Yahoo Movies Alien: Romulus director hails David Jonsson's 'truly amazing' performance
Alien: Romulus has a large ensemble cast of young actors, some of whom audiences will have seen before and others who are getting their big break, but director Fede Álvarez tells Yahoo UK there's one who stood out most to him: David Jonsson.
The Rye Lane actor plays Andy, an android who has been reprogrammed to act as a surrogate brother to orphaned miner Rain (Cailee Spaeny) — both of whom are part of a group of scavengers terrorised by horrifying creatures when they investigate an old spaceship. Johnsson delivers a "truly amazing" performance according to Álvarez, who argues that the British actor and Spaeny's characters are the heart of the film.
"David really, for me at least, has definitely been a complete stand out," Álvarez says. "I can't wait for you to see it, he is really, truly something amazing.
"Those two together, him and Cailee up on the screen, is the heart of the movie and what you cannot stop watching him, both of them are wonderful, I really enjoyed [working with] them."
Álvarez admits it was "a long search" for all the members of his cast, and he even brought some of them on "at the very last minute" because he "wasn't going to compromise to get it someone that wasn't right". But Spaney, who for all intents and purposes is a Ripley for a new generation, was always in mind for the role of Rain when he began working on Alien: Romulus.
"Cailee, I always knew it was going to be her. She read for me on my previous movie and I was blown away by her," the director says.
"When I start writing I always do a board on the wall that I put photos of potential faces on, even people that are dead or don't exist. It doesn't matter it's just a face for me to look at them and like, 'that's the kind of guy that would say something this way'.
Read more: Alien Romulus
"Cailee was the first photo to go up on the board, I knew it was her and it was always her. When I finished I said to her we never auditioned the role, I told the studio 'Cailee has to do it' and luckily she loved [the script], I was looking to get her."
Alien: Romulus is out now in cinemas.
