INTERVIEW: Corey Reynolds opens up about playing Sheriff Mike on ‘Resident Alien’

Photo: Resident Alien stars Corey Reynolds as Sheriff Mike. Photo courtesy of James Dittinger / SYFY / Provided by press site with permission.

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Syfy’s Resident Alien, starring Alan Tudyk, Alice Wetterlund, Corey Reynolds, Levi Fiehler and Sara Tomko, finds an alien from outer space crash landing on planet Earth, and in order to survive amongst the human population, he decides to take their shape and become a local town doctor named Harry Vanderspeigle (Tudyk). So ensues some hilarious commentary about small town life and these strange times everyone lives in.

One of the key characters on the show is Sheriff Mike Thompson (Reynolds), billed by Syfy as a police official who runs the town with a chip on his shoulder, a cowboy hat on his head and an iron fist. Reynolds, an alumnus of TV’s The Closer and many other projects, has loved the experience of bringing the sheriff to life — the character, like the rest of the series, is based off stories from a comic book. He’s especially thankful for the role given how disruptive the COVID-19 pandemic has been to the art of acting.

“Beyond the personal-family-home component, the professional component has been challenging,” Reynolds said in a recent phone interview. “Beyond our work on Resident Alien, I’ve gone on maybe one or two other sets to do some work, and the vibe is different. There’s lots of testing. The one show that I went to work on I had the test two days before to be able to go to the wardrobe fitting and then the day before to be able to go to the set, and then when I got to the location, I had to do a rapid test that morning to be able to film that day. So there were a lot of hurdles to jump through.”

The actor was quick to note that he believes this virus testing is absolutely necessary. If actors, directors, writers and crew are going to find ways to make filming safer, then testing will be a new normal for the foreseeable future. “It only makes sense to me to take whatever steps need to be taken to make sure it can be done safely,” he said. “There was a lot of work that was cut back in the beginning, and I think as things move forward, and we start to get better at working in these conditions, I think we’re seeing production will pop back up.”

Reynolds said there’s extra responsibility amongst the members of a company to help mitigate the risk of catching the virus. His precautions are trying to stay focused: When he’s working, that’s just about the only activity he partakes in. He described his day as heading from his home to the set, and then back again.

When Resident Alien came along, Reynolds was ecstatic at the possibility of portraying the sheriff. He called the pilot script one of the best that he has ever read, and that’s saying something because he has been involved in many TV shows. “The pilot was so incredibly well written, and honestly people like Sheriff Mike, he was unlike any other Black character I had seen on television,” the actor said. “And I was really eager to do something different. A lot of the work that I had done on previous shows, like on The Closer, playing an LAPD detective, and on Murder in the First, being an assistant district attorney, there was a lot of strait-laced characters that I had to play over the years. And I really wanted to have a chance to flex some comedic chops, which is where my career started, in comedy, back in Hairspray on Broadway.”

That Broadway role was actually his big break, and he earned a Tony Award nomination for the role of Seaweed. That began his path toward being a working, successful actor, and he’s always straddled the line between genres. When he was working in comedies, Reynolds felt like he needed to prove himself as a dramatic actor, and when he started taking more dramatic roles, he wanted to reintroduce his comedy chops.

“And this character was so unique in how he spoke, in how he carried himself, and I just connected to him right away,” he said of the sheriff. “And as I said the pilot was so incredibly well written. Chris [Sheridan] did an amazing job.”

During the casting process, Sheridan began an email thread that would be updated when a new cast member signed onboard. The showrunner would introduce the actor to the Resident Alien family, show off their headshot and let the cast know a little bit about the newcomer’s biography. “I know when he added me to the chain, I chimed in,” Reynolds said. “Then everyone chimes back, so we started connecting very early on. That was as a direct result of how Chris kind of shepherded everyone together.”

He added: “I’ve been really good during the course of my life and my career of trusting my gut and following that little voice in my head, and I’ve had that little voice tell me three important things. One of them had to do with taking Hairspray over The Lion King, which I had a choice at the time to do. One of them told me to pay special attention to The Closer, and the other one told me to take this show, Resident Alien, over another show that I had offered to me at the exact same time actually. I had to pick and choose between the two, which doesn’t happen very often. It’s rare, but it was nice. It was an easy choice because Resident Alien, it jumped off the page. Then, once they started adding people, adding cast members, it was just like wow. … I think a lot of what makes the show work is the chemistry. The writing is obviously one component. Alan, obviously, a huge component as well. His Harry is irresistible, but it’s also that chemistry and that intangible thing that you can recognize but can’t quite describe, that X factor. We kind of have that kismet between us. We all get each other. We’re all just the right amount of weird.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Resident Alien, featuring Corey Reynolds, airs on Syfy Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Click here for more information.