Sci-fi stories may feel a dime a dozen at times, but it's rare to come across one with as much unmitigated joy and heart as Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out. Directed by Jake Van Wagoner (Studio C) from a screenplay by Austin Everett (Secondhand Hearts), the funny but tender film just saw its Sundance premiere last week and will have a repeat screening on January 28. Aliens Abducted My Parents stars Emma Tremblay (who left a big impression as Ruby on Supergirl) as Itsy, an aspiring journalist who gets transplanted to a nowhere town and meets the strangest boy in the world.
The boy's name is Calvin (played by Let The Right One In star Jacob Buster), and his story is at the heart of Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out. As the longwinded but incredibly accurate title suggests, Calvin is convinced that his parents were taken from him by aliens and has dedicated his life to proving himself right and getting them back. Naturally, Itsy doesn't believe a word he says at first—but she soon finds his faith is infectious and his charm is rather hard to shake.
Screen Rant spoke to Buster and Tremblay about their sweet chemistry and cold-yet-fun experiences on the set of Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out, while director Jake Van Wagoner shared how his knack for comedy progressed from the silly to the sentimental and why his aliens err on the cuter side.
Cast & Director on Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out
Jake, you've had a lot of experience with sketch comedy and things like Impractical Jokers. What is this journey from that to this more sentimental scripted comedy, if you will?
Jake Van Wagoner: Yeah, it is a journey, for sure. I think a part of me just loves comedy. That's my first love, but I also really stories that are super grounded. I like telling stories that could happen in real life. I mean, maybe our parents won't get abducted by aliens, but the heart and the emotion behind that are real.
Getting started, I always had the desire to tell stories that had sentiment and heart involved. But then again, I love comedy, and it is kind of a leap to go from Impractical Jokers to this. But I'm in there all throughout a big spectrum of entertainment.
And I love that for you. Emma, how quickly does Itsy go from finding Calvin very weird to very endearing? And how did you create that chemistry with Jacob?
Emma Tremblay: The chemistry was just there right away. We had lunch when I landed in Utah, and that was awesome to get to know him before we were actually on set. Knowing him before the first day was amazing.
But it seems like Itsy's so set on going back to New York, and you can see that she will do whatever she can to get there. Then along the way, she gets a little bit distracted by this cute boy.
Jacob, Calvin is such a complicated individual, because he knows that he can't really trust people yet he never stops trying. People have been letting him down over and over again, yet he tells his story to anyone who will listen. Can you talk about this dichotomy inside of him?
Jacob Buster: I think, on a surface level, he knows that he can't really trust anybody. Everybody thinks he's weird or an outcast, but he's still really longing for a connection because he really doesn't have anybody. I think, with how out there and how different he is, and the odd duck that he is. He's kind of used to everybody being like, "Oh, he's so weird. We don't want him around." But he's still just longing for a person, and that's why he's going on this big long journey. When Itsy ends up coming around, he puts a little bit of trust in her, and you can slowly see those walls break down as they finally connect.
From his first monologue about space travel and fractions, I knew I was going to be lost. Jake, I know you didn't write the script, but did you already have an interest in or knowledge of the science behind Calvin's story? Did you have to research Jesper's Comet before you put your vision of it on the screen?
Jake Van Wagoner: I am an idiot when it comes to things like that. I know nothing about it, and I'm just as lost as you are. In the edit, I'm like, "I don't know. Let's cut here and cut there." [Laughs] Jacob did a good job. When we shot that scene, Jacob nailed i every single time. I'm like, "What are you even saying? How do you have this memorized?" And he did a really good job of being believable.
Also, the original cut is longer. That scene is so much longer, and the stuff he says is so much longer. We were like, "Chill out, Austin [the screenwriter]. We get it, he's going to space." I just trusted that these things were right, and that's it. As far as space stuff goes, I definitely did dive in and make sure that I knew somewhat about aliens and extraterrestrial sightings. But as far as fractions go? No
You mentioned filming in Utah, and there's so many wide open spaces that really let you explore the vast space between Calvin and his parents. How did that contribute to the filming experience?
Jacob Buster: I live in Utah, so I'm up in the mountains all the time snowboarding and all that fun stuff. Being able to go up the canyon and film there gave us so much space, and it just feels like such a small town. It's a really warmhearted area to be in, and I think that was captured in the film. Even on set, it really did feel that way too.
