Edi Patterson returns to Resident Alien in the fouth season’s fourth episode as Heather the bird-like alien who shares an alien baby with Alan Tudyk’s Harry. The titular alien, brillintly portrayed by Tudyk, has undergone some major changes since the last time Heather was around. How will those changes affect their relationship? You will have to tune in to find out.
We caught up with Edi to talk about the doomed romance, how her background in improv informs her performance and what’s it like working with the ensemble cast and Tudyk in particular.
The Comic Source: So, you’re coming back as Heather. Resident Alien season 4. Let’s start off with your first impressions of coming back to the show. I think it’s fair to say that Heather and Harry are star-crossed lovers at this point, so how do you feel about coming back and about their romance that may be doomed to failure.
Edi Patterson: I loved coming back. I think this is such a great group of people and I really, really love performing with Alan. I think he’s incredible. And yeah, I was very stoked to come back. And yeah, I mean it’s … It’s looking very Romeo and Juliet for Heather and Harry.
TCS: I love that you made that reference because I think that’s where the term originally came from … astrology.
EP: I think so. When you said star crossed, I thought that is where that started right? Yeah.
TCS: What’s so interesting .. is them being aliens so star-crossed fits.
EP: Yeah, right. It looks very doomed. I hope, just me, Edi, I would hope that maybe they’re not doomed, but we’ll see, I guess.
TCS: It sounds like you have so much fun. I’m sure you would love to come back again. And that leads to my next question. I’ve asked so many of the cast and crew about this lightning in the bottle feel that the cast and crew have engendered, which is so rare. A lot of you have worked on so many different shows. It’s a family and everybody clicked from the beginning. Is that the sense that you get? That this is really something special and you have to appreciate it because it doesn’t come along in the industry that often.
EP: Yeah. I think they’re incredible that way and it was kind of wild because I’m coming off of four seasons of my show, the Righteous Gemstones and without a doubt, we had such a lightning in a bottle, fun time from start to finish. a family vibe where we loved being around each other so it was wild in a great way to show up and feel that happening in a different way with Resident Alien and all of them are so welcoming and so cool. And yeah, it was just positive and fun coming and going. A great group of people to be around and very welcoming.
TCS: Obviously they’re the main cast, you’re more of a guest star but you still felt like you were accepted and welcomed and you could provide feedback on your character and that sort of stuff.
EP: Fully. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Chris and Robbie are incredible. I think Alan is a full genius and yeah, it was just a welcoming and creative from the jump. All the way through.
TCS: Well, one of the things that Alan has mentioned about how rare the show is, not only does it tell a story, it has a point and there’s emotion and gravitas, but also fun with the comedy and he specifically mentioned physical comedy. So, you have a background in improv, which you probably don’t always get to use, but I imagine on a show like this, and especially with you and Alan, playing humans at times, but aliens at times you’re getting to use a lot of that skill set that you trained for. So how has that been for you?
EP: Well, that’s been awesome and I have I have been able to use improv in quite a lot in the last chunk of years, which is incredible, and it’s so it’s really such a gift to show up as you’re saying, as basically a guest star and to immediately feel comfortable and immediately feel welcome to let it rip and to improvise and to know that everyone involved, namely Alan, is coming from the same place improvisationally that I am meaning from character as opposed to trying to say funny things or trying to do jokes. Both of us have a similar philosophy, I think on riffing and improvising, as long as it’s organic and coming from character. As a result, we just have a blast and especially when the script opens into physical comedy, if we have any sort of physical interaction or anything like that. I think we could count on it getting weird and coming off the page.
TCS: Which, when it comes to that sort of thing, especially the romantic relationship, you have to be comfortable with somebody, because there is that physical contact. I imagine there’s times when you guys are having so much fun you forget the cameras are rolling.
EP: Well, I was very comfortable with him, thank God, and thank God he was very comfortable with me. And you know, you kind of check in ahead of time and ask is there anything that’s out of bounds here because the characters both being aliens, you kind of need to know if something’s off the table because they are probably going to do it because their rules aren’t the same as a human, They don’t feel weird about basically almost doing it in front of people, but yeah, luckily. Alan and I were both coming from the place and we just wanted it to be really, really funny and still seem real and so that he was definitely a blast of a partner to just sort of run downfield as fast as we could.
TCS: Now going back to your improv roots, I imagine that experience makes the acting a lot easier for you because, this is a science fiction show, so a lot of times you and Alan both are reacting to things aren’t even there. They’re going to be added in during post-production with special effects and such. Is that just natural for you at this point with that background in improv to be reacting to something that’s literally not there?
EP: That’s always just a tiny bit odd. Any way you cut it, you know, usually you’ve got something to help you. Whether it’s like a laser pointer or a little stuffed animal, or sometimes there’s a full, like, practical effect. Like one of the Bridget models would actually move some. So, there are things to help, which is honestly very helpful and necessary because some of that ends up being just so technical of what are you looking at. Such as, what’s your eye line and where? What are you following? But as far as like the feeling, the emotion of it and whatever. Yeah, of course my improv background helps all that for sure.
TCS: That’s great. Well, again, perfect casting for you as Heather. Thanks so much for taking the time. The episode with Heather returning will air at 8:00 PM on SyFy and USA Network on June 27th and I look forward to seeing you back as Heather in the future.
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