Yahoo News ‘Alien’: Alex Lawther & Samuel Blenkin Among Quartet Cast As FX Series Starts Production With No SAG-AFTRA Actors Amid Strike
EXCLUSIVE: FX’s Alien series has started production in Thailand but without its stars who are SAG-AFTRA members due to the ongoing strike.
So far, Sydney Chandler is the only officially confirmed cast member, playing the female lead. Deadline can reveal that Alex Lawther, known for his starring role in Netflix’s young adult drama The End of the F*cking World, has been cast as the male lead, a soldier named CJ, with Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror) as another main character, Boy Kavalier, a CEO. Additional cast members include Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, The Babadook, Babyteeth) as Dame Silvia and Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger) as Slightly.
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The deals for the actors were made well before the SAG-AFTRA strike started July 14, and those who are members of the American union are not currently in Thailand working on Alien, which is an Equity production, sources tell Deadline.
Production began Wednesday, July 19, at The Studio Park with crew filming scenes that don’t include SAG-affiliated actors.
Reps for American Chandler, who is best known for her role in Don’t Worry, Darling, confirmed she was “not in production.” Equity-affiliated English actor Lawther is in Thailand, filming, sources tell Deadline.
Equity performers have been told that they risk being sued for breach of contract if they walk off set in solidarity with American colleagues.
Noah Hawley’s prequel to the Alien franchise, with Ridley Scott on board as executive producer, has booked out most of the sound stages in Bangkok, as well as a big chunk of its camera and lighting equipment.
According to sources, three of the cast are SAG-AFTRA members and it’s understood the production has reworked its shooting schedule to delay their participation for as long as possible. Some of the other main cast are members of UK acting union Equity.
Hawley created the series, which had been in prep for four months, and was less than one week away from the start of production when the SAG-AFTRA strike was called.
A source close to the production said the shoot hadn’t been affected by the WGA strike as all the scripts were completed before it was called in May. But the actors’ strike threw them another curveball.
Around 400 Thai nationals are employed in the production’s crew; no details have emerged about Thai cast. Among the Thai facilities booked out by the production are Bangkok’s Studio Park, where Netflix’s Thai Cave Rescue and Disney’s Ms Marvel were also shot.
Studio Park and the series’ Bangkok-based producer Chris Lowenstein, who also worked on Ms Marvel, declined comment when contacted by Deadline.
The Alien series is reportedly set in a time period before Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and is the first story in the franchise that takes place on Earth.
Separately from the FX series, 20th Century Studios is producing a ninth Alien movie, directed by Fede Alverez and starring Cailee Spaeny and Isabela Merced. That film is already in post-production.
Thailand is one of Asia’s biggest hubs for inbound production, also recently hosting HBO and A24’s The Sympathizer, which wrapped a location-based shoot a few months ago.
The third season of HBO’s The White Lotus is also set to shoot in Thailand but has already been paused by the writers strike.
Chandler is repped by UTA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein. Lawther is with Conway van Gelder Grant, UBBA and UTA and managed by Entertainment 360. Blenkin is repped by Insight Management and Production and managed by Circle of Confusion. Davies is represented by United Agents, Anonymous Content, Sloane Offer Weber & Dern and Personal PR.
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