NEW ULM — With the success he has enjoyed the last few years, David Rysdahl is getting closer to that place he never let himself imagine he would reach: success in movies and television.
But with the current release of “Alien: Earth,” a visual and textual expansion of the blockbuster film series, on FX and Hulu, the thought isn’t as scary. He plays scientist Arthur Sylvia in the eight-episode series. Episode four aired Tuesday; all four so far released can be viewed on FX.
“I tried to stop thinking about results early on in my 20s because that always made me depressed because I wasn’t where I wanted to be,” Rysdahl, 38, said from his parents’ house in New Ulm, where he tries to visit a couple of times a year to ground himself.
Instead, he worked on the craft that he discovered almost by accident when his mom told him he should audition for a play at Cathedral High School. Once cast and on stage, he felt it was his place.
“I did a lot of short films with students in my 20s, and the moment I stopped looking at the future and being like, I want to be this or that, I got a lot happier in my life,” Rysdahl said.
“And I became a better actor, ironically, because I was just being present in my own life.”
Today he’s present with his wife, fellow actor Zazie Beetz, in Brooklyn. He appeared in the fifth season of “Fargo,” during which he became connected with “Alien: Earth” creator/writer Noah Hawley. He also appeared in Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer,” Netflix’s “Black Mirror” season five, and the fantasy drama “Nine Days,” among others.
“Alien: Earth” is set two years before the events of the 1979 film “Alien” and introduces the audience to the three forms of immortal beings: cybernetically enhanced humans (cyborgs), artificially intelligent beings (synthetics or synths) and synthetic beings downloaded with human consciousness (hybrids).
While drawing heavily on the ideas of corporate greed and interactions with alien creatures — with high production values that will immediately connect with fans of the movies — Rysdahl said he loves how Hawley expands on them in “Alien: Earth.”
He does so through the eye of a subject in the news: artificial intelligence.
Fans are familiar with xenomorphs — the name given to the monsters in the “Alien” franchise — but Rysdahl said Hawley takes them to a new level, too.
“What the xenomorph is going to do is known lore,” he said, “so we have to make sure that we’re adding something fresh to it and not just relying on the shadows. Because the shadows has been done before.”
While monsters are cool, it’s in the humans where Hawley and “Alien: Earth” really live, he said.
Rysdahl called “Fargo” a folk story, whereas “Alien: Earth” is fable. In both cases, however, he credited Hawley and his team with tapping into subject matter that resonates with today’s cultural happenings. In fact, Hawley often adjusts scripts to match what is happening now.
“Noah is really into the morality of humans, and I think sci-fi allows you to have a fable, you know, to look at humanity through a certain lens and allows you to really explore those questions with a little bit of remove,” Rysdahl said.
When it is expressed, it encompasses people in ways nobody fully realized.
“I feel like story works in that there’s patterns happening within society that we, even as creators, are not aware of when you’re creating … and the world can help you examine it further.”
Firmly planted in the world of science fiction, Rysdahl’s next film is “SOULM8TE,” scheduled for Jan. 9, 2026, release. A spinoff of the 2022 film “M3GAN” and the third installment in the franchise, it will follow a man who buys an android to cope with the death of his wife.
Rysdahl is happy to hear that family and friends who aren’t necessarily into science fiction in a big way are still connecting with “Alien: Earth.”
“They’re not just horror or scary monsters,” he said of his co-stars.
“There’s a lot of real human subtext and human stakes involved. Relationships. So, I think (they’re) worth watching, even if you’re not a fan of the sci-fi genre.”