One of the things I love about the Collider Connected video series is that it allows us to conduct deep dive interviews with people in Hollywood without having to constantly watch the timer. Not only does it lead to great behind-the-scenes stories from the making of tons of projects we all know and love, but it also allows for the conversation to be free flowing, so while you might have an idea of where you’re trying to go, you can end up talking for ten minutes about something completely unexpected and it’s not a problem.

With the fun new series Resident Alien premiering tonight on Syfy, I recently landed an extended interview with Alan Tudyk to not only talk about playing an alien in human skin, but his entire career from Patch Adams with Robin Williams to the biggest crowdfunding success story of 2015: Con Man.

Before going any further, if you haven’t seen the Resident Alien trailers, the series is based on the Dark Horse comic and was adapted for TV by former Family Guy writer Chris Sheridan. The show follows a crash-landed alien named Harry (Tudyk) who, after taking on the human identity of a small-town Colorado doctor, gets roped into solving a local murder. As he attempts to fit in and not get found out, he’s also working on his secret mission to kill all the humans on Earth. I’ve seen the first few episodes and not only is Tudyk great in the role, the series consistently does things you won’t expect and it made me laugh out loud a lot. Resident Alien also stars Alice Wetterlund, Corey Reynolds, Sara Tomko and Levi Fiehler.

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Image via SyFy

Besides what I previously mentioned, during the extended interview Tudyk talked about what he learned from Frances McDormand making Wonder Boys that he still uses today, what it was like working with Will Smith on I, Robot, how he’s doing four roles in Raya the Last Dragon, how Wreck-It Ralph changed during the production, his original character in Frozen and why it changed, his voice for the Joker on Harley Quinn, his Deadpool 2 appearance with Matt Damon, what it was like making Rogue One with the reshoots, if he’s in the Disney+ series Andor, why he wanted to be part of Resident Alien and how he worked with director David Donkin and Chris Sheridan on the character, his other Syfy series Devil May Care, the incredible crowdfunding success of Con Man, his history with Comic-Cons and how they’ve changed, and so much more I can’t list it all here.

Check out what he had to say in the player above and below is a full list of everything we talked about. Again, I definitely recommend checking out Resident Alien when you get the chance.

Alan Tudyk:

  • What TV series would he like to guest star on?
  • What movie has he seen the most?
  • Talks about his early work on Patch Adams with Robin Williams.
  • What was it like working on Wonder Boys with Curtis Hanson?
  • What he learned from Frances McDormand making Wonder Boys that he still uses today along with a funny story about Michael Douglas.
  • What it was like working with Will Smith on I, Robot?
  • How making I Robot was at a time where most people were not doing motion capture.
  • After voicing so many Disney characters did he get a Disneyland passport for life?
  • Did he have any idea when he was doing a voice for Frozen it would be such a huge hit?
  • How much do they tell him about the voice he will be doing in a Disney animated role?
  • How he’s doing four roles in Raya the Last Dragon and he didn’t know what they were until he got into the studio.
  • How much he knew about the Zootopia character before getting to the studio.
  • Have any of the Disney roles he’s played gone through radical changes during production?
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Image via SyFy
  • How Wreck-It Ralph changed during the production.
  • His original character in Frozen and why it changed.
  • How did his Deadpool 2 scene with Matt Damon happen?
  • How did his voice for the Joker on Harley Quinn happen?
  • Does he ever hurt his vocal cords doing any of his voice work?
  • How he hurt his voice doing a play and had to see two doctors and was very concerned about his future.
  • What was it like making Rogue One with the reshoots and everything that happened on the shoot?
  • Is he involved in the Andor Disney+ series?
  • What is Resident Alien about?
  • How his role requires a lot of physicality.
  • How did he work with director David Donkin and creator Chris Sheridan on the pilot to create the character?
  • Was he nervous about being able to pull off what the series is going for on a weekly basis?
  • What is it like reading a script where what you expect to happen and what really happens are radically different?
  • How it’s not too often you get to play a character trying to kill a child.
  • How can people watch Con Man Season 1 and 2?
  • The incredible success of their crowdfunding campaign with Con Man Season 1.
  • How the series was made before the Me Too movement and how he wouldn’t make some of the same jokes now.
  • How the small indie cons just don’t exist anymore.
  • How when he was writing Con Man the actors he would encounter in green rooms didn’t want to be there and now it has all changed.
  • When was the first time he went to San Diego Comic-Con?
  • What is ARK: The Animated Series and how did they get all these big names to do voices?
  • How he’s voicing the devil on Devil May Care which is arriving next month on Syfy.
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