There’s no doubt that the alien costumes and makeup effects in Resident Alien look amazing. But remember: the actors are really wearing those costumes. So we started to wonder—do they get a bit uncomfortable?
“I’d say extremely,” guest star Edi Patterson told USA Insider with a laugh.
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That makes sense, since Patterson has to spend hours at a time covered in the detailed costume that turns her into the Blue Avian named Heather, who came back to Earth in Season 4, Episode 4 (“Truth Hurts”) with the news that she had given birth to Harry’s babies.
It’s more [the fact that] it’s weird, if that makes sense. 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.
Edi Patterson talks strange sensation of wearing the Heather costume for Resident Alien
Luckily, putting on the whole costume takes a little 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. The team doing all that is incredible, and I think they’ve managed to streamline all of it.
Patterson added
But once Heather takes on a human form, it’s all smooth improv fun for Patterson and series star Alan Tudyk (Harry Vanderspeigle).
We just really make each other laugh. 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.
Patterson said when we asked about fun, behind-the-scenes anecdotes from their shooting days together.
Source: USA Network