The Orville serves up the perfect mix of humor, social issues, and quirk, and their panel was much the same in the Hyatt Regency VI-VII Sunday. Mark Jackson, J. Lee, and Peter Macon talked about the odd jobs they’ve had, the costumes and prosthetics they wear, and how the Ja’loja scene streamed onto screens.
When asked about to talk about jobs the actors have had in the past, the answers turned into a bizarre game of “my previous jobs are worse than yours.” For Macon, he has previously held the jobs of vegetarian in butcher shop, bus boy with trusty motor-less vacuum, snow shoveler, and Othello in college. Lee worked at Guess, Hardee’s in the fried chicken and lots of flour days, piano player in a retirement home, and Othello in college. Jackson did not play Othello in college, but he did dress as a storytelling pirate on the Orient Express.
The costumes and makeup for the aliens on the set of The Orville are as complex as the characters themselves. Jackson gave the audience a glimpse into the innerworkings of his Isaac helmet, which is comprised of two pieces held together by magnets and filled with wires. Inside the helmet, there are fans to help him breathe, the eyes have real lights that rest about eyebrow level to see out from underneath, and an earpiece that’s connected to the other actor’s mics.
Know what’s not complex? The uniforms. There are no pockets to be found in the pants. To which every woman everywhere thought, “Welcome to women’s clothing.”
To transform into Bortus, Macon spends about two hours in makeup. With his prosthetics on, he loses about 25% of his hearing and is limited in his acting “tools” due to decreased sight and hearing.
With creatures as interesting as Moclans, there’s always something to talk about, and that something is often that the species only urinates once per year. Viewers found out this little golden nugget during the pilot, but Macon really wanted to know what happens if he doesn’t pee? He actually asked that question enough that Seth MacFarlane added the Ja’loja episode in season two.
Catch Jackson, Lee, and Macon in season three of The Orville on Fox.
