Adding a Ridley Scott project to one’s filmography is prestigious. But landing one is just as hard. Actor Adarsh Gourav, who is seen as the character Slightly in Alien: Earth that has Scott as the executive producer, recalled that he bagged the Noah Crawley-directed web series after auditions that ran into hundreds. “This project came to me at a time when I had almost stopped expecting it. It was my most challenging audition process so far. I had to go through over 150 auditions before I finally landed this role. On days, it felt exhausting, and I kept questioning if I was even heading in the right direction. The irony is that the opportunity came from a genre I knew the least about — science fiction,” he recounted.

Ridley Scott

Gourav’s first sci-fi outing comes with a legacy of its own. The international web series, which began streaming from August 12, is part of the Alien film franchise that started with Scott’s 1979 movie. Set in the 22nd century, Alien: Earth stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, and Timothy Olyphant, and sees Gourav, 31, playing a 10-year-old.