James Cameron’s Aliens was perhaps one of the biggest achievements in the genre. It successfully built on the legacy of Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking original and added much more. The movie had a lot that the first part did not, including some big guns and big moments.
The harder part for James Cameron was convincing the anti-gun advocate Sigourney Weaver to move forward with the story. He discussed this recently.
James Cameron reveals the story of how Sigourney Weaver returned for Aliens
In a recent sit-down with Vanity Fair, James Cameron went behind the story of all the feature films he made, which have built him quite a legacy. Speaking about Aliens, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), Cameron revealed how he had started moving forward with the work, but no one had spoken to Sigourney Weaver, who was the central character in the sequel after becoming the only surviving member in the original film.
“But the funny thing was, I’d already gotten into, now we’re in pre-production on Aliens, and nobody’s talked to Sigourney,” Cameron revealed. “I had gone into it and signed a deal, and everything on the principle that Sigourney was under an option. But there was this thing called the seven-year rule, and the option was unenforceable. So I drove up to Santa Barbara to meet her,” he added.
The initial meeting went well, and Cameron could convince her of his vision. “She was living up there at the time. And we had this great meeting. And she was just so sweet and so intelligent, and we just clicked,” he added.
Cameron continued his story, “So Sigourney shows up on set, and she says, “What’s all this with me firing machine guns? I’m a gun violence anti-gun advocate.” This created a problem as Weaver’s involvement was key. So Cameron took it upon himself to explain, “And I said, ‘Did you actually read the script?’
He continued, “She said, ‘Well, I read the dialogue.’ I said, ‘You might wanna go back and read the pro section in act three.’ So I took her out back behind the studio in Pinewood in England, and I put a Thompson machine gun in her hands, blank rounds, and said, ‘Try this.'”
Cameron mimicked Weaver doing the motion. He added, “And she looks at me and says, ‘Oh, that’s kinda cool.’I said, ‘That’s what you have to do.’ And she said, ‘All right.'”
So, this way, James Cameron continued his ambitious project. And it ultimately led to a very successful sequel in the form of Aliens. It remains a sci-fi classic.
