Season 3 of SYFY’s Resident Alien has been a rollercoaster of emotions filled with revelation, character growth, break ups, make ups and a baby alien. As the season grows closer to the end with the finale around the corner, Sheriff Mike Thompson — aka “Big Black” — (Corey Reynolds) has evolved into a thoughtful(ish) person who takes other people’s feelings into consideration and matured through his friendship with Detective Lena Torres (Nicola Correia-Damude). While Mike will never lose his sense of humor, his emotional reckoning has forced him to grow up and understand the beauty of accepting people into his life. Season one Mike’s mentally was shaped by his upbringing and further hardened after the death of his partner in Washington, D.C.
The Koalition spoke actor Corey Reynolds to learn more about Resident Alien season 3, Mike’s transformation, accepting Liv into his life, how would Mike react to learning about Harry, his relationship with Ben and more.
Mike’s evolution is interesting this season. In episode six’s ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ Mike is learning more about himself including his toxic masculinity. Can you explain whether or not that education is going to play out within the remaining season?
“Mike is in this interesting position where everything he’s built, [and] his knowingness is colliding with what he knows and what he believes versus what he wants. That want is also a don’t want because what he wants is to be happy; he wants Lena, he wants to feel secure, and he wants to be seen as a hero. [Out of] all of these things, and he’s starting to have to decide whether the pursuit of those things or the pursuit of creating the environment he believes should exist. Is that worth losing everything it cost him as Deputy in season one? He caught himself and had to realize, ‘Wow, I don’t want to be without her.’ She is a good investigator and he let his insecurities about her being a better investigator get under his skin a little bit and it caused him to treat her all sorts of ways she didn’t deserve. Then she walked out, and that loss may have hearkened back to the loss of his mom and how quickly things can change. So, he’s racing to evolve before he loses what he wants. He doesn’t want to necessarily evolve but he sees it as a necessary part of his ability to get what he wants which is to feel whole, to feel loved, and supported and seen. He wants what everybody else wants, he wants love.”
Is he okay with being loved but not in the way in which he directly wants?
“I think he’s being forced to redefine what love looks like and he’s being forced to choose if it doesn’t look the way he wants it to look does he want it at all. What he’s discovering is he does, so that only really means one thing: he needs to change. I thought it was such a funny line when he’s like, ‘Is it too much to ask for an independent woman that only does what I say?’ What I mean is so contradictory but that’s him. I don’t think he [understands] a woman being strong and assertive does not make him weak and for him and for a lot of men, quite frankly, that sometimes can be intimidating when you’re taught that’s [what its] supposed to be. What has to change is what we learn, our ability to be self-reflective and to get updates like the computer. You get updates, you’re not using the same software. You got to keep it up and that’s what Mike is doing. He’s in one of those long circle wheel loading screens right now as he has 600 updates to do. He hasn’t opened his computer since 1997 [and] for him internally, he’s getting updates.”
In the episode, there’s a line that made me question whether or not he was being direct or arrogant between Mike and Ben, when he emphasized, ‘I would like to see you in my office.’ Was he being arrogant or direct?
“There’s an interesting dynamic between the mayor and the sheriff. The mayor is the one person the sheriff still thinks he can flex on. The mayor having been empowered by beating the hell out of two assassins who tried to come into their house, he’s now bumping against that as well. Mike has established himself so much as the dominant one between the two of them. Him saying, ‘I’d like to see you in my office,’ of course he didn’t go to his office because of the specifics of the language but him going to his office would have been the mayor telling Mike what to do which Mike’s never going to do. What I love about Levi [Fiehler’s] scene work [is] the mayor and the sheriff can be like Brian and Stewie from Family Guy when they have their little adventures. It’s a pair you probably wouldn’t have put together but once you put them together, you’re like, ‘Oh wow, this kind of works well.’ There’s just such a sensitive man versus manly man dynamic between the two of them that works really well together. I think he’s learning some stuff from Mike, but Mike would never tell him he’s learning anything from him. He would never give him that if anything [but] he’s always giving him advice. ‘Here’s what you got to do. You got to take a woman and you got to order for her and all this stuff.’ That has been drilled into Mike and of course it doesn’t work because you’re looking at a playbook from like 1730. Of course it’s not the same.”
What would Mike think of Harry?
