Resident Alien Creator Calls Adding Edi Patterson’s Blue Avian ‘One of the Best Things We’ve Done in the Series’
She may not have looked quite like Judy Gemstone, but Edi Patterson officially took flight in Wednesday’s edition of Resident Alien.
After Harry traveled to Yellowstone with the Hawthorne family — and discovered that the Greys are filling a cavern with water and connecting it to a magma chamber in order to turn the national park into its own natural bomb — he received a visit from a Blue Avian alien (Patterson) from the galactic federation. After serving him with papers, she told him he broke galactic law by not honoring his contract with the Greys to vacate the planet. She then ordered him to leave Earth immediately, which pretty much goes against his whole plan of saving the world from exploding.
More from TVLine
Buffy's Emma Caulfield Offers an Update on Her Battle With Multiple Sclerosis
Elsbeth EPs on Premiere's Good Wife References and Whether Alicia Will Appear - Plus, Grade It!
Harry’s expressed his attraction to Blue Avians in the past, so does that mean the show’s resident alien is heading toward romance?
“In designing that character, especially since Harry has said that it’s the most beautiful being he’s ever seen, it was very important to make sure that the character is not the most beautiful thing we had seen,” creator Chris Sheridan tells TVLine. “She’s beautiful in her own way, but a little bit weird looking.”
Sheridan says the idea to cast Patterson came from Alan Tudyk, himself, who had done improv with the actress years ago. “He had said that she was one of the funniest people he had ever worked with, so that sort of sold that,” he says. “That’s high praise coming from Alan. So I reached out to her and she was really kind and so funny. And the thing that locked it for me was at the end of the call, she said, very politely, ‘We don’t have to, but is there any chance that I could do some improv?’ I’m like, ‘You’d better do improv!’ [Laughs]
Though many of the characters’ interactions (which you’ll see plenty more of in Episode 4) were scripted, “a lot of what they did, they were playing off each other. It was one of the best things we’ve done in the series with these two characters together,” Sheridan adds.
For Tudyk, having another alien on set who can take scenes to extremes added a new layer of fun to the story. “We’re not human. We don’t act or react in the ways that humans do,” he says. “Her perspective on the humans, she might ask, ‘Have you eaten one?’ [Laughs] That’s just a casual question.”
While we can’t yet dive into the will-they-won’t-they specifics, Tudyk offers up this tease for Patterson’s role this season: “In improv, you’re basically throwing the ball back and forth with ideas, and she’s got a great pitching arm. She’s incredible.”
Looking forward to seeing Patterson flex her improv skills? What did you think of Episode 3? We want to hear all your thoughts, so drop some comments below!
Best of TVLine
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
