"THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FLAME-THROWER MADE ME VER CAUTIOUS"
and Sigourney Weaver is celebrating the success of the horror sequel Aliens. In recent months, Time magazine has described the extraterrestrial tale of terror “the summer’s scariest movie” and Oscar buzz is starting to build in Tinseltown, which is where the iconic actress sits down to discuss the much-lauded blockbuster. In this honest and frank interview from the archives, Weaver opens up about her experience on the set of the genre gem. Here’s the American icon on everything from space stunts and Shakespeare to deleted scenes and scary movies…
What was it like to work with Aliens writer and director James Cameron?
I think we worked very well together. Jim was always incredibly open. He really admires my work as Ripley and he refused to do the picture without me, which shows a loyalty that is quite unusual in this industry. I always felt that I could go to him and talk to him about scenes. In fact, I could go to him and argue, too.
What did you argue about?
I would argue with Jim almost all the time. We can hardly sit down to dinner without arguing about something, but it’s always very friendly. If we disagree, we just say what we feel. When we disagreed about scenes, he would always give me my chance and I would always give him his, but we never left the studio feeling upset or angry with each other. I think that’s one of the great challenges of working in films because there’s so much pressure.
Did you ever have any doubts about James Cameron as a director for the project?
No. I admired Terminator, although I found it exhausting because I had to watch it by myself and it was scary. I thought it was very well done. I thought he’d written a very good script. I like working with directors who’ve also written the script. I find that they’re as involved in a project as I am.
As an actress, how rewarding is a role in a big-budget action movie like this?
No matter what movie you’re in, I think part of your job is to make it rewarding for yourself. With this,
I wanted to learn something from it, so
I spent a lot of time looking at women and heroes in literature
– and in the theatre.
Whenever I felt that the special effects were beginning to overwhelm me, I would just think about some of the traditions that I’ve learned from the theatre. I used those traditions to help me infuse this role with certain ideals or dreams or thoughts that make it more interesting to me. It’s basically an action role, but I made sure that I really got the most I could out of playing Ripley the second time around. I doubt I’ll ever be cast in either Hamlet or Henry V, so I decided to get this out of my system by playing them in Ripley.
Do you find it easy to switch off from Ripley as soon as the cameras stop rolling?
It depends on the scene. I think your adrenaline can get going quite a bit on a movie like this. I really liked the people in Aliens, but I would try to keep myself separate from them. It would be hard for me to go from laughing a lot with the crew right into a serious scene, so I have to keep inside my own work bubble. Some days that’s frustrating because you just want to have a good time and relax with people – but you can’t because it’s your responsibility to concentrate. I mean, you only have one chance to do a scene, so I try to stay in it. I think to myself, “I can laugh in three months”.
A scene about Ripley’s daughter was cut from the final film. Can you explain the decision behind its deletion?
“I MADE SURE THAT I REALLY GOT THE MOST I COULD OUT OF PLAYING RIPLEY THE SECOND TIME AROUND”
We had a sub-plot of Ripley having a little girl that she, of course, didn’t watch grow up. In the script, the daughter had died two years before I came back. It was a good scene and I think it would be one of the first things to go back in if they ever show it on TV or if they ever need a longer version – but the truth is, you don’t really need it in the picture. [It was, of course, restored in the Special Edition.]
What did you think of the scene?
That particular scene helped me a lot because when I was working with the little girl, it gave it an extra resonance for me. I wasn’t playing a career woman who’d never stopped to have a family. I was, in fact, playing a woman who had stopped to have a family and who had experienced the bad luck of being kept from that family. To me, that’s a stronger, more interesting story – but the film is already a little long and I certainly wasn’t going to insist that this should go back into the movie. Not that my pleas would have done any good, but it was an emotional scene that could’ve gone back in.
Do you prefer Aliens to Alien?
I love them both, of course. To be honest, I respect the different points of view in the two movies. Personally, I think the first Alien movie is more beautiful and has more of the majesty of space in it – but I also think that Aliens has much more of an emotional throughline and my part was much more interesting. I enjoyed the action of the second movie, too. I think they’re both very well done and I’m very proud. I’m proud to have been involved with what is now two pictures about the same story that were both successful on their own terms.
How physically demanding was the role of Ripley in the sequel?
We had a very good stunt co-ordinator on Aliens. And because I’d done a lot of dance and because he’d done some acting, we were able to co-ordinate how we wanted a stunt to go. I would work it out with him. The only trouble I had was that the guns were very heavy. In the scenes where I have to run up and down stairs with a lit flame-thrower, it always made me nervous because I kept thinking, “If I fall, I might involuntarily light up some poor crew member”. I mean, the responsibility of the flame-thrower made me very cautious – but other than that, I felt very secure and safe. The safety standards were as high as they could be.
