[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of Resident Alien, "Heroes of Patience."]
The first season of Syfy's Resident Alien was an unexpected treat on so many levels. The Alan Tudyk-starring series, based on the comics by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, took a premise we've seen before — extraterrestrial crash-lands on Earth, has to figure out how to fit in — and turned it into a compelling ensemble dramedy.
Central to the story is Asta (Sara Tomko), a doctor's assistant who becomes the first real friend made by "Harry," as the alien played by Tudyk comes to be known. The season finale, which aired Wednesday night, ends with Harry and Asta saying a heartfelt goodbye before Harry leaves in his spaceship to safely detonate the device he originally brought to Earth for the purposes of its destruction.
Savvy TV viewers will of course deduce that Harry's time in Patience, Colorado is not over — not only has the show already been renewed for a second season, but the final moments of the finale revealed that Harry has a stowaway on his ship who needs to be returned home. But in a one-on-one interview with Collider, Sara Tomko was able to explain what she thinks is going on inside Asta's head, as well as how she and showrunner Chris Sheridan approached Asta's Native heritage, what we might expect to happen in Season 2, and how often Alan Tudyk actually wore the alien costume.
To start off, how did you first get involved with the show?
SARA TOMKO: I got word from my manager, Zach James, who found this audition, and the biggest pull for all of us was they sent a picture of the cover of the comic book along with the audition specs, and we all kind of gasped because there's this really great picture of Harry and Asta. We all were like, "I feel like that looks like you, right?"
Then we dove a little deeper, and the pilot is just written so incredibly well. Chris Sheridan, the writer and showrunner, he does such a great tonal shift between comedy and drama. It was just really quite extraordinary for Syfy because any story is a good story, doesn't matter what genre, if the writing and the cast and the characters are great. But there was something really intriguing about this guy who comes to earth and is an alien in disguise. And the real story is about the humans and the town who are actually all a bit alienated themselves, trying to find their way, trying to figure out how they belong.
When I approached the audition, I was coming off of a really hard time in my life, and I really understood where she was coming from. She was in a lot of grief and she was isolated and she was trying to figure things out. That's just kind of where I was at in my life too, so I didn't really have to do much, honestly. I just understood her right away. Then David Dobkin and Chris Sheridan saw my tape and they just kind of told me later, they were like, "This is the girl." And we all had this wonderful "aha" moment when I booked it and we finally got together. I was crying. They were kind of crying and giggling — they had been looking for a real long time. It was a really wonderful experience.
Absolutely. In terms of, the comic book art that you initially saw, did you ever actually connect with the artist?
TOMKO: Steve Parkhouse is the artist for the comic book, and I never actually got to meet him. But I got a chance to meet Peter Hogan at New York Comic-Con, and we talked about his vision — and he also agreed that "you totally have her vibe." So it was kind of cosmic and fated, really.
It was awesome to meet Peter. At first, he was really nervous because it was his baby originally, and then he passed it off to Chris, and then Chris did an incredible job. We all did care, though, what Peter Hogan thought, because our show is very different than what he wrote. The initial blueprint, some of the characters, the outline of Patience, Colorado, and the idea of the story comes from the comic book. But our story goes in so many different directions. We were like, "We hope Peter likes it" — and he does. He gives us his two-thumbs-up approval. He's very excited to just see it from script to screen.
The thing that really struck me about watching the pilot for the first time was that I had the conception in my head that this would be much more of a comedy, and I was really surprised by how it has these darker moments.
TOMKO: Syfy and NBCU wanted to advertise it in a way that pulls in Alan Tudyk fans and the Family Guy fans, and really stressed that it was a comedy and a family show — they all agreed at the best way is to bring them in with the laughs and then keep them staying with the tears. That was their initial concept for how they advertised the show. But since then, and since people have watched it, obviously we've gotten this word of mouth about how it's more than a comedy. It's a dramedy, and it leans heavily on the darkness of many characters.
