Learning that the Greys stole his alien essence and that the Council has it, Harry makes a deal with the Federation to get it back to hunt down and kill the Mantid on Earth, or give over his soul to the Greys. Though they agree to the deal, they turn Harry’s essence over to a conservator, revealed to be Harry’s alien father, much to his chagrin. Resident Alien season 4, episode 7 subsequently follows the two back to Earth, where Harry has to find a way to get his essence from his disapproving father before it’s too late.

Ahead of the episode’s premiere, ScreenRant interviewed Stephen Root to discuss Resident Alien season 4, episode 7, “Daddy Issues”. The guest star opened up about continuing his two-decade-plus trend of getting to work with Alan Tudyk, including the wild ways they depicted their characters’ alien behaviors, as well as the complicated relationship between Harry and his father, and how his return will impact the character going forward. He also reflects on his recent run playing darker characters, and his upcoming King of the Hill return.

Root & Tudyk Have Stayed In Each Other’s Circles For Over 20 Years

While Root is no stranger to such wacky comedies as Resident Alien, one film that laid the foundation for the Emmy nominee’s appearance on the show was that of 2004’s Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, in which he found himself first working with Tudyk. Not only did that movie see the two work together, they would even later reunite in Tudyk’s comedy series Con Man, which he wrote, directed and starred in, as the two “have kept in touch over the years” and he was then “so happy to get a call from him” for Resident Alien.

“‘What do you think, dad?’,” Root recalls Tudyk asking him. “And I went, ‘Yes, alien dad? Yes, I’m in!’ I was very happy. I happened to be pretty busy this year, and it was going to be hard to slip it in between a couple of other projects, but we made it happen, because I love Alan.”

I got to work a lot with Alan, which made me happy.

After praising his love for the show, which he has “always watched since the beginning”, Root also recalls Resident Alien season 4 being a reunion with Alice Wetterlund, as the two worked together on the 2016 comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Though acknowledging “I didn’t really get to work with everybody”, as his character’s arc was mostly time spent between Ed and Harry, he had a very fond memory of his experience with the show, feeling it “was great to see everybody” and praising his co-stars as being “tremendous actors”.

There’s A Surprising Amount Of Improv Behind Harry & His Dad’s Alien Ways

 

With Ed being one of the few members of Harry’s species to appear in the show, the latest episode of Resident Alien reveals more about Harry’s past, including a heated conversation regarding the protagonist’s late brother, in which they returned to their native language. Though the show’s past has seen Tudyk’s character speaking in his native tongue, it pretty much always comes across as a collection of random sounds, being unclear just how his language actually works.

When asked about talking in Harry and Ed’s language, Root reveals that these sequences are almost entirely improvised, with Tudyk telling him “You’re going to make something up, and I’m going to try to reproduce it”. This led to the pair trying out “a couple of different ones” for how to pronounce the late brother’s name, which led to the longer one seen in the episode, which Root found “was more fun for [Tudyk] to try to get it together”.

“And Alan came up with a couple of really nice, I think they were, ad libs,” Root recalled. “I can’t remember from the script, just as he gets up from the floor, ‘Oh, I didn’t remember I was this tall.’ So he came up with a couple of great things. I have to give him credit for it.”

Though Root “didn’t really get to use the [alien] head” of Ed in his natural form, he did find he was “very happy” to get to utilize the “tremendous alien hands” from the show’s production team, as he is “the biggest nerd ever”. The Emmy nominee went on to praise “the whole conceit of the show”, particularly for how “it’s gotten bigger” with its arcs, feeling it’s “widened out” since its debut and “that’s only to its benefit”.

Ed’s Return Reminds Harry About The “Different Ethics Systems” Between Humans & Aliens

As indicated by Resident Alien season 4, episode 6’s ending, episode 7 sees the relationship between Ed and Harry quite strained, with “the crux of the episode” seeing Root’s character reminding Tudyk there’s a major difference between aliens and humans as “they’re two different ethics systems” and Ed wants Harry to “stop all this nonsense and kill everybody”. Much to his father’s dismay, though, Harry is “more human than alien” by the point of season 4, which Root found was “a nice dichotomy” to get to play through the episode.

