Richa Moorjani Breaks Down ‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 5, from that Utah Dirt to Creepy Facehugger Sex Scene: “Definitely a Different Type of Intimate Scene to Shoot”

Alien: Earth Episode 5 “In Space, No One…” takes us back in time to reveal what really brought the USCSS Maginot crashing down in New Siam. As you might expect, the details of how Xenomorphs escaped containment, Morrow (Babou Ceesay) wound up abandoning the Weyland-Yutani crew to die, and five alien species wound up in Boy Kavalier’s (Samuel Blenkin) is a bit more complicated than a small twist of fate.

As the latest installment in the FX sci-fi series shows us the tense moments that led to the Maginot’s destruction, it becomes clear that one character on board that ship might survived if not for Morrow’s heartless final call. I’m talking, of course, about Richa Moorjani‘s acting Captain Zoya Zaveri.

**Spoilers for Alien: Earth Episode 5 “In Space, No One…,” now streaming on Hulu**

“He could have let her in!” Moorjani complained to DECIDER last week about Morrow’s decision to lock her out of the ship’s one last safe room.”Let’s get real. Like, the impact room was big enough.”

When Morrow is abruptly awoken from cryosleep in this week’s episode of Alien: Earth, set 17 days before the Maginot makes impact with our sheltered little third rock from the sun, lower-ranking officer Clem (Tom Moya) gives him two important updates. First, two aliens have escaped containment. Second, Zaveri and science officer Bronski (Max Rinehart) had coupled up, against Weyland-Yutani rules.

Over the course of Alien: Earth Episode 5, Zoya Zaveri becomes acting captain and grieving lover as Bronski has been attacked by one of the Xenomorph’s iconic facehuggers. We watch as she attempts to advocate for the crew over the ship’s cargo and handles and increasingly hopeless situation. Through it all, though, Zaveri remains the episode’s anchor in humanity.

“Unlike Morrow, she is someone who has not lost her humanity yet,” Moorjani said. “For her, it means everything to her to protect her crew and to make sure everybody gets out of there alive.”

DECIDER caught up with Richa Moorjani over Zoom last week to learn more about how she tackled this intense episode, from shooting a sex scene with an interloping facehugger to hanging out with the ship’s cat…

DECIDER: I’m a huge nerd for all things Alien, and this episode was so much fun, because it’s kind of like an alternate version of what happens in the original one, I feel like, in many ways. Not to go too into the weeds, but did you have a sense of what Zaveri’s backstory was in your mind? Did Noah clue you into why she was there, what her priorities were? Because she seems to, like, not be totally in it for the same reasons, say, Morrow is.

RICHA MOORJANI: To be honest, we didn’t go much into her backstory, Noah and I. You know, he was really busy with all the other episodes, so I didn’t want to bug him too much about that. But for me as an actor, it is important to have some kind of backstory and know who she is, and why she’s there, and where she came from, so I did… I always do this for every character, I have a journal where I just write out her entire backstory. For me, I decided that the reason she was there was she knew how much of a sacrifice this was going to be. I mean, she’s going to be giving up 65 years of life on Earth and everything’s going to be different when she goes back. But I believe that she’s a born explorer and she’s a scientist, and she really, really believes that embarking on this mission is in service of advancing humankind and making discoveries that will help the planet. So I think that’s what made it worth it for her.

In Episode 5, we learn that Zaveri and Science Officer Bronski had fallen in love during the mission. At least he’s in love; It seems like she’s in love as well. How important to you was it that Zoya was a character who maintained her humanity through all this stuff, even when it was messy and against the rules?

I mean, that was very important to me. As the actor playing her, I think that that’s really what defines her. Unlike Morrow, she is someone who has not lost her humanity yet. For her, it means everything to her to protect her crew and to make sure everybody gets out of there alive, and that’s not his priority. And it’s not the priority of the company she works for. And I think that the love story between her and Bronski — and that is something that Noah and I, we did discuss — that that’s kind of the heart of the episode. It’s what shows the contrast between the horror of what’s happening. And the horror feels even worse, because you see the love between these people. These are real human beings that love each other and they haven’t lost their humanity yet.

Talking about that love, I want to talk about, like, maybe two related moments with the Utah dirt. First, when she’s trying to talk to Bronski with the facehugger on him while he’s in the cryo tube, she’s pouring this dirt on him, saying, “We’ll be home soon.” Then later, when everything’s going to hell, she just takes it all out and pours it into her hands. I’m curious, is the… are we supposed to intimate that she’s from Utah? Is he from Utah? What does that mean to her, and why does she need that connection back to the soil?

