The Tomorrow War: It Took Three Separate Shots For Every Alien Scene
When it comes to holding an alien invasion at bay, the more angles you can get on the enemy, the better. That was the case with "The Tomorrow War." The epic sci-fi action movie that saw Chris Pratt battling beasties from the stars across time, along with a rag-tag team of allies that are possibly lined up for "Tomorrow War 2." Joining him in the carnage was Yvonne Strahovski. She transformed from her time on "Dexter" to the future soldier with a connection to Dan Forester's (Chris Pratt) past and had her fair share of close encounters with the extra-terrestrial beasts.
The actress revealed there was a trio of takes that were required whenever personal space needed to be invaded. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Strahovski explained, "Typically, we would do three different takes for the same kind of shot. So you do a take with nothing at all and just kind of pretend that there's something there. And then you would do the take with the person in the gray unitard. And then you would do a take with a prosthetic." Through this process, Strahovski learned that even with parts of an alien on set to work off, the simple method of imagining what in front of her proved to be the best course of action to portray the fear of extra-terrestrial activity on the screen.
Yvonne Strahovski felt working with nothing gave her everything required for The Tomorrow War
By working through these various stages of scary alien activities, Yvonne Strahovski realized that going at it alone was the best tactic when the dial on the action got turned up. Recalling the experience, she explained, "They built a prosthetic of the top half of the alien, so the head and the front legs that was controlled by guys basically puppeteering it from behind." Turns out that was more than was needed. "I actually really enjoyed doing it to nothing," she admitted. "I think I found it very freeing to just sort of be able to use your imagination and just kind of create something."
While the human race might've been on the back foot facing off against their new enemy, Strahovski told SYFY in 2021 that she already had the inside scoop on what she was squaring off with, having seen its design before shooting. "We got to see what it was gonna look like as they were creating and perfecting it. There was a lot of video reference, which was incredibly helpful." This allowed Strahovski to map out the monster before she fought one. In the end, prosthetics might help, or CGI could come close, but there really is no limit to what a cast member can conjure up when someone shouts action.