Initially agreeing to Ed’s deal to kill one human in exchange for his alien essence, episode 7’s ending delivers something of a twist when he brings a tied-up Max to Harry’s cabin to be killed, given he can see aliens, only for Harry to instead stab and kill his father with a fireplace poker. Humorously acknowledging the mix of tones in his death scene, particularly since “you’re still seeing fratricide”, Root recalls filming the scene as being “bizarre”, but also “really well-staged and well-done”, praising the show for having “great stunt people”.

“But for me, it was flailing after being dead,” Root said with a chuckle. “I felt like I was in a ’60s movie going, ‘[Flails arms and makes gibberish sounds].’ But it was fun, it was great and well-written, well-done by the stunt guys. I’ve got a great picture of my alien form with something in it that Alan sent me. [Chuckles]”

He was further amazed at the “absolutely incredible” work the visual effects team behind Resident Alien put into the show, recalling “we didn’t shoot the episode that long ago”, but that “there was a lot of work to be done” in the wake of wrapping production, feeling the team “did a great job” with it.

Root Loves Finding “Some Kind Of Humanity” Behind His Darker Characters

Though having first found success with more comedic characters in the likes of Office Space, Dodgeball and King of the Hill, the past decade has really seen Root become better known for his work playing darker characters, namely Jim Hudson in Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Fuches in Bill Hader’s Barry. Laughing as he recognizes that there’s no humanity in Resident Alien’s Ed, as “he was probably treated the same way by his alien dad that he treats Harry”, he explains that the reason behind his shift to dark characters is “all about the script, and the people who are doing it”.

“The script is No. 1,” Root expressed. “If the script is phenomenal, and then they get phenomenal actors to do it, then you got something going. If you have got a mediocre script and great actors, it’s still not going to be great, but if you got both of them, it’s going to be exciting.”

I thought that was the best decision he made.

It was this combo that really sold Root on starring in Barry, praising the HBO show for how it “walked the line of comedy and heavy drama and violence within that show”. As the Emmy nominee recalled, Hader “made it a point of never making the violence funny”, acknowledging “there’s real violence in this show” and that there is plenty of comedy to be found, but “they’re not going to be mixed”.

“So the reason, of course, to take that show is the writing and the people, and it’s the same with most of the work that I do now,” Root explained. “It was certainly true in this show, because I love the show, love the actors on the show, I thought this episode was tremendously well-written, and I didn’t mind having no redeeming qualities.”

Returning To King Of The Hill Was A Family Affair For Root & Co.

Looking beyond his Resident Alien stint, Root also has the King of the Hill revival on the horizon, with season 14 of the Mike Judge and Greg Daniels-created sitcom back on August 4 and has Root reprising his role of Bill Dauterive. Though it’s been 15 years since the show was last on the air, Root found it “was really easy to step back into that character” after having played him in “200 shows before this”.

I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of [in character’s voice] William Fontaine de La Tour Dauterive. I think he’ll always be in there.

Though being careful not to share too much about the storylines in the new episodes, Root praised showrunner Saladin K. Patterson for making it “a contemporary show with problems that everybody dealt with through COVID”, feeling that the pandemic “changed everybody’s life a little bit”, both in real life, and in the show. As Root shared, this includes Bobby now being 22 and “has got his own business”, while Hank and Peg “have been through not living in the United States for a while”, and as such are processing how the country changed while they were gone.

“Obviously, we’ve had some people pass that did voices on the show, and that was hard,” Root lamented. “But most of the family is intact at this point, and even a couple of people that have passed are being done by people within the show. So, it still feels like a family thing for us, and we’re so happy to do it.”