by Matt Sernaker, Managing Editor

Lost in Space has returned as a new Netflix Original Series, and ComicsOnline is pleased to share the next installment of our interviews with the cast and crew! Parker Posey (Superman Returns) and Ignacio Serricchio (The Wedding Ringer) discussed playing Dr. Smith and Don West, and in a bizarre turn of events, the rest of the interview was all about chickens in space. Check out the details from our roundtable interview at WonderCon 2018:

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CO: Was it intimidating taking on the roles of Doctor Smith and Don West?

Parker Posey: It was so unusual. It was such an unusual offer that I was excited. I was honored. It came from a real place of loving the show and loving that character. It wasn’t going to be camp and I took some things from him. Actually, Kevin Burns gave me a scarf that belonged to Doctor Smith on the first day that he came to set. It took be back to my very beginnings of loving television. Loving to watch the screen and it brought me way back to that. It was a really interesting thing to go into a job with that kind of adoration.

Ignacio Serricchio: There was something different about this job. It was very different than anything I’ve ever done from the beginning, because we’ve both had such a connection to the show growing up. To the point where when I first auditioned, when I did it on tape, my initial reaction was “I need to have it. I need to do this”. But then I was like “this is going to be so heart breaking when I don’t get it”. So I had to train myself to take it down and see it as another job. To the point where I auditioned, and I was already in Vancouver filming another series, so I sent the tape, and literally forgot about it. I worked my brain so well…I wanted to have the lowest expectations because this one was really going to hurt… If I get just a little bit invested, it’s going to kill me when I don’t get it. I was in the mentality of, it’s Don West. They’re gonna cast some typical white dude with a great body or whatever. But then I remembered, wait a second, this is Netflix. They’re not about that. They are trying to include all of us. I’m Argentinian. I’m not a minority anymore. There are more than 60 million Latinos in the US. But I forgot about it until I got a call that all the writers and producers wanted to meet me. It was to the point where I finally remembered that I had auditioned. Later, I wanted to go in calm, don’t attach yourself to it emotionally. When it happened, it all came out right.

CO: So… deepest thoughts about the chicken?

IS: Dude. Dude. Finally a good question. (Laughs). Look, Debbie was the chimp in the original that belonged to Penny. I was so excited about the chicken.

PP: You really were.

IS: I had 16 chickens growing up. They gave me eggs every single morning. There was such a different element to adding the chicken. It was going to be a love for animals. It was going to be an interaction, a relationship. Will had the Robot. Doctor Smith had the Robot. I had the chicken. I wanted that. I wanted that interaction. It just created a whole different dynamic for the character. To be fun. To be funny. It honestly, weirdly enough, she’s the only one that he trusts. That chicken is his only family. I related a lot to it because when I went through a personal tragedy right before the show, and I didn’t want anything to do with anyone, my dog saved my life by just being there and by being a responsibility by making me wake up and love something and take care of something. I could relate with the chicken. It was deeper than “oh, it’s just a chicken”.

PP: I know. When we bring our animals to life in that way that they are such healing entities

CO: How did you feel about the chicken?

PP: I didn’t care about the chicken. (Laughs). The chicken upstaged the scene as far as I’m concerned.

IS: Tell them that story.

PP: We were in the makeup trailer and we had just shot the beginning of episode two. We were doing our own stunts, a big deal at my age. We go into the makeup trailer and Jeanie the makeup artist was like “that chicken! I couldn’t stop looking at that chicken. It was so hysterical!”. I was like, Jeanie you can’t ever speak like that to the actors, because we’re people, and we felt so upstaged. She was like “no, I’m serious!”. I was throwing my legs around. I was like, “hold my foot!”. We were really going for it. It was intense.

IS: But the chicken was adorable!!

CO: That’s really all the questions we had for you… We really just wanted to talk to the chicken.

(Both Laugh)

IS: Let me tell you. I pushed for the action figures, for mine specifically to come with the chicken.

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Special thanks to Parker Posey, Ignacio Serricchio, and NETFLIX for arranging this interview. Lost in Space is now available on Netflix.