By BRUCE R. MILLER

Copyright stltoday

During many of the early episodes of “Alien: Earth,” David Rysdahl hovered in the background of scenes, concentrating on his job as lead technician for the Prodigy program.

He didn’t drop into conversations or force himself into the storyline but waited until it was his time. Then, pow!

“It’s like playing a sports game,” Rysdahl says. “You kind of want to take some shots, right? I knew they were coming … so I just wanted to be a good team partner for the other actors.”

To inform those “working” scenes, he talked with art directors about the monitors and computers he was operating. “You make it as real for yourself as possible.”

Then, he says, he worked with the camera team, so it would get good shots when he’s on the keyboard.

And when it came to the other actors, he just “lived in the character without putting too much on it, reacting as naturally as you would and being surprised” when the other actors were in the heat of action.

Co-star Timothy Olyphant, who plays a droid in the series, is like jazz, Rysdahl says. “He’s doing improv every time … you have no idea what he’s going to do. It helps when you’re playing a synth versus a concerned human being, but you can also watch actors and steal things from them. ‘I want to try that next time’ just to see if it works for me.”

By the time Rysdahl’s Arthur Sylvia moved into the spotlight, plenty was happening on the set. Aliens were loose, creatures were falling and the narrative was spiraling out of control.

“That’s what my character was feeling at that moment,” the Minnesota native says. “It can mirror life in those moments. I always feel like what happens off stage is going to affect your performance, so your performance is never yours. Performance is everybody’s. They’ve all helped you get to that moment.”

When Arthur has a close encounter with a creature — such as a face hugger — it’s never just the work of one or two people. There are whole teams who make one come to life. Puppeteers operate arms and legs, technicians make the situation seem frightening. Lighting effects enhance the mood and then, of course, there’s the actor’s contribution.

“You feel scared,” Rysdahl says. “Your imagination is being taken over. I remember the night we did eight hours of the face hugger and I had nightmares because I was imagining the proboscis going down into the throat.”

Puppeteers, meanwhile, are taking the scene very seriously. “They stay out of your eyeline. Everyone is trying to make this as scary as possible. We’re also having a great time and laughing, but you want to live in the fear of the character, so you get tied into it.”

Rysdahl first heard of creator Noah Hawley’s plans for “Alien: Earth” when he was working on the latest edition of “Fargo.” There, he played Wayne Lyon, the quiet husband of Dot Lyon, the housewife thrust into a crime spree that revealed much of her past.

In “Alien: Earth,” he’s the good guy, too, and, some say, a surrogate for Hawley. “In ‘Fargo,’ I played a father and loving husband, that’s certainly part of Noah. And in our first meeting about Arthur, I said, ‘This guy is kind of like Wayne … he’s a mirror image. He loves his work, he loves his family, he believes in what he’s doing and then he has a crisis of faith … and has to reexamine his place in it all.”

A villain is definitely on the bucket list, Rysdahl says. “But I love playing good guys. I want to be moving forward … and that will come.”

Between the time he finished “Alien: Earth” and its premiere on television, the 38-year-old shot “SOULM8TE,” a drama that also addresses the future and artificial intelligence.

“My character has lost his wife to cancer and is very lonely and sad. I start to mess with some of our robots and go too far with one. It’s a story about people being alone. It’s a grand experiment and it’s not ending well.”

“SOULM8TE,” like “Alien: Earth,” explores what the future could portend.

“I’m hopeful we’re finally talking about it,” Rysdahl says. “I feel like it’s a problem that’s going to affect all of us. We really need community. We have to find new ways to build that back up and something that isn’t political, that isn’t tied to hate and anger.

“I don’t trust the tech companies to find the answers. We as humans need to find them and build it from the ground up.”

“Alien: Earth” airs on FX and Hulu. It concludes Sept. 23.