Sigourney Weaver Wasn't a Fan of Using Guns in ALIENS but James Cameron Convinced Her
Sigourney Weaver kicked ass in both Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens. Ellen Ripley was such a badass character, and Cameron took that Badassery to a new level in Aliens.
When Weaver signed up to return for Aliens, she wasn’t aware of all the guns that Cameron planned on using. She’s not a fan of guns and this was something that she was initially uncomfortable with.
When talking about Cameron, Weaver said: “He was just so open to any thoughts that I might have, and I just felt his instincts were amazing. The one thing, of course, I wasn’t thrilled about was all the guns.
“I read very quickly because I’m trying to experience the story and I had left out reading a lot of the stage directions, which had a lot of guns in them.”
She went on to recall how one day Cameron showed up to the set with a arsenal of guns. She explained: “I said, ‘What are those for?’ and he said, ‘Well, what do you mean?’
“I said, ‘Well, I’m for gun control and I’m really not going to be picking up a gun and doing anything with it.’ He said, ‘Well, you haven’t read the script.’ I said, ‘I have, but I haven’t read all those paragraphs about guns.'”
So, Cameron proceeded to convince her why the guns had to be in the movie. She said that Cameron took her “out into the back field and had me shoot off a couple hundred rounds of this machine gun.”
Weaver admitted that the experience was “unfortunately very addictive.” She then remembers Cameron saying, “I want you to see what happens to her,” referring to Ripley’s transformation after she begins to use guns.
Weaver said: “I think, of course, she needs to defend herself, but also I understood why he wanted to use guns. It wasn’t my first choice.”
In the end, she got on board with the guns in the film and ended up delivering one of her most epic performances ever.
If you’ve seen Aliens, you know that it would’ve been really hard to make that movie without the guns, seeing as it centered around the Colonial Marines military unit.
Via: Variety