Stephen Root & Alan Tudyk Talk That “Toxic” Father/Son Reunion on Resident Alien

Back in April, we learned that Dodgeball co-stars Alan Tudyk and Stephen Root would officially reunite in the fourth season of Resident Alien (new episodes of which drop every Friday), with the latter taking on the guest role of Harry Vanderspeigle’s father. The promise of Root’s extra-terrestrial patriarch was finally fulfilled in Season 4, Episode 7, aptly titled “Daddy Issues.”

As per the ruling of the Galactic Housing Council, Harry’s alien essence would be placed in the care of an executor who would decide when our protagonist was worthy of having it back. That executor turned out to be Papa Vanderspeigle, who is none too pleased that his own progeny failed to complete the task of wiping out humanity.

“From my point-of-view as the alien dad, the crux of the show is, ‘Are you a human or are you an alien?'” Root told USA Insider over a Zoom call this week. “Because they’re two different ethical spaces there and we know what I want [Harry] to do, but I think he’s become a little too human to go there. So I think that’s the crux of the show.”

Speaking with USA Insider ahead of the Season 4 premiere, Tudyk revealed that it was he who floated the idea of casting Root to series creator, showrunner, and executive producer Chris Sheridan. While the two actors had stayed in touch and worked together since Dodgeball, most notably on the Tudyk-created Con Man, they had not seen one another since Resident Alien first began.

“When Season 1 came out, he sent me a really nice text about it. I’d never forgotten that and when it came to casting my dad, I asked Chris what he thought [about Stephen] and he was into it,” Tudyk recalled. “We got so lucky because he’s such a master. He’s one of those people. I’d like to think that he and I are similar actor types. Our amps go to 11 if we need to, but you can also keep one foot on the ground, and that’s a tricky thing [to do]. Not a whole lot of people do it. It was fun to get to mix it up with him.”

“They were amazing together,” added Sheridan. “The chemistry is incredible and that’s a fun, fun episode.”

Root, who spoke with us on a separate video call this week, said that accepting the job was a no-brainer: “When this character came about, I was lucky enough that he thought of me right away. [Alan] called me up and said, ‘What about dad?’ And I said, ‘Alien dad? I’m in!'”

Harry’s “toxic relationship” with his father
The onscreen reunion between Harry and his dad, however, is far less amicable. Disgusted by how empathetic his child has become since arriving on Earth, the elder Vanderspeigle lays down the law: Harry will get his power back if — and only if — he can kill a single human. In other words, the character is “without any redeeming qualities,” Root noted with a laugh.

“[He and Harry have had] a toxic relationship from the very start. Even in this episode, you hear him saying that he liked his brother better than him. He’s not proud of him because he hasn’t done the job he was supposed to do, which is kill all the humans,” Root said. “So I think they’ve always had a toxic relationship, and it certainly didn’t get any better here on Earth.”

And while we’re on the subject of that preferred sibling, the ridiculously guttural name given to Harry’s brother — spoken in the aliens’ garbled native tongue — was completely improvised on-set, Root revealed.

“I specifically didn’t want to know what we were gonna do because I figured we’d probably improv it, which we did,” he said. “We did a shorter name and he was able to do that, but then he was brave enough when I said, ‘Alright, I’m gonna do a long one for you. Try and mimic this one.’ I did the one we shot and he did a pretty damn good job of mimicking it. That was total improv.”

Season 4 of Resident Alien drops new episodes on Fridays on USA Network and SYFY. All episodes will be available to stream exclusively on Peacock one week after they air.