A major aspect of the character of Asta is her Native background — what was your involvement in developing that?
TOMKO: Chris Sheridan and I have been talking about this for a long time, and we've actually been talking with other members of the Native community, to make sure we were being the most respectful of what is really truthful and honest, in today's society, about how we talk about Native heritage. I have Native heritage, but I am not associated with a tribe or a community. And that is really important and key when you are claiming Native heritage. So Chris and I believed and felt it was really important that, since I'm not associated with any one community, that we needed to make sure that Asta had a way that she also felt like she was still trying to figure things out and ways that she didn't quite belong, just like Harry, because that kind of helps their stories coincide. So we actually created it so that she was adopted and that she was still trying to figure out where she fits into all that, because that's a lot more truthful and honest to my own personal background.
There are so many amazing Native actors on the show that have had such an influence on how we've written it. We have an incredible Native writer named Tazbah Rose Chavez, who did Episode 4, which you saw was on the reservation with my adopted Native family. It was such an incredible, modern, evolutionary, updated interpretation of being on the rez and Native life, and it's kind of a key part of Asta's story where she has all this love that she's surrounded by, but yet she still doesn't know how she feels about herself or where she fits in. For me, I associate best with the word "other" because I have so many different things that make up my background, that I don't know what box to check or where I fit in, and that's really relatable.
And then, of course, that also relates to Harry. And I think that's why they connect so quickly — because they're both outsiders, even though they're surrounded by this amazing community that's so fun and wonderful. It's really just a place where they're still just trying to figure out... He's trying to figure out how to be human, and she is too, really.
Talking about the relationship between Harry and Asta, it's really nice to see platonic relationships happen in this genre — when it came to working with Alan, what was it like finding that dynamic?
TOMKO: Alan and I... we met almost in a Method way, [because] we were just total opposites, he and I — the way we approached our work, the way that we made jokes, even. My sense of humor is like so different than his sense of humor. So at first, when we got to know each other, it was a little bit foreign and we didn't quite get each other. Not in a bad way, it was just he's a comedian and I'm a dramaturge. That is just true about how we've always approached our characters in our career.
When we started working together, what was pretty incredible was our chemistry and how quickly we really understood and respected each other's work, and how much our actual getting to know each other in real life was, was synergetic with us getting to know each other as Asta and Harry. And I agree with you, I think having a relationship where it's not necessarily about intimacy or sex, or it's just a friendship — I think that that actually makes them even more intriguing.
Especially in this last episode, they have a moment where they have a big blowout fight, and he's really upset that he's going to lose her. It's not because he's in love with her, it's because she's the only real friend that he feels like he's really had since he's had this human experience. And he's the only real man in her life that she felt like she could trust. Then it just seems like all of it starts to fall apart and what's on the line is their friendship.
I think that is something we don't talk about enough actually, in storylines, in shows, because we always go for the very dramatic. Someone's cheating on someone or there's sex involved or whatever. [But that fight] has to do with just being human and being able to trust each other, and all of a sudden they feel like maybe they can't. Trust is a huge theme in our show and also in being human. So, I think it's been pretty cool to work with Alan and see us both kind of fall in love with our own characters and fall in like with each other.
Absolutely. A logistical question I had, especially watching the finale — how often is Alan in the actual physical alien suit?<?b>
TOMKO: That was really important to him, actually. He was pretty adamant about wanting to do it every time he could, because there are definitely some scenes where you have to see Harry standing there, but you see the alien in a reflection. Obviously, he can't be in two places at once. The way we shoot that is by having an alien in the costume and him in the same shot, and it looks like he's looking at his own reflection. But any time that the alien is standing alone, it's Alan. He just really believed in doing that body work and any time he couldn't do it, he worked really closely with Keith [Arbuthnot], who was our main alien. He worked really closely with making sure that Keith was impersonating him, Harry, to the best of his ability so that it was fluid. That was a really big deal for Alan.
