The Big Picture

We talk with
Solar Opposites
stars Thomas Middleditch and Sean Giambrone ahead of Season 5.
Middleditch and Giambrone voice the series’ leads Terry and Yumyulack, in addition to the vocal talents of Dan Stevens, Christina Hendricks, Sterling K. Brown, and more.
Middleditch and Giambrone discuss how much time they spend in the booth per episode, their favorite Terry T-shirts, their characters’ Letterboxd faves, and the Season 5 Halloween special.

Solar Opposites has returned for its fifth season, as everyone’s favorite makeshift alien family gets into more hijinks involving honeymoons, evil ex-boyfriends, giant decapitated heads, and existential crises. While Dan Stevens may have joined the series as the voice of Korvo last season, Thomas Middleditch and Sean Giambrone have been with the series since its inception as the voices of Korvo’s lovable and free-spirited partner Terry and Korvo’s conniving replicant Yumyulack.

I had the opportunity to chat with Middleditch and Giambrone about Solar Opposites Season 5, including their reactions to an unexpected cameo in the finale, how voice-acting compares to performing on a set, and what their characters’ top 4 favorite movies on Letterboxd would be.

Solar Opposites A family of aliens move to middle America, where they debate whether life is better there or on their home planet.Release Date May 8, 2020 Seasons 5

Sean Giambrone Reacts to His Cameo in the Season 5 Finale
“…and how it’s like an aggressive scene, too? I like that a lot.”

COLLIDER: Sean, this is more of a you question because you pop up in the finale, not just as Yumy but as yourself. I want to know if you had any part in the writers’ room on that or what was your first reaction to reading the script and seeing that.

SEAN GIAMBRONE: Oh, I was cracking up. No, I didn’t know about that. I didn’t hear about it. I showed some family members, but that might be NDA-breaking, whatever the heck. I just was very excited, and how it’s like an aggressive scene, too? I like that a lot. Quite a bit.

Tom, is there any chance that you might pop up?

THOMAS MIDDLEDITCH: Oh, yeah, sure. Probably if Solar Opposites go take an improv class, they’ll go to, like, UCB, and I’ll be sitting there coaching some level oners, “Alright, zip, zap, zup,” and it’s like I’m in a little improv cave.

What Would Be Terry and Yumyulack’s Letterboxd Top 4?
“Patrick Swayze va, va, voom!”
Image via Hulu

Letterboxd is mentioned in the private school episode, and my ears automatically perked up. What do you think your characters’ four favorite movies would be, Terry and Yumyulack?

GIAMBRONE: That’s a tough one.

MIDDLEDITCH: Terry probably wants classics, but he probably has these deep cuts, like he’s probably seen Gymkata and, like, Troll 2 and thinks they are very good, like insights into humanity. But then he’ll probably see Timothy Treadwell’s documentary, Grizzly Man, and admires that, and then also maybe Roadhouse because, “Patrick Swayze va, va, voom!”

GIAMBRONE: For Yumyulack, I’m trying to think of a good bounty hunter movie.

MIDDLEDITCH: Suburban Commando.

GIAMBRONE: Suburban Commando — I’m thinking that isn’t there like a Gerard Butler rom-com where there’s a bounty hunter? [The Bounty Hunter]

MIDDLEDITCH: There’s Hard Target; it’s not a bounty hunter, but it’s Jean-Claude Van Damme and he’s being hunted.

GIAMBRONE: Oh, he’d love all Jean-Claude Van Damme movies! Probably Rocky. Then I feel like he’d also like She’s All That just because he’s got that high school thing going on.

Both of you have done your fair share of live-action and voice acting, and I’m curious, what do you admire in voice acting that you can’t do in live-action?

MIDDLEDITCH: Working in sweatpants if need be. But also, I love that you can just go anywhere. In real life, you’re limited to what’s in front of you, you’re set, unless you’re in some big Marvel movie. But then, it’s all previs. That’s all pretty set. In animation, if you voice it and it’s funny, and if it’s funnier to go this way, that way, all the visualization happens later, and that’s very freeing. It’s fun. It’s just anything. Because it’s just as easy to draw a 10,000-foot robot as it is two people sitting in a diner — that’s the same budget.

