Arturo Hilario
El Observador
The original Alien has become a classic of the genre, catapulting Sigourney Weaver into an icon status of cinema with the 1979 hit. The gruesome, slimy Xenomorph creatures within the films have also become iconic horror monsters themselves, which has led to three sequels, video games, and most recently two prequel films made by original visionary Ridley Scott.
Now playing in theaters is the newest entry into the collection, Alien: Romulus.
In order to make a follow up to these original classics, Uruguayan Director Fede Alvarez set to make a loving tribute with huge practical sets and effects, a linear filmmaking process and a specific cast of young actors he felt could take on the task of amplifying the fear and emotions of being hunted through a dark space station in space.
Alvarez is known for thrills and inventive stories with his most acclaimed projects being Evil Dead (2013) and Don’t Breathe (2016). With Alien: Romulus he sought to highlight a younger group of space explorers to give a new meaning to fear. In the past films, the crews that face off against the hoards of alien beings are soldiers, experienced flight crews and the like, but now there is fresh-faced youths trying to survive.
Recently we caught up with one of these young actresses, Isabela Merced, and talked with her about her experience with the new sci-fi/horror-thriller which takes place in the dark corners of an abandoned space station which holds within a horrifying and familiar cargo.
In the following interview Merced talks Comic Con fandom, her dislike of attention seeking negativity in online comments, and what it was like to be able to communicate in Spanish with the director and director of photography while learning about their craft.
Well, thank you so much for taking time. I know you’re probably super busy with the rollout of all the media for Alien: Romulus.
Oh, well, thank you. I’m excited to talk about it. This is the week. This is the week where the hype is the most built up!
And then you were over at San Diego Comic-Con. You were doing interviews all through the week there.
Oh, yeah. I got really tired of hearing my own words that day.
No, it was really fun. I feel like inside my heart of hearts, I’m very nerdy. So to see all of my favorite characters from different animes, different cartoons that I love, different comic book characters that I love, that was probably the highlight to me. And I wish I was a little bit more dressed up. I think next Comic-Con, if I go again, I’m going to dress up as a character.
Well, to start off with Alien: Romulus, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what it was like to earn this role in an Alien film and what were your feelings when you stepped onto these sets and got to know you’d be part of a legacy started by Ridley Scott and Sigourney Weaver in ’79?
Yeah, I’m extra, super-duper excited to be here and proud of myself because it was a semi-lengthy auditioning process that I got to experience in person after years of doing soft tapes because of the pandemic. So my heart was beating extra hard when I auditioned for this, and maybe that helped with the fear factor that I was looking for when hiring for this movie.
And also the fact that it’s so iconic, I was obviously a bit nervous. I was like, “Is this going to be good?” But knowing that Fede was attached, it definitely eased my worries and hesitancy to join. And then after actually signing on and reading the script, I think at that point, it was a little bit out of my hands.
I was only responsible for my own contribution to the movie. And I feel like maybe because we were on a stage where all the sets were built, everything was super practical, everything was super… I’m a very tactile individual, so I could touch the buttons, go beep, beep, boop, boop, and pretend to fly the ship. And maybe because of that, I felt less of an effort to change my mindset. It was already very easy to be in that world and live in it, and less of an effort to switch from that LA active lifestyle to a sound stage in Budapest.
This film was shot in a linear fashion, and I was wondering how that experience was for you as an actor and if you’ve ever been part of anything that was shot chronologically?
Yeah, you rarely get the opportunity to shoot chronologically. I think every production dreams of it, and you try to make it work, but sometimes the locations prohibit you. But because also at the same time, you were on the same location most of the time, it was easier to do.
And I remember on that project, I’m a crazy person about continuity, so I would be like, “Can we all go through the scene together and make sure there’s no cut, there’s no tear in my clothing, there’s no wrong placement of dirt that we’re missing before we go ahead, shoot towards the end of this movie, and then come back and shoot the rest of it.”
So, this was very satisfying for me, very pleasing for my continuity obsessed brain. Honestly, I felt very spoiled. This was very cool.
Now onto your character, Kay, can you touch on their motivations in the film and if you had any inspirations on how you were to interpret that character?
I think, ever since the beginning, she was supposed to be the youngest character. I was actually auditioning for the character of Navarro first, so that would be Aileen Wu’s character. Because I think that I had something else in mind, maybe a different look or something for Kay. So I ended up doing the Navarro audition several times, actually. I did self-tapes and then came in right for Navarro. Then I don’t think it was until after the in-person audition that Fede maybe realized that he wanted me to be Kay.
The crazy part is, after that, he didn’t need to see me, I guess, audition as Kay. For me, personally, knowing that she was the youngest, I think I saw it as an opportunity to have a sort of innocence about her and therefore more devastation if you see any harm done to her. As long as she was innocent and also believably scared and not equipped to handle this, I think it was all the more devastating and hard.
And speaking of youth, Alien: Romulus does skew younger compared to the casts of other Alien films, and I was wondering what you think on the fact that fear might be higher, you’re not military people. You’re not these skilled veterans and trained in space disasters.
That was a great point, I agree with that completely. But also on top of that, I think Fede wanted to include a demographic that hadn’t been seen before in the early franchise, and that would be people of our age. Technically, we’re not teens. I was the youngest, and I was 22 at the time when we filmed it, or was I 21? I can’t remember. It doesn’t matter. Basically, I still am the younger end of 20.
But I think because a lot of us are newer here we have a lot to prove to audiences who have never seen us before. So there’s also a grit about us and passion that I think a lot of seasoned actors maybe don’t have a similar energy about them. I really think my peers in the movie are super, super gifted and talented, and I think it translates really well. So I don’t know. The complaints about it being too young, it feels a little bit cynical, considering they haven’t seen the movie yet.
You’re not that far off because Sigourney Weaver was in her mid to late 20s when she was in the original film, so it’s not like it’s this crazy, crazy age gap.
I know. People like to complain, though. You have the [online] comments. But also the complaining comments get the most traction, right? Yeah. Because depending on something that’s controversial, you get people disagreeing, which gets it more attraction, which gets more attention, which gets it higher up. Therefore, that’s what we think everyone thinks.
Yeah, unfortunately part of this online world we have.
It’s a strange one that I have no interest in, but have to participate in due to my profession.
Sigourney Weaver, in the original film, establishes this view you see in characters like Sarah Connor from the Terminator films, and they subvert the ‘final girl’ trope in older sci-fi horror. So I was wondering how it feels like to be part of that legacy of strong, resilient women in horror for this film?
Well, without getting too much away, I think Fede did a really incredible job of assessing, and we do a deep dive into these characters and knowing what they’re capable of, knowing what their background is. These characters come from a really rough planet where there’s no sunlight. She has a motive. I think the motive is strong enough for us to believe that these kids would try and fight for their own lives and a way out.
And I think that is what really sells it to me about the whole, like, surviving [aspect], if people survive, right? You don’t want to give too much away. I think Fede did a really good job, and it will be believable because of the characters that he’s built.
So what was it like working with Fede on his directing? What do you admire most about this project and your experience working with it?
I think it was really cool because it was a very bilingual environment for me, considering that Fede knew I was a Spanish speaker. And so, a lot of times, when you’re working with a director, they have to pull you to the side to whisper to you to give you notes in case maybe they’re worried about fragile ego, whatever an actor might have.
But what’s crazy is, he’s very blunt, but off the top of that, he would just tell me in Spanish, and then no one would understand. So it was very cool to have that experience. I never had it before where it was so intimate. I mean, really, he would get notes to Galo Olivares, the DP (director of photography), and Galo would talk to him, and I would have a direct channel to basically what is supposed to be a private channel on the walkie, right?
Because I could understand what they’re saying, and I got to have more insight on the students and their process. And so I really soaked up as much as I could just because Fede and Galo both felt more comfortable speaking Spanish as their native language. I also think Fede as a father had a special place, like a soft place in his heart for us as well.
Thanks for the time, Isabela. One last question. What do you hope audiences take away from watching Alien: Romulus now that its premiered?
I hope it scares them. I hope they have a frightening time, but also an adrenaline fuel. It’s a classic, horror, cinematic experience. I think more than anything, I think people will probably regret not seeing it in the theaters more than anything because the sound design is beautiful and the visuals are beautiful, it’s a dark film, so to see it with that intended lighting and atmosphere is the perfect way to see it. I really hope that many people see it in theaters.
Alien: Romulus is now playing exclusively in theaters.