Mike doesn’t know Harry’s an alien or anything like that. I think his first thing would be like, ‘Holy shit. You’re an alien! Where did this portal come from? Are you teleporting? You’re dating a bird! [Harry] leaving would be the least of his concerns in that particular moment. Mike has always thought something weird about Harry since the beginning. In the pilot [episode] he says, ‘That’s one weird creepy shit, right. when Mike and Liv are tracking him down with the flannel and their investigation is hot on his heels, it will be interesting to see where that goes. Wink wink.”
Let’s talk about the evolution of the relationship between Mike and Liv and where it stands today.
“It leaves a lot of promise and a lot of hope. It’s good and positive.”
What does Mike gain from Liv being in her life and vice versa?
“I think it’s multi-layered. I think initially when you look at it from the professional standpoint, Liz growing up in Patience gives him an insight to the town he would not have without her being an outsider coming in. In the story in our mind, he and his dad moved to Patience maybe four or five years ago. Whereas Liv has been there her entire life. That dynamic fueled some of in his insecurities with her because that insight into the town and the people. In many ways it gave her an edge in her investigative skills as it pertained to things happening in Patience which to him was unacceptable. He’s the sheriff, he’s supposed to be the one that’s doing all this stuff and he was really insecure about that, and it caused him to act out and push her away. Her in that scene where she quits with that burger was one of the best scenes we’ve had. It was just such a culmination of [things]. I’m not immune to how Mike treats Liv. Even me watching season one as it came on Netflix here recently, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, he was so meaner.’ Her quitting the way she did it was a release for the audience. It was, ‘Yes, yes finally!’ I was rooting for it too, finally tell him off.”
“Then you see this transition where he started to understand having someone who’s good at something is an asset, not a threat and that’s hard to realize and maintain when you see yourself as the best of everything. Anybody that infringes upon that belief instantly gets some side eye from Mike. You see it also happen when the new town doctor comes in and the first thing he does to him, [is say] ‘Everybody calls me Big Black.’ That’s his test. It’s almost the dominate handshake. Can I get you to call me what I want you to call me right out of the gate? The mayor and the other doctor [respond with], ‘Nice to meet you Big Black ‘ and he’s finally somebody who gets it. He’s got this dynamic about him that is fun to play. I would never want to be his friend, [wait], that’s not true. I would be his friend, but I wouldn’t necessarily want [it] to be that way because Mike’s still learning. He’s a work in progress and that is relatable for people, and that dynamic with Liz comes full circle.”
“To answer your question, she gives the audience permission to almost forgive Mike. She is the vehicle that allows people to see a side of him that is important in balancing him out. We could never play three four five seasons of what was season one. No one would tolerate that especially Deputy Liv. Even though there’s still this brother / sister dynamic and even sometimes that playful banter is there, the respect has changed, and Mike respects Liv and he needs Liv. He doesn’t see his need of her as a weakness anymore.”
What would season 1 Mike think of season 3 Mike?
“Season one Mike would ask season three Mike, ‘When did he start coloring his hair? I noticed in season one of the show, I had a little gray on the side which is funny [because] we put the gray in and then it was like, ‘Let’s get the gray out.’ That’s a silly answer to that question but a serious answer to that question. I think he would be initially standoffish and kind of like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I think he’d be envious of what season three Mike has. He would be envious of the way he’s connected with Liv, and he’d be envious of the potential of what Mike has with Lena. Ultimately Mike’s got a good heart and that cleans up a lot of his antics in my mind. It’s never my goal to go in and just play him as a straight up. There’s got to be something that motivates him being the way he is and allowing his insecurities to be his key to his dysfunction. It humanizes him. There’s a lot of pressure in the world today especially on Black men in particular and it’s a nice escape for me as an actor to portray someone that’s completely different than anything I’ve done or different than any characters I’ve seen. I’ve seen some people make the comparison to Cleavon Little from Blazing Saddles. I’m happy and thrilled to be able to change the game. I want to do stuff people don’t expect. I want to make left turns where other people make rights. I want to keep doing something that is unique and unlike other stuff and that’s what I think this show is overall. To take it a layer deeper, this character within the show is just different in a good way.”
If Mike could take away one of those life stresses, what would it be or who would it be?
“It would be his father’s health. That would be at the forefront if he had a one like wish. I think he probably would put it there and then he’d instantly regret not turning himself into Superman. This one wish card. ‘Oh, save my dad, no, no, no give me superpowers.’ He would have wanted the superpowers because he would think the superpowers he could use to save his dad’s life, so it would have been both best of both worlds. It wouldn’t been to be a Superman and not save his dad but that’s how I would see him doing it.”
