Alien: Earth star Alex Lawther explains Xenomorph effects and talks joining iconic franchise

A blank wall! A video projector sits on the floor by a big grey sofa, and it’s the most expensive, but best, purchase I’ve ever made. During Covid, I spent every evening in front of it.

What have you been watching on it?

Series three of Big Boys is excellent. British comedy is good at toeing the line between having strongly drawn, quite silly characters, then also being really moving. It’s the same with Alma’s Not Normal. The recent series of Black Mirror was one of my favourites. I love/resent that I was part of the same series as the San Junipero episode, which they shot in Cape Town, and we shot ours, Shut Up and Dance, in Watford.

Who controls the remote?

My partner and I are very indecisive – we’ll sometimes end up not watching anything! We draw up little lists for each other, like, “OK, here are five things to watch. What do you most want to see?”

The new series Alien: Earth is set two years before the film Alien and you play Hermit, a medic who has lost his whole family, or so he thinks. What was your first experience of the Alien franchise?

My mum was obsessed with Sigourney Weaver. I remember the characters and interactions more than the scary alien! The material world of the spaceship also really stuck in my head – I was struck by the beauty and strangeness. I thought, “That’s what the world of sci-fi is.”

Is the Xenomorph CGI in Alien: Earth?

No, it is played by a guy in a rubber suit, a tall New Zealander called Cam, who was probably the most committed to his role out of all of us. We filmed for six months in Thailand, so he was overheating most of the time!

You made your professional debut at the age of 16 in the play South Downs. How did that come about?

Every Thursday, my English teacher ran an improv club and it was my favourite day of the week. Then she left the school, but we all kept meeting up as this renegade group of unsupervised children. I was singled out as the ringleader and got in trouble. Around then, the casting director for South Downs, Julia Horan, was contacting schools, but the new drama teacher was a bit p***ed off at me, so she didn’t suggest me. It was my friend, who had been put up for the audition, that said I should come along. It almost cost me my whole career! I wouldn’t be acting if I didn’t get that job.

Your parents are lawyers. How did they feel about you pursuing acting?

Their parents hadn’t gone to university, so them going was a real achievement. For me not to go to uni felt a little bit like straying from the path they’d expected me to take, but now they’re at every opening night!

Did you start to get more recognised after starring in the Bafta-winning series The End of the F***ing World in 2017?

Before that, I’d been working for five or six years, and I’d mention a bunch of things I’d been in and no one would have seen them. So when The End of the F***ing World came out, it was nice for my ego to be like, “There’s some context to me being in the room auditioning!”

You’ve also appeared in the hit Star Wars series Andor. Is “breaking” America still a goal for British actors like yourself?

It depends on the type of work you want to do. I suppose there’s a side of what we do that’s part of a capitalist system, particularly with cinema. There’s a feeling of: you have to get bums on seats and things are packaged with people who are stars, which makes sense financially. The sweet spot, if you’re working on those Hollywood jobs, is to hope there’s a big brain behind it who’s doing something more than just getting bums on seats.

Is that the case with Alien: Earth?

It’s part of a big franchise, but writer and showrunner Noah Hawley is interested in being playful and not just rehashing it. I’d seen his work in Fargo and Legion and I trusted the world he was trying to build. He’s taking something original and is confident enough in his imagination to see where it leads him, regardless.

The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here.

Alien: Earth will premiere on Disney+ on Wednesday 13th August, with the first two episodes available to stream. A new episode will premiere each following Wednesday. You can sign up to Disney+ for £4.99 a month or £89.90 a year now.

Add Alien: Earth to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.