I think it’s her soil that she brought on the mission with her from home. I think that they discussed that when they get back, they just want to live a simple, quiet life together in Utah and just grow plants and vegetables together and not go to space anymore.

The first time when you see her pouring it, she’s telling him, “We’re gonna be home soon,” like, “Hang in there.” Then the second time she does it, I think that’s the moment she realizes that everyone’s dying and she’s failed. She wanted to protect her crew and she failed in doing that. I think that’s the moment she thinks that nothing is going to go well, and it’s probably the end for all of them. So I think that’s her way of having closure and saying goodbye, and feeling like, “I’m never going to see Earth again.”

The editing in this show is so amazing, how Noah and his crew just cut between different things to sort of heighten the terror. One jump scare that caught my eye when I was rewatching the episode was when we flash back and forth between her putting the dirt on his capsule and their love scene. Then all of a sudden you see the facehugger on his face during the love scene. I’m just curious, what was it like to shoot that? Because I can imagine that’s a very different kind of intimate scene than you’re probably used to having in TV.

[Chuckles] Yeah, that’s something that Noah and I also discussed, the whole facehugger. The way it happens, it feels, for lack of better words, it’s kind of sexual. It’s kind of penetrative. I mean, it’s literally like implanting something. So we were trying to show the contrast between that and lovemaking. I think that’s what helps to create the terror and the horror of the situation. But yeah, it was definitely a different type of intimate scene to shoot. [Laughs]

Was it on the actor’s face, or did you have, like, a dummy?

I’m trying to remember now, the part with the facehugger. I think… they actually put it on his face. Yeah.

Amazing day at the office.

Yeah, it was, it was great for him. [Laughing]

You mentioned how when she’s pouring the dirt in her hands, she’s basically given up, but then what follows is a really great, energetic scene where she really does give it her all to fight the Xenomorph. You’re running through that ship and it’s so cool to watch. What was it like to film one of those amazing alien versus human chase scenes?

It was really incredible and epic. You know, that’s something that I’ve never done before, but we’ve seen it before, and knowing that’s something that I get to do now was so terrifying and exciting. And the way that they were able to create the set and having the Xenomorph actually in costume chasing me. When you see all the mist going in the air when I’m running through the hallways, it was so loud, we had to wear earplugs. It sounded like explosions going off so I really didn’t have to act much. It was terrifying to have to run, know where I’m going, and making sure that he’s not gonna catch up with me.

Yeah, and I really love that transition from when she feels like she’s given up and then she sees the Xenomorph, and it snaps her right back into reality. Then she goes into fight mode, into warrior mode.

I also have to know about the scene between the Eye Midge and the Xenomorph when they fight each other. Right before then, like, your character has an encounter with the Eye Midge in Schmuel. She’s passed out, we don’t really know what happened. Can you give us any sense of what the face-off between Shmuel with the Eye Midge and Zoya is? Because I was like, “Is she implanted? What’s going on? Is she fine?”

Yeah, it’s not written in the script and we never really see it. So in my mind, I think that he probably picked her up and threw her and she probably hit her head and fell. So luckily, she hasn’t died yet. Then she wakes up, obviously, when the Xenomorph comes back in.

And what was it like watching these two guys just go at it as you’re…

Oh, my god.

…coming to? Because that by itself is probably traumatizing.

It was. It was traumatizing, and it was fascinating. Because they really were doing that. Like, none of this was done in special effects. If you watch it, you might catch it if you’re looking for it… It’s really quick, but there’s a part when Shmuel jumps on top of the Xenomorph and then Zoya gets up to run away, and the Xenomorph’s tail does like a 360 and she has to duck under it. We had to shoot that a few times. It was not easy to shoot that part, because I had to do a whole bending under the limbo stick type of sequence. It’s really quick when you watch it, but that was so much fun.

It occurred to me that Zoya’s very capable, very strong, very determined, and in another situation, she could have been, like, the Ripley of this story. But Morrow refuses to save her. I’m curious what you make of Moro’s decision, because we as the audience see that he is actually wrestling with it on Earth. He has scenes where he’s guilty about it, but to him, it’s his mission. Does any part of you understand it? Does any part of you want to have words with Morrow? I’m just curious how you feel.

Me as the actor or me as Zaveri?

Both, I would say!

I mean, as an actor, I’m pissed. Because now I can’t be on the show anymore, because you just got me killed. But as Zoya, I think she feels so betrayed. Because her thing is she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her crew. She’s loyal and she cares about saving people. No man left behind. So when he does that to her, I think it is the ultimate betrayal because she would never have done that to him. And he could have let her in! Let’s get real. Like, the impact room was big enough.