GIAMBRONE: I think it’s the freeing aspect of it like that where you can just try a whole bunch of different reads all at once and then see how it pairs up and [the animators] act it out. I love that you can make grunts and stuff, and then they time it out perfectly and make it just like something hits someone in the shin or something. I love that aspect, too, the pairing.

MIDDLEDITCH: You gotta understand, Sean’s a grunt-based actor. He gets to the character through his grunts. A lot of people, they figure out how the character walks, how the character laughs — not Sean. He starts with a grunt.

GIAMBRONE: It’s the Matthew McConaughey thing.

MIDDLEDITCH: [Laughs] You follow the Matthew McConaughey school of acting, grunt style. He’s a known grunter.

GIAMBRONE: I’m his pupil.

What Is Terry’s Best Shirt in ‘Solar Opposites’ Season 5?
Image via Hulu

One of my favorite ongoing jokes is all of the shirts that Terry has worn, and I was talking to Dan [Stevens] just the other day and he was bringing up all these shirts that pop up. Do you guys have a favorite shirt from Terry’s wardrobe?

MIDDLEDITCH: I’m gonna have to see a line-up. I barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning, and that was like an hour ago. I have, like, a permanent Men in Black memory eraser that I just douse myself with every five minutes. [Laughs]

GIAMBRONE: I had one that was cracking me up in Season 5…

MIDDLEDITCH: I like “Crumb Dumpster.” [Laughs] There’s a picture of a garbage dumpster, and it just says “crumb dumpster,” which is gross, and I like it, I guess. “Vaxxed and Waxed” is pretty good. “I aim to…” and then it’s a drawing of peas.

GIAMBRONE: Oh, “I aim to peas,” I like that one a lot.

MIDDLEDITCH: They’re great. Every single one should be a shirt that you can buy. What are we doing? Hey, Hulu dot com, get your head out of your butt. Start selling these bad boys! You have some for sale, but not all of them. Every single one — let’s go! These guys…

GIAMBRONE: In Season 5, Episode 5, there’s a “Curvy Queen” shirt that has a Dairy Queen logo. That’s very cool.

MIDDLEDITCH: [Laughs] I like “Gay” in the Gap font. I love that. Just simple. Just like, “Gay.” Love that. “Hocus Wokus.” They’re all great.

‘Solar Opposite’ Stars Tease the New Halloween Special…Kind Of.
“Big tease, Sean.”
Image via Hulu

I want to ask about the Halloween Special. I love animated shows when they do their Halloween Specials and your last Halloween Special is incredible. I am curious if you can tease anything about what we can expect from it.

MIDDLEDITCH: Memory turning — the hard drive working away. I know that the writers are also plucking kind of a more obscure holidays.

GIAMBRONE: It’s like a direct sequel. There’s definitely a thread, like it’s connected to the first one.

MIDDLEDITCH: It’s tricky, man. That’s the thing with animation, your tie to it is maybe two hours that happened a year and a half ago or two. You’re like, “What about that thing?” And I’m like, “I haven’t seen it, I don’t know!” [Laughs]

GIAMBRONE: I think I did ADR, and there are variations of the characters that look very cool. That’s a teaser.

MIDDLEDITCH: Big tease, Sean.

Animation only taking two hours, I didn’t realize that.

MIDDLEDITCH: For the voice actors. Obviously, you maybe have to come in for a little bit of adjustment, a little bit of editing, and stuff. But the writers are there with the scripts while they break the story and write it and everything, and the animators are there for quite a while as they animate it, frame by frame by frame. But yeah, it’s absurd that the voice actors come in for, like, two hours and do an episode and maybe some pickups from other episodes and then they go home. It’s so long ago, so you’re, “Oh, yeah!” And it’s not because we’re indifferent, it’s just hard to latch on to all the details from that. But once we’ve seen it, because Sean and I both watch the show, we just haven’t seen it yet.

Solar Opposites Season 5 is now streaming on Hulu.

Watch on Hulu