The reason I asked is you have this emotional hug with him in the finale. And I can only imagine that playing that with not someone who wasn't Alan would be awkward.
TOMKO: At first, when we did certain shots, it was Keith when I hug him, because he's supposed to look like a tall alien. So Keith was the one who actually had to stand on stilts and have this gaze down on me as I'm on the ground, looking up at him. But when it came time to actually have the interaction that was so intimate at the end, it was Alan for sure. And it was such a cool moment.
I was actually just talking about this with my oldest brother, Trey. He was like, "Did you ever think that your career would lead you to a place where you were holding hands intimately with an alien?" I was like, "No, not necessarily, that wasn't like in my visual cards." But the way Alan portrays it and the way that the story is written, it could be... we could look like anything. You could fit us into any scenario and it would still be intriguing because it's written so well. So having that moment at the end where I hug him and put my head on his alien belly — or chest — it really could have been a cheesy moment, but it wasn't because Alan and I took it really seriously and we respected the writing.
So, based on where Season 1 ends, from your character's point of view, it seems like Harry's gone for good. How did you feel about that end point, for your character specifically?
TOMKO: I was really, really excited. The finale has this moment where Asta looks up at the ship as it's driving away. It reminded me a lot of that shot in the pilot where she looks up and sees something blaze through in the sky. So there was this wonderful full-circle feeling for Asta — the beginning of her running away from this abusive relationship and finding herself, to believing in something again at the end there.
While I don't think she ever thinks she'll see him again, I also think she probably thinks "Was this all a dream?" I think there was a moment for me as Sara, standing in that spot in the finale and seeing and feeling it in my body the same exact way that I looked up to the sky in the pilot. And I'm looking up into the sky yet again. It was just so perfect.
I think no matter what happens, she'll probably be surprised if he comes back. She'll be like, what the hell, you keep teasing this? And then secondly, I think she'll also be really happy if he comes back because nothing like this has ever happened to her before, especially to a town called Patience, Colorado. And of course, we don't really have a show if he doesn't come back. So I'm looking forward to that.
Of course. In general, what have the conversations about Season 2 been like so far?
TOMKO: Chris and I have talked a lot about wanting to get a little bit closer to all of the characters, in a more personal way. What does Deputy Liv look like at home when no one's around? Are we going to see a therapy session between the mayor and Kate? What's happening there? Max and Sahar, they're going to go through some changes with puberty. Will the sheriff actually go on a date? Are we going to see him do like some sort of dating app? Will Isabelle come back? Is Harry going to miss her? Is that going to be a part of his story? There are so many fun outlets.
There's also Jay, my daughter. Are we going to have a relationship or not? Are we going to actually be family, or is it always going to be a little bit weird and like also really rude that I hired her knowing that she was my biological daughter?
So, we talked about options, but we actually truthfully haven't made solid choices yet. I think we're keeping it open. I think we're going to talk more about what is important and going on in the world today, how we can apply some of the things that are going on in the world to what's going on in Patience, and also continue to talk about the themes of relatability between human and alien and feeling like we all deserve to fit in. I think that will be exciting to explore.
I can say that I have requested a girls night, where all the girls of Patience just finally unwind because there's a lot of tension with the women in Patience. We need to let loose.
How do you feel about the character's relationship with her ex, in terms of how to develop that and explore it in Season 2?
TOMKO: Well, the thing is, Jimmy is her daughter's father. So he's never going to not be in her life because of that. I don't think that it feels right to me for Asta and Jimmy to make amends in any real way. But I do think it's really interesting to explore what is true in our society, an ex-husband and ex-wife having to share a child. How do you do that respectfully? And is he going to be in her life and will they be able to co-parent? Is that even a possibility? I think that there's definitely things to explore there, but as far as Asta being in a relationship with anyone, it was such an abusive and mentally exhausting thing that she went through. I think, personally, it just feels like she's probably going to stay away from that for a little while, until she really heals.
Resident Alien has been renewed for a second season.