Sydney Chandler is carrying on an Alien tradition started by Sigourney Weaver but with a whole new bag as the kickass female lead of the FX series Alien: Earth.
Upon the 2025 debut of its first season, the series became a top-five most-watched show on Hulu and Disney+ as well as becoming the second most-streamed show in FX history. It shot in Thailand over 13 sound stages and 82 sets, but Chandler told me she was excited to be shooting closer to home in London for its second season, which she was going to embark on shortly after our conversation for a special edition of my Deadline video series The Actors Side, on location at Disney’s Toast To TV event at Soho House Holloway.
But make no mistake, the memorable character of Wendy that Chandler plays is like no other, and she was nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Lead Performance in a role in which she is essentially a hybrid of robot and human, the one character who can also actually converse in Xenomorph among other attributes. We talk about the special challenges of playing such a unique role including developing the language she must speak, portraying a child in the body of an adult, and the pure physical demands the part requires including that fight scene with the eyeball monster in the season finale, plus much more.
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To watch our conversation with Chandler, click on the video above.