Editor’s note: The below interview contains major spoilers for the Alien: Earth season finale. Believe it or not, but the season finale of Noah Hawley’s FX series Alien: Earth is already here. While the preceding weeks have already dropped their fair share of unexpected twists, many of which could reshape the Alien franchise as we know it, this week’s finale, “The Real Monsters,” co-written by Hawley and Migizi Pensoneau, wraps up in a way that definitely leaves the door open for more. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and the rest of the Lost Boys are poised to “rule” over Prodigy’s Neverland island, but what does that mean when Weyland-Yutani’s forces are closing in? And what’s in store for everyone now that T. Ocellus (aka The Eye) has found a new human host? Ahead of the premiere of Alien: Earth’s season finale, Collider had the opportunity to sit down with Chandler and break down the biggest twists for her character in the episode. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Chandler reveals which awkwardly personal noise made it into the xenomorph sounds she did her best to imitate, how Wendy’s identity struggle culminates in her argument with Joe (Alex Lawther), the benefits of working with Alien: Earth’s creature performers, what the finale’s closing moments mean for Wendy as a threat, and more. COLLIDER: Before we get into the finale, I have to ask about the process of figuring out how to talk like a xenomorph. SYDNEY CHANDLER: Yeah, I was scared. That was kind of a surprise on the page, when we got some rewrites in, and it just said, “Wendy opens her mouth and the alien sound comes out.” So I was like, “Oh, what? What’s that going to look like?” I wanted to give myself some physicality, just to help me bring that moment to life a bit more. I utilized my mirror, and I also got help from David Rysdahl, who plays Arthur, and we played around with a tightening of the throat, and this kind of rolling your Rs, whistle sound that I played with. I did a lot of exhales and inhales and found this weird body position that helped me to lock into when she was making the sound. Obviously, I didn’t make the final sound, but fun trivia fact: I went in for ADR a month or two ago, and I hadn’t had breakfast, and so my stomach was growling, and we were doing very quiet scenes. When you’re doing ADR, that’s loud. I was roaring. Our great ADR guy, he was like, “We’re trying to get the alien sound. Can I take some of your stomach rumbles and play with them?” And I was like, “Hell yeah, dude, that would be amazing.” I think my stomach rumbles are part of the final alien sound, which is awesome.
‘Alien: Earth’s Sydney Chandler on Getting to Work With a “Real” Xenomorph

“It was quite disturbing to watch…”

Joe (Alex Lawther), Wendy (Sydney Chandler), and Nibs (Lily Newmark) in ‘Alien: Earth’Credit: Image via FX/Hulu

