At a Friday panel during New York Comic Con, actress Sigourney Weaver revisited the making of Aliens and addressed the much-talked-about tension between the film’s crew and director James Cameron.
The 1986 sci-fi sequel, filmed at Pinewood Studios, reunited Weaver with her iconic character Ellen Ripley, following the original Alien directed by Ridley Scott. However, Weaver recalled that the crew was not immediately on board with Cameron’s leadership.
What I remember is that they really loved Ridley, and they wanted Ridley to be directing this second film. They didn’t know who Jim Cameron was. I didn’t really know who he was. I just thought he wrote a great script.
Weaver explained.
Weaver said the Pinewood team “made their feelings known” and shared how Cameron attempted to win them over by arranging private screenings of his earlier work but the effort backfired.
He kept setting up screenings. Only for none of the crew to turn up in the end. So they did have an attitude. And it did take a while [for them to get along], actually.
she said.
Recognizing the growing divide between director and crew, Weaver stepped in to vouch for Cameron’s talent.
I remember because I loved Jim right away, it was very easy for me to go around and go, ‘Listen, I love Ridley too, but this guy wrote this and this film Terminator, and he knows what he’s doing. He’s a natural.
she recalled.
Eventually, Cameron’s vision and work ethic began to win over the skeptical crew. “And by the end, of course, they were devoted,” Weaver concluded.
The on-set hostility has long been part of Aliens’ behind-the-scenes lore. In Rebecca Keegan’s 2009 biography The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, the director described his experience with the Pinewood crew as extremely difficult.
There were a few bright lights amongst the younger art department people. But for the most part, we despised them and they despised us.
Cameron said.
Keegan’s book reported that the clashes stemmed from cultural and working-style differences: arguments over mandatory tea breaks, Cameron’s limited directing experience at the time, and the controversial firing of the film’s first assistant director, Derek Cracknell.
When production finally wrapped, Cameron reportedly addressed the crew with a brutally honest farewell speech.
This has been a long and difficult shoot, fraught by many problems. But the one thing that kept me going, through it all, was the certain knowledge that one day I would drive out the gate of Pinewood and never come back, and that you sorry bastards would still be here.
He said.
While Cameron may not have parted ways on friendly terms with the Pinewood team, his creative relationship with Weaver endured. The two went on to collaborate on multiple projects, including 2009’s Avatar, where Weaver portrayed Dr. Grace Augustine, and its 2022 sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, where she played Kiri.
Weaver is also set to appear in Cameron’s upcoming third installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash, marking nearly four decades of professional partnership between the two.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