Did you use a stunt double?
She did very little on this. It was dangerous for sure – but I’ll tell ya, I felt that some of the work I did in the French film [One Woman Or Two, 1985] was more dangerous than this because we had no stunt co-ordinator on that.
Is it true that you weren’t keen on doing a sequel?
In theory, I didn’t want to do a sequel. I was actually proud that Alien was one of the few films in the ’70s that didn’t have a sequel following in its tracks, so I objectively didn’t want to do one – but then I met Jim Cameron and I saw that the script had such a strong story for Ripley. I had a lot of balancing to do because I was in One Woman Or Two and I was doing Half Moon Street, but I missed Ripley. There’s something very appealing about her company because you really spend time with the character when you’re playing her for months. Also, it was very appealing to think about running around in dirty clothes with no make-up. That seemed like a relief to me after all the people who come around and fix you up all the time when you’re trying to act. It can be very distracting.
What other factors attracted you to the sequel?
I missed her and I thought the story of the child and everything really appealed to me. I felt like I had a chance to do something with Ripley that I’d never done before. This was an opportunity to play a woman who’s ostracised by her society, who’s lost her world, who has to start from below zero and work herself back up to where she is part of life again. To me, this was a very existential situation. Often, horror films and action films give the actor a chance to do things that he or she ordinarily wouldn’t be able to do in a normal picture, where we’re playing normal people with families and so on. It gives you a chance to really work out.
Is a third Alien movie on the way?
I hope not! [Laughs] It’s been interesting because I had different experiences on both, but they were both hard to do. This is a hard kind of picture to make and you have to imbue it with all kinds of other resonance because actually the movie is about you running around with a gun. It’s not easy.
“IF IT HAD A GOOD SCRIPT AND A WONDERFUL DIRECTOR, I’D CONSIDER ALIEN 3”
Why aren’t you keen on a third movie? Because I don’t want my gravestone to say, “Here lies Sigourney Weaver, who played Ripley in Alien I, II and III.” Listen, I have nothing against it. I think it’s quite remarkable that we’ve done two films that have both been
very good. I also think the chances of the third film being as good are strong, but I think it would depend on a number of factors. If it had a good script and a wonderful director, I would at least consider it – but it galls me that I go around the world and the only picture people have really seen is this type of movie. They’ve seen Ghostbusters and Alien or Aliens, but I’ve done a lot of other work. I guess that’s just life and I have to get used to it, but it’s too bad that a lot of foreign countries don’t see the smaller films I work on. The smaller films might get there eventually, but they don’t come over with a lot of fanfare. To me, that is unfortunate.
There are whispers about Oscar nominations for your role. Really? I don’t think films like Aliens are really considered for Oscars because they belong to a certain genre. I play a very unsympathetic character in the movie Half Moon Street and that’s considered more of an artistic movie than Aliens. But I must say, I don’t think about these matters too much. I’ve never gotten awards for anything I’ve ever done before, so you can’t think about things like this. For instance, it made me sad that the first Alien movie was never considered for any award as a picture because I thought it was so well done. I thought it was a really beautiful and innovative film. Unfortunately, I tend to think that because it was considered a science fiction film and not a “real” film, it didn’t go up for any awards – but that’s just my opinion.
[Note: Sigourney Weaver did earn a Best Actress nomination for her role in Aliens at the 59th Academy Awards. The Oscar went to Marlee Matlin for Children Of A Lesser God.]
You’ve played a wide variety of roles. What’s the common denominator that you look for when you choose a new character to play? For me, the role is the least important factor. What’s important to me? I’m interested in a project if I fall in love with the story and if I want to work with a certain filmmaker, and if the filmmaker is open to talking about things that are important to me. The role is the third thing I think about because I like to look for a story that’s bigger than the people in it. You know, a story that has something important to say. For example, I was in Deal Of The Century [1983], which didn’t do well but it was a brilliant script. It was the story of the arms industry in America and it was a subject that interested me a lot, so I choose the roles I play based on how good I can make them within the story itself.
Which of your past movies raised your profile the most?
I feel like I’ve broken through with every film
I’ve made, but in different ways. Ghostbusters showed people I could do comedy. The Year Of Living Dangerously [1982] was a love story. With every film, I guess I hope that I show a different side of me. I’m very happy that Aliens is such a big success because I want to take some of the success it’s given me to help a little film like Half Moon Street. To me, I love the variety. I want to create a body of work that I’m proud of; that inspires me to keep going.
Aliens is available on Blu-ray and to stream on Disney+ Star.