On
Aliens in America,
Dan Byrd plays an alienated teenager who often suffers at the hands of bullies, who, in his case, is almost everyone in his high school. Fortunately, for Byrd, who left high school to pursue his acting career just before his senior year, his own high school experience was quite different.
"I can definitely relate to lots of things that [my character] Justin has to go through," Byrd told IGN. "But my high school experience was a little stilted compared to this one."
However, although Justin's situation is rather unfortunate, Byrd said it gives him a taste of the typical high school experience, something which he missed out on considering he has spent most of his life doing independent study.
"There's been a lot of living vicariously in this whole project," Byrd said. "We've done a homecoming episode and there's stuff that you think of immediately when you think of high school, and a lot of it I wasn't able to experience - so it's nice to be able to do that on some level."
Aliens in America, a show that follows the lives of a suburban family, the Tolchucks, after they adopt a Pakistani Muslim named Raja Musharraf (
Adhir Kalyan), as part of an exchange student program, is filmed in Vancouver, Canada. Byrd and his costars had to relocate to the country, and upon arriving, Byrd decided it would be best to share a home with Kalyan, whose character becomes good friends with Justin.
"You're spending so much time together professionally and then you're at home with this person too," Dan Byrd said. "It's a lot of face time we have with each other, but I think ultimately it's helped us form a really strong bond that eventually will end up bleeding into what's happening on screen."
Aside from Byrd and Kalyan,
Gilmore Girls alum
Scott Patterson, former
Caroline in the City actress
Amy Pietz and
Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide's
Lindsey Shaw also star in
Aliens in America. The show debuted on the CW on Monday, October 1, and has, so far, received positive feedback from many critics and viewers alike.
"The scripts have been really consistently good and funny,” Byrd told IGN. “It's really great writing overall, so hopefully we're doing it justice and everything on the page is coming off on screen too."
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: IGN
(Image Courtesy of The CW)