soon. I want to talk a little bit about Devil Make Care. You play the title character, Devil. How does one prepare to play the personification of evil and not only make him likable, but also keep the tone of the show fairly light?
Well, in Devil May Care, Devil is not the angel, as I learned in my Catholic-whatever upbringing; that Devil was an angel that tried to take on God and was cast from Heaven. And then he dwells in the underworld and gets all the souls that have crossed God, or I don’t know, did bad things; sin too much, whatever and then he tortures them.
This is more like he was the angel who was kind of a pain in the ass. He didn’t get everything. He was stupid, kind of an idiot.
God makes the Earth and they’re going over it. And he’s like, “who buried all of these bones that looked like ancient lizards; massive lizards?”
“That was me. That was me, buddy. Hey, Devil here. I thought it would be a great way to challenge the humans. They would be like this earth is old, he’s like it’s 6,000 years old. Yes, I know it’s 6,000, but this will make them think it isn’t and then they’ll come together in unity and that’ll be a beautiful thing.”
So he was an idiot and did everything wrong. So God gets rid of him and puts him in charge of this shitty place, Hell.
So, Devil has a lot of lava, there are people being flayed. There are demons. There is that kind of thing going on, but he’s also trying to gentrify. He’s trying to make it the best place it can be.
It doesn’t have to be a death sentence. So that’s who Devil is.
So he becomes kind of like that. He’s kind of like your team leader. He’s trying to get everybody happy for Christ’s sake. That’s my Devil.
Resident Alien airs Wednesdays at 10 pm EST on SYFY.
Devil May Care premieres tomorrow, February 6 at 12 am EST on SYFY
