Michael Fassbender on ‘Alien: Covenant,’ playing a head and if David has ‘changed’
As the promotion for the Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant, ramps up, Collider released their sit down with Michael Fassbender to discuss returning as David, playing a second character and much more.
“It’s pretty straightforward in the fact that Walter is very much a synthetic minus any of the human traits. So when the David 8’s came out, there was a resistance from people to that model. Because it freaked them out a little bit,” the X-Men: First Class star said of playing the two androids and what has changed.
“Because he was demonstrating a lot of human qualities, and his programming was veering towards human characteristics, like ego and vanity and pride. They found that to be not so much useful as opposed to making people uncomfortable, so they designed the following models with fewer of those human traits. Well, none of them really. So Walter is just a very straightforward, logical synthetic really. He’s more like a Leonard Nimoy/Mr. Spock type character. Whereas David is…it’s been ten years since we last saw him, without any maintenance. So those human qualities have sort of gathered momentum a little bit, I suppose. They’re as much a part of him now as his synthetic qualities. But Walter’s just really there to serve the ship, and its crew.”
Director/Creator Ridley Scott has made the android unique and key in the Alien universe, beginning with the 1979 Alien original and the betrayal of the explorers by Ian Holm’s Ash. Fassbender points to Bishop in Aliens as a better comparison between Walter and the previous versions.
“…he’s like a very efficient butler/bodyguard/technician. He’s just solely there for the purpose of the ship and the crew. So there’s no complications in his programming, not like anything we’ve seen in the previous Alien films. I suppose he’s more like Bishop in Aliens. But with even less of those human traits. But he would be more along that line than Ian Holm’s character for sure.”
Fassbender discusses the addition of Walter, links to Prometheus, the role of the Engineers in Covenant and confirmed, yes…he gets to plays a dismembered head: “I did a little bit of that this week, yep. [Laughs.]…or this one I just kind of wore a black T-shirt, and just had the markings of where the head came loose.”
Alien: Covenant stars Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England and Benjamin Rigby. Noomi Rapace is believed to have a small role, likely a cameo involving her death, as well as an appearance by James Franco.
Alien: Covenant will arrive in theaters on May 19, 2017.
Full interview at Collider HERE