Emma Tremblay: For me, it was cold. It was freezing there. I'm from Canada, so Jake was like, "You're gonna be fine." But no, it was not fun. [Laughs] We had a lot of night shoots in October, and it was freezing. There was a lot of on-set cuddling near the heaters. That was my Utah experience.
Jake Van Wagoner: One of the nights we were filming up in the mountains, and this is super normal, it was seven degrees. It got down to seven degrees for the end sequence, and I had brought my coat. I was running around trying to direct and stuff, and these guys were out there with no coats while I go, "Okay, action! It'll be great." It was freezing. We also had a ginormous fan to create wind, and they had tears in their eyes. [Laughs] Yeah, it was pretty bad.
Speaking of the final sequence, Jake, what was your vision for the aliens? They are so cute.
Jake Van Wagoner: I wanted something that was not scary and that was cute. The premise is that these aliens are chasing the comet because they like to eat the tail, which tastes like cotton candy. They have to be kind of cute and fun, and maybe almost act like little kids. You don't know, and you'll never know, but these aliens are like 1000 years old, but they're still like little kids in their hearts eating cotton candy.
I wanted to make sure I didn't make this whole family-friendly film and, at the end, make the kids that were watching it freaked out by the aliens. If you look, they have hair that's wispy like cotton candy as well. I wanted them to have little patches of hair, and just be cute and fun.
There's an almost unwanted trio with Evan, who is always getting in the way of your investigative duo. What did Kenneth Cummins bring to the set and to that dynamic for you?
Emma Tremblay: He was amazing. Having that little brother energy there all the time was so fun. I was away from my family, so it was cute to have a little brother there when I missed my own brother. I actually started seeing their similarities.
But as a coworker, he was hilarious and so fun. At the beginning of the shoot, he was a little bit shy and reserved, but by the end he was super bubbly and energetic. It made me happy that he got so comfortable there because he is a young kid on set, and that used to be me. And in the movie, he's hilarious. When I watched the movie with my family, my mom was dying from laughter and was like, "That kid is amazing.
Jacob Buster: He really is so sweet. On camera, you can see how bubbly he is, even though at the beginning he was a bit closed off. You could feel him really warm up to everybody on the set and, and all sudden, he was bubbly through and through both on and off camera. And he gave me this little astronaut that I have on my keychain now!
Jake Van Wagoner: I think, more than anyone, I threw lines to Kenneth. I'd just throw them out there because he was kind of the comedic relief of the movie. And every time, he took the line and said it so much funnier. A lot of those lines that are in there were right in the moment. I was like, "Say this," and he would nail it. He's got really good timing.
Speaking of family members, Elizabeth Mitchell as Calvin's mom was an inspired choice. Was it inspired by the fact that his mom is lost and Elizabeth was on Lost?
Jake Van Wagoner: You said it. That's exactly what it was. [Laughs] Elizabeth was a pipe dream. She's amazing, and we know how good she is. Funnily enough, I was watching movies to prepare for this, and I had watched Frequency. She's in that movie, and then one of our producers was a friend of a friend of Liz's. They were just like, "Hey, maybe she's an option. Is that interesting?" And I'm like, "Yeah, of course." She immediately loved the script and said it was so fun.
I wish the connection was as good as you had made it. Let's just say that it was, but we really got so lucky. And the timing worked out because it was right before she had started production on her Disney show. We only needed her for 48 hours, so it worked really well with her schedule. She's just amazing.
About Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out
Teenage aspiring journalist Itsy is miserable when her family moves to the small town of Pebble Falls. Among the new challenges — a fixer-upper house and unfriendly high schoolers, to name a few — Itsy meets Calvin, her strange, space-obsessed neighbor and classmate.
Itsy befriends Calvin in hopes of writing an exposé on the oddball for a summer internship back in New York City, but she soon discovers that the amateur astronaut has an out-of-this-world secret. Calvin believes his parents were abducted by aliens, and it’s his mission to find and join them in outer space. As they endeavor to uncover the truth, the pair of outsiders foster a surprising and heartwarming friendship.
Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out is currently playing at Sundance Film Festival, and its worldwide sales rights have just been picked up by Visit Films.