Warning: this article contains spoilers for Episode 6 of Alien: Earth. Read at your own risk!
Not everyone can survive an alien apocalypse.
The most impactful death so far on Alien: Earth is Tootles, one of the “Lost Boys,” who gets too close to the extraterrestrial specimens that have crash-landed in Prodigy City. Kit Young, the actor who plays Tootles, and Ugla Hauksdóttir, who directed the episode titled “The Fly,” joined Gold Derby to break down all the (extremely) gory details.
In the Q&A below, the duo describe what the vibe was on set the day Tootles died — especially given that he’s a child inside an adult’s body — explain what it’s like on set interacting with the powerful Xenomorph and the intelligent eye midge, and reveal the episode’s homage to the original 1979 movie.
Kit Young as Tootles, ‘Alien: Earth’Patrick Brown/FX
Gold Derby: Kit, what was your favorite part about playing Tootles?
Young: The Lost Boys as a squad was really the best thing. I knew Jonathan [Ajayi], who plays Smee, beforehand, but everyone else I just met. We were all developing relationships as we were embarking on this journey, and it was great forming this kind of squad. I’m thinking of the entire Lost Boys, but also the entire cast and crew, because we all living in the same places together. That was the real takeaway. For us, it’s always about the experience, and we get to relive our favorite memories when it all comes out.
How big of an Alien fan were both of you before signing on to this project?
Young: I was a newer fan than some of the others. When I was a kid, I was a huge Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fan — I loved both my fantasy and my sci-fi. But I initially wouldn’t touch horror with a bargepole. It terrified me. There’s another horror film that I did a few years ago that broke the seal for me. Alien is so unique, right? The first film really is the blueprint for a lot of horror films. It has moments of fear and gore, but it’s not a slasher film; it’s about suspense, pressure, intrigue, and world-building.
Hauksdóttir: Actually, it’s funny. When I got called in for an interview with [showrunner Noah Hawley], I remembered that in college, the first film course that I took, we got to pick a film to write about, and I actually picked Alien. I was 17 years old when I wrote that essay, and I was really impressed by the world-building, the horror genre, and the strong female lead [Sigourney Weaver as Ripley]. I’m not a nerd, I can tell you that. I did not know all the rules of the Alien world. But I’m a big fan.
Let’s talk about the day Tootles died. What was the vibe like on set?
Young: It was great, and I suddenly had to step up. The whole day was just that scene. We rehearsed it almost like a play, with everyone on one side of the room. It was all choreographed, and I did a sequence with no dialogue, where I’m feeding the other creatures. I talked about it a lot with Ugla, and she was also the director on Episode 4, so it was nice to work with the same person. I didn’t want to shy away from it being horrible. If we are going to venture into killing a child, let’s really do that and make it poignant. That shot where he dies was at the very end of the day, and we only had one take. I told them I could do it, and we rehearsed it. At the end, the producers came out, almost in tears, saying it was absolutely horrible and traumatic, but we got it. It was really fulfilling for all of us.
Kit YoungJeff Spicer/Getty Images
Hauksdóttir: It was quite sad actually. It’s such a devastating end to his character, and we were all filled with dread having to film it. Even though Kit is an adult actor, you become so aware while you’re working on the show that essentially the Lost Boys are all children. Tootles is a sweet little boy who aspires to be a serious scientist. As he enters that scene, he is so proud that Kirsh [Timothy Olyphant] has trusted him with the task of being alone in the lab and feeding the creatures. He enters in a jolly mood, but it all goes horribly wrong. He’s a hybrid, so he’s way too strong, which is why he rips off the door of the feeding window. It was very tragic to watch that happen.
What was sprayed on Tootles’ face to make it look so gooey?
Young: The clear liquid was the acid goo, but the white stuff was supposed to be coming from my body. That was an homage to Ian Holm in the original film. So much of it was practical. They put dots on my face so that later they could do the eroding, and my eyes were closed when the goo hit. Then, hair and makeup ran in, made sure it was out of my eyes, and gave me a little cup with a white liquid. I got to choose between various different types of milk. I took a swig, held it in my mouth, and went crazy. If you ask me what it is, I actually don’t know, and I feel like I should know. Everything was very sickly sweet, and quite tasty.
Hauksdóttir: We wanted this to be a single shot, so the idea was to keep it in real time once the fly squirts its acid goo onto his face. A couple days before we filmed it, Kit and I went into the space, and we rehearsed that sequence, and really talked our way through the physical experience of what happens when the acid hits. It begins to melt into his face, and how that starts to work on his circuits and burn him on the inside. So, there was the whole physical component of that. But then there was also the more emotional component, which is him realizing that he’s stuck inside a cage with a dangerous alien creature. He’s trying to feed it electronics, which is essentially what he’s made of, so he realizes that he is becoming the food.
The sheep with the eye midge clearly distracted Tootles, resulting in his death. What’s your take on that creature?
The universe’s most terrifying sheepFX
Hauksdóttir: We actually had an eye in front of us. It was this gooey, cute little object on a stick. It was silly and sweet and harmless. On set we had somebody puppeteering it, which was really helpful to have that reference. It’s ironic that this silly, cute little thing became one of the most scary, terrifying things on the show.
Young: I think he was just mildly irritated, and then a bit more irritated when he realized he was locked in. He’s not aware that the sheep is now this evil mastermind. He doesn’t realize that he’s in peril until it is really too late. I think he’s just weirded out by the eye. I mean, he’s there when the eye image takes over the sheep, and he’s really the only one that doesn’t have a poker face, and he kind of shows his disgust.
Was there a dummy version of Tootles on set?
Young: Yes, the dummy version of me exists. That is the finished, dead version with full erosion. So, I lay on the ground, twitching and twitching until dead. And then on a separate day, the actual feasting that happens wasn’t me. I remember getting a text from Sydney [Chandler] and she was like, “Oh, Kit, you’re on set!” I was like, “What are you talking about?” And she sent me a picture of the corpse, and I was like, “Oh, that’s disgusting.” The immobile, final version is this brilliantly constructed thing.
Did you warn your family and friends about what to expect in Episode 6?
Young: I love to keep them in suspense. I have two younger sisters, and I’ve had quite a few on-screen deaths now, and they have a bet running: “Does he make it? Does he not?” I feel like I’m getting a reputation for deaths on-screen, so if you’re going to bet, I’m probably going to go. I just like not telling people.
Ugla HauksdóttirJeff Spicer/Getty Images
Ugla, can you talk about working one-on-one with the Xenomorph?
Hauksdóttir: We had a reference on set for how the baby Xeno looked and the size of it, but we had to rely on our imagination for how it moved, and when it hisses, and when it whips its tail. With Sydney, we talked that through in detail. She had nothing to play against except her own imagination of what the baby Xeno looked like. It was Sydney who came up with the idea of how she moved her lips and head to create those foreign sounds. There’s something about the way she moves her face, where you can see this robotic movement, and so it becomes a nice reminder of the synthetic body that she has.
What can you tell us about Timothy Olyphant, who plays the synthetic named Kirsh?
Hauksdóttir: Tim is just a legend. He is like a kid — he loves acting, he loves his job, and he brings so much excitement every single day onto the set. He likes to play, and he appreciated just not doing the same thing again and again. We started experimenting. I would throw weird little directions at him, and he would always give something really interesting and fascinating. He was a pleasure to work with.
Kit, you came from Shadow and Bone, a huge show with its own fanbase. What was it like going from that to this project with its own built-in fandom?
Young: It’s kind of crazy. I love all these genre things. There is a real difference between fantasy and sci-fi; it’s a tonal thing. There’s an intensity that Alien requires, and an adult nature. I’m very lucky to have been part of multiple pieces of IP that already have a fandom behind them. There’s a pressure you feel to do them justice and not disappoint people. I watch them anyway as a viewer, so I get to geek out on set as they’re happening. The tricky thing is not saying anything about it. I knew about my death scene over two years ago and only today, with you, can I talk about it.
Episode 6 of Alien: Earth, titled “The Fly,” aired Sept. 9 on FX.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.