I spoke with Alex [Lawther] last week about the penultimate episode and asked him about working opposite the xenomorph creature performers. How much does having someone physically to bounce off of, in those moments, really help you as an actor? CHANDLER: It helps immensely. And I’m glad you brought that up, because I don’t know if everyone’s aware of how many practical effects we use. CGI is so seamless now. But the design of these suits was just incredible. I mean, they could drool. The second mouth could come out. They’re breathing. There’s the tail. It gives me so much more to work off of, because especially in those more action-packed scenes, to have someone really pulling against you and to be able to dive into that, there’s a real monster in front of you. It’s there. You’re not imagining anything. That was really helpful. It was beautiful to watch their interpretation of the movements as well. That scene out in the jungle, when we’re watching what the alien can do, those are all stunt guys and mists of blood coming up, body parts blowing up. It was quite disturbing to watch, which helps immensely when the alien comes out. I was in the right emotional place because we did practical effects. Amid all the xenomorph action, the hybrids are wrestling with their sense of identity, and there’s a big moment in Episode 7, when Wendy, Nibs, and Joe stumble upon the little graveyard out in the jungle. Much of this season, people have alternated between calling your character Wendy or Marcy, but as the actor, how did you think of her as you were playing her? Was she Wendy or Marcy to you, and was there ever a particular point where Wendy finally took over? CHANDLER: Yeah, I think the grave site is a really pivotal moment. I think that is, if any, the time when she fully merges with this body that she’s in. And there are still questions in Episode 8. She still doesn’t have a full answer. But to see her brother kneeling at the grave and mourning his sister while Wendy is there watching is a massive separation between brother and sister. I think it’s an acceptance for her that she is not Marcy anymore. Marcy is a skeleton in the ground, and her brother is not next to her, holding her, saying, “I’m so glad you’re alive.” Her brother is crying at the grave. So that’s a massive shift, probably more of a subconscious one than conscious for her. I think that could play out more as far as identity and her relationship with her brother, if we get to go again. The whole time, she’s playing with that question. Who is she? What is she? And what does she want to be? Kirsh asks that in the first episode, and I hadn’t even caught that until I watched the whole thing again. But he says in the first 10 minutes, “You can be whatever you want to be.” I think that the question that she starts to chew on is not what is she, but what does she desire to be? It really crescendoes in that finale conversation between Joe and Wendy, because maybe she doesn’t know what she is or who she is, but she knows who she doesn’t want to be. Did you and Alex prep that scene in advance? It’s a very high-stakes moment, because Wendy has just saved Joe from the eye, but it also feels like they stop and take a breath and have it out in a way that’s needed for both of them. CHANDLER: Yeah, we didn’t do any prep for that. Alex is such a phenomenal actor to work with, and I think we both got really lucky with having each other as partners in this brother-sister alliance, because we worked off of each other really, really well. It felt very natural. I trust him as an actor to help me find where I need to go. And so there wasn’t prep per se on that, but it was quite an emotional scene. I remember we filmed it in many different ways as well, and I’m really happy with how it came out because it feels very… not subdued, but there’s a subtle rawness to that scene where you’re seeing two people who love each other, except for the fact that they are very different. And where does that leave them? It’s a revelatory scene for her, and, at the same time, isolates her more from him.
‘Alien: Earth’s Sydney Chandler Loved Getting To Play Wendy at Full Strength

“I think it’s them taking power for the first time…”

Wendy (Sydney Chandler) looking worried in ‘Alien: Earth’Credit: Image via FX/Hulu

These last few episodes have really been snowballing into the events of the finale, where Wendy and the hybrids start in captivity but then end by “ruling” the island. How satisfying was that for you to get to play? CHANDLER: It was an incredible experience to play that, to be able to step in those shoes and play a character who is holding her own space — and that’s it. She’s enough right there, and it’s very threatening, and she’s very powerful and empowered in those moments. I think from Wendy’s point of view, everything’s fantastic. She’s kind of said, “Checkmate,” to Boy K, and she’s got the reins, I think, from an objective viewpoint. She’s a massive threat to the world. She’s a very black and white thinker. She’s extremely powerful now. When you said it’s them taking their power back, I think it’s them taking power for the first time. So what is power? What is it? What does this mean? I was talking with Jonathan [Ajayi] earlier in an interview, and he brought up the fact that kids need an adult. At the end of the day, you do seek out an adult. That began my thought process of, if we go to a Season 2, what happens there? Because all of the adults are in a cage and/or they’re Joe. So, how do they continue to grow up? Who do they look up to? There’s a lot of question marks there. But it was incredibly rewarding. I personally learned a lot and gained a lot from playing this character, especially towards the end. She gave me a lot of strength. Given how things end, have you had any conversations with Noah [Hawley] about his ideas for Season 2? CHANDLER: You know, I tried. Every time I see him, I’m like, “Today’s the day, can I please know something?” And he gives me a little. I trust Noah’s vision. He’s got such a genius, explosive brain. I have no idea where we are going. I have no idea what will happen with Wendy. I really hope we get the chance to see, because all of us are biting at the bit, going, “What happened?” And I know that Noah’s in, he’s ready to go if we get the greenlight. So I’m in the same boat as you — but if I did know, I would not tell you.