Sigourney Weaver

She is a legend for a thousand reasons but most of all for Ripley. Sigourney Weaver joins Josh for a look back at the ALIEN saga, her iconic role and scenes, but also her contributions to GHOSTBUSTERS, GALAXY QUEST, AVATAR, and the upcoming THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU. Recorded live at New York Comic Con UPCOMING EVENTS 10/22 -- Nobody Wants This cast in NY -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠tickets here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:59Speaker 02

  I felt I basically had only one or two chances. And I remember when I said the line, because I said, I say it something like, "Get away from her, you bitch." I go up, which is not really what you're supposed to do. If you want to sound brave, you should go, "Get away from her, you bitch." You should go down. And I went up, like a little nerd. And it was like, "Get away from her, you bitch." Anyway, Jim loved it, and we didn't really get to do it again.

• 1:34Speaker 03

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, Sad, Confused begins now.

• 1:42Josh Horowitz?

  Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. I know I often say, "Oh, this is a special one. This is a special one." This is really a special one. Sigourney Weaver, a live event taped at New York Comic Con is the main event on Happy, Sad, Confused today. I'm coming off of a whirlwind few days in New York Comic Con, taping a bunch of special events, including a bunch of Happy, Sad, Confused episodes we're starting to share with you guys here. Thanks, as always, for joining me on YouTube, on Spotify, wherever you're consuming this. I appreciate you guys. Man, I need a haircut. Thankfully, I'm getting a haircut tomorrow, but I'm a little tired because I moderated seven events over the last four days at Comic Con,

• 2:23Josh Horowitz?

  but I am mostly very grateful that folks invited me to so many cool events. And this was honestly, if I had to choose one as the coolest, this might have been it because I've never done the deep dive with Sigourney Weaver. And to not only get an opportunity to dive deep into her career, but to have an excuse because it was Comic Con to dive into all her genre stuff specifically. I mean, don't get me wrong. I could, I could talk her head off about Working Girl and a thousand other things, but the opportunity to talk to Sigourney Weaver about nothing but Alien, Aliens, the entire Alien franchise, Avatar, Ghostbusters, Galaxy Quest, Star Wars. Come on, come on.

• 3:06Josh Horowitz?

  All right, a little more on that in a second. First, the usual reminders, patreon.com. I have to say it because we're putting so much stuff up there and your support over there helps us. Patreon.com/happy, say confused, early access, discount codes, live events, so much cool stuff. And we are doing a lot of live events coming up very, very soon, including Nobody Wants This Cast in New York next week. We have a cool event in mid-November in New York with an actor I've never had on the podcast. We're going to be announcing very, very soon. And there are many, many more very cool events coming down the pipe. I can not officially confirm yet, but you'll want to know about them. So go to patreon.com/happy, say confused for all that sort of cool stuff.

• 3:52Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, a little more context here. So as I said, this is a live event. We taped at New York Comic Con. This is the icon that is Sigourney Weaver. She was such a class act, so cool before, during, and after this event. She just gave me everything I could have, any fan would want to hear. These are, she has all the stories. She has all the class. And she dropped, by the way, you've probably by now heard the bombshell she dropped in the middle of this conversation. You'll hear it or watch it here.

• 4:20Josh Horowitz?

  Out of nowhere, I wasn't fishing for any giant scoop. I really wasn't, drops a bombshell that there is a new Alien script that 50 pages have been ruined by no less than Walter Hill. And that involved Ripley's return. Mind blown. You can see my, my brain melt onstage like everybody else's. That of course has circulated everywhere, but there's so much more in this conversation, honestly, about the making of Alien, the making of Aliens, those iconic moments, the chestburster scene in the first Alien, the power loader scene, get away from her, you bitch, that moment in Aliens, going down the shaft to the queen in Aliens, her reflections on Alien 3, which I love, so many people I know have a soft spot for,

• 5:03Josh Horowitz?

  not David Fincher, but a lot of other people, her Ghostbusters audition, Avatar stuff, Galaxy Quest stuff, she drops a little bombshell, by the way, no one's picked up on this as I record this today, a bombshell that Benedict Cumberbatch has been sought to potentially play a version of Alan Rickman's character in a continuation of Galaxy Quest? If you're watching or listening to this and you're in the media, write that one up, because that's crazy. Some talk about her involvement in Star Wars and much, much more. And by the way, also, we have Veronica Cartwright, who joins us towards the end of the conversation as a nice little surprise guest for the audience, of course, herself, an icon in the genre space from The Birds, which is, we saw it so much more, and of course, Alien, so they have a

• 5:48Josh Horowitz?

  nice reminiscence about their shared experience on Alien. So, can you tell I'm really proud and excited about this one? I hope you can. Without any further ado, enjoy this conversation. Thanks to everybody that came out live in person to New York Comic Con, thanks to everybody at New York Comic Con that made this possible, and we have a lot more cool stuff to share from New York Comic Con very soon. So, enjoy this chat, me and the legend, it's Sigourney Weaver. I'm so excited to be here. This is going to be a special one. Look, we throw words like icon and legend around, but it is justified when we talk about Sigourney Weaver. Here's

• 6:26Josh Horowitz?

  a not-so-hot take. Nobody has contributed more to the sci-fi Comic Con world than Sigourney Weaver. Are we all agreed?

• 6:39Josh Horowitz?

  Ghostbusters, Avatar, Galaxy Quest, Galaxy Quest, come on!

• 6:48Josh Horowitz?

  She will be in The Mandalorian and Grogu as if that wasn't enough.

• 6:55Josh Horowitz?

  And I feel like I'm missing something. Oh, yeah. Alien, Ripley!

• 7:04Josh Horowitz?

  She set the template. She inspired so many of us, so many actors. She's contributed so much. New York Comic Con, make her feel welcome. It's Sigourney Weaver, everybody!

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Wow. Thank you so much for coming. It's so exciting.

• 7:44Josh Horowitz?

  That's a nice way to start a Friday, Sigourney, right?

• 7:48Speaker 02

  And thank you for that very lovely introduction.

• 7:51Josh Horowitz?

  Well, every word was heartfelt. You really have brought so much joy