Entertainment

Why The Cast Of The CW's 'Roswell' Reboot Believes In Aliens (Yes, They're Serious)

by Sydney Bucksbaum
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When you think of someone who believes that aliens are real, what image comes to mind? Certainly not the über-attractive, successful and highly talented cast of the upcoming Roswell reboot. And yet, the stars of The CW's Roswell, New Mexico (premiering Jan. 15) are here to tell you that they are all major alien enthusiasts... and they're proud of it.

Sitting at a table in the middle of the reimagined Crashdown Cafe on set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the cast is excited to reveal to Bustle along with a small group of reporters just how much they believe that aliens from outer space exist.

"We joke around that they could not have assembled a more alien enthusiast cast," Jeanine Mason, who plays Liz Ortecho, says. "Everyone watches Ancient Aliens, and on the pilot, something happened over Arizona, some story came out ... "

She trails off as her co-star Nathan Parsons remembers exactly what story she was telling. "There were two different pilots from two different airlines that both reported around the same time seeing an unidentified flying object over Arizona airspace," Parsons, who plays Liz's old high school flame and secret alien Max Evans, says. "We were sending it around to everybody like, 'See! It's happening! They're coming! They're here! They found us!'"

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Lily Cowles, who plays Max's alien sister Isobel, credits science for her belief in extraterrestrials. "I believe in anything that Neil deGrasse Tyson believes in and he's all about aliens," she says with a smile. "I actually worked at the Museum of Natural History for a year and the astrophysics department there, they were like so pro-alien. It's 1,000 percent real."

It's way more interesting to believe in aliens than not to believe.

And apparently believing that aliens are real runs in Cowles' family. "My father was adamant that he had a UFO sighting," she adds, before adding that she took a pilgrimage over to the real Roswell site recently during filming to see the evidence for herself.

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"The evidence that compels me the most is how much they fought to cover it up," Cowles says. "They doth protest too much. Something fishy happened in that town. I definitely believe that there is other life in the universe, whether or not it's here yet, I don't know. I'm hoping that we get to see that in our lifetime. I'm all about it."

Michael Vlamis, who plays Max and Isobel's alien brother Michael Guerin, also believes that aliens are real. "100 percent," he says. "It's way more interesting to believe in aliens than not to believe."

And while Michael Trevino, who plays Liz's high school ex Kyle Valenti, was skittish about revealing his true feelings about aliens, he eventually relented. "I'm into certain conspiracies regarding aliens and I'll watch Ancient Aliens on the History Channel for days. I really enjoy it," he says. "They have an alien con and there was one in Pasadena a few months ago and it's a convention with all the reporters and people who write books. I just wanted to go there and fanboy on all of them."

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But the cast member who's the biggest believer in aliens is Heather Hemmens, who plays Jeanine's best friend Maria DeLuca. "I am, who told you?!" she says with a laugh. "My family and I have been into aliens for a long time. I grew up in the Maine woods, like, way out in the woods, and we would just stare at the stars and come up with different theories."

Her favorite memory was listening to George Noory's late-night talk show about aliens. "It's still on today, it airs at like 2 a.m. and it's the weirdest," Hemmens adds with another laugh. "It's people calling in about their alien experiences. It gets really, really weird. So when I first came onto the show, I talked about it and all this other alien stuff that I won't get into because it makes me sound kind of out there – more out there than I really am – but yes, I believe. I'm a believer."

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Roswell, New Mexico isn't about the stereotypical little green men, though. The rebooted drama is about aliens hiding in plain sight, looking like regular humans, albeit with some paranormal abilities like causing major power outages, mind control, telekinesis ... and oh yeah, bringing someone back to life. Some of the Roswell, New Mexico stars think that idea isn't so far off the mark when it comes to real aliens.

"I think they look like us," Trevino says. "I think they're walking amongst us."

"If they were going to come [to Earth] I feel like they would do what you guys do, which is figure out a way to assimilate and observe," Mason says while looking at Parsons.

"You think?" Parsons wonders. "It depends on what their intentions are, right? If it's like War of the Worlds style, they don't care what they look like."

"Yeah, absolutely," Mason adds, nodding before gesturing to Parsons once more. "I don't know. I'm not mad about ours looking like this though, I'm just saying."

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Thanks to all her research, Cowles thinks there might be something to the idea of little green men, or at least the shapes of their heads compared to their bodies. "It's hard to say," she says. "I feel like there is evidence of these big-headed things, especially in Roswell and a lot of what you see in Mayan depictions. There's a lot of cultures that have these depictions of things so I wouldn't be surprised. And it could look like nothing. It could just be like, my canteen is an alien. I actually might be an alien myself."

Vlamis believes he's been conditioned by pop culture to believe that aliens look a certain way, but he's not sure he agrees with that. "That's really tough because I feel like it's imprinted in my mind to look like that or just really creepy like the movie Signs," he says. "But I think they can look in all shapes and sizes. I don't think there's a specific alien look, you know? I'm definitely a unique look to the alien race."

And Hemmens doesn't think there's just one idea of what aliens look like. "I think there's a lot of different species of aliens," she says. "I don't think that there's just one. It probably depends on what part of the galaxy they came from."

Thankfully, Roswell, New Mexico's idea of what aliens look like is pretty easy on the eyes. Would you expect anything less from a CW show?