COMEDY GETS NO RESPECT
Alien horrors seen as a relief
When Danny McBride got the call to join Alien: Covenant — director Ridley Scott’s through line between his original Alien and the 2012 prequel Prometheus — he thought he was going to be there to make a couple of jokes and suffer a grisly onscreen death.
“I thought for sure ... I was going to come in there for comic relief and then I was going to have my head ripped off and crammed up my ass,” he chuckles.
Instead, McBride — who plays the pilot Tennessee — found himself an intricate part in an ensemble piece, which includes James Franco, Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston and Billy Crudup. Alien: Covenant is an unrelentingly dark horror that reintroduces movie fans to H.R. Giger’s iconic Xenomorph and will lead to at least two additional movies.
Following the world première of the film, McBride talked about the franchise’s revival, how watching Alien as a child influenced his career trajectory and revealed what it’s like to come face to face with Alien.
Q Prometheus was missing a lot of the horror elements fans expect from this franchise. What did you think of Covenant ratcheting that up this time?
A This is a dark, dark, dark movie ... I’m someone who loved Prometheus. I know that some people missed the horror element, but I loved what Ridley was proposing in it. I had no idea where the hell it was going or what it was all going to add up to. And I just love what Ridley is going after in this movie and it makes me excited to think where this is all headed from here.
Q Ridley Scott is pushing this universe in a new direction. Was that surprising to you?
A I think he has managed to make Alien, once again, horrifying. That’s no easy feat. And there are some concepts at work here — everything to do with David and Walter, for example — that are going to push the franchise even further.
Q What did you think of the rumours that Katherine Waterston’s character Daniels was related to Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley?
A I thought the same exact thing. I asked Ridley when we were on the set, ‘How far before Alien are we? Is Daniels Ripley’s mom?’ And he was like, ‘No, this is many years before Alien.’ But I don’t know if that’s a smoke screen or if that’s reality. I have no idea.
Q What was it like to come face to face with the Alien?
A It was crazy. There actually was a contortionist in the Alien costume that would pursue you and run after you and that left little to the imagination.
Q Do you think there’s alien life out there?
A I would have to assume so. I can’t imagine we’re the only things in the universe. I do think we should look for it and I hope that what we find is something cool and not just a weird cockroach or something like that.
Q You’ve made people laugh as the outrageous Kenny Powers on Eastbound & Down and the cartoonish Neal Gamby on Vice Principals. What’s harder, comedy or horror?
A I feel like comedy never gets the respect it’s due. Comedy is the hardest f---ing thing to do in the world because it is so obvious when comedy is not working. It was nice to come into something where I didn’t have that pressure of adding jokes onto things.
Q What was your big Alien moment growing up?
A I remember I snuck Aliens into the video pile of movies my family was renting one weekend and I got up really early to watch it before my parents were awake because I knew they would not be down with me seeing it. I was partway through the movie and my mom woke up and she was making breakfast and she heard some of the dialogue and she said, ‘If they curse one more time, we’re turning this movie off.’ I was sitting there on pins and needles thinking, ‘Please, please no one else curse,’ and right then Bill Paxton does his epic ‘F---ing game over’ rant and my mom was like, ‘That’s it, this is going off.’ But I think that started something in me. It was like, ‘Mom, you don’t like seeing cursing in movies? Wait ’til you see what I do when I grow up.’