‘Alien: Earth’ Antagonist Babou Ceesay Talks Finding the Humanity in a Morally ‘Horrendous’ Character

Noah Hawley’s “Alien: Earth” is a masterclass in turning a legacy I.P. into something that feels distinctly relevant to the present day. The prequel, which tells the story of a corporate arms race to develop immortality and the dark consequences that inevitably emerge, relies heavily on a cast that clearly buys into the premise from the very beginning. So it was no surprise that two of its stars, Babou Ceesay and Sydney Chandler, picked up Independent Spirit Award nominations for their performances.

Prior to the ceremony, Ceesay joined IndieWire and Lavazza on the blue carpet to discuss his breakout performance as Morrow, the villainous cyborg employed by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. Ceesay opted for the more challenging Dark Roast questions and explained how he found the good in such a nefarious character.

“Finding humanity in him,” Ceesay said when asked about the biggest creative challenge he faced. “Making him, in my mind, a little more lovable than people would have expected. I know he was doing some really horrendous things, morally speaking, but I thought ‘He’s still a human being.’ He’s a cyborg, but he’s got human parts, so what’s going on in there?” 

Offering such a nuanced take on a villainous character is not always easy, and Ceesay explained that some of the character’s departures from his own morals required him to take a leap of faith as a performer.

“Those scenes where he’s manipulating a child to get what he wants, those were interesting moments for me,” he said. “It’s not what I would want to do in my own life, so I felt a sense of ‘Okay, let’s push the boat out and see what happens.’”

Watch IndieWire and Lavazza’s complete Coffee Break conversation with Ceesay in the video above.

About Lavazza
Lavazza, founded in Turin in 1895, has been owned by the Lavazza family for four generations. It is active in all business sectors and has operations in 140 markets, with 9 manufacturing plants in 5 countries and about 5,500 collaborators all over the world. The Group’s global presence is the result of 130 years of growth and the more than 30 billion cups of Lavazza coffee produced every year are a testament to a remarkable success story, with the goal of continuing to offer the best coffee possible, in all forms, by focusing on every aspect of the supply chain, from the selection of the raw material to the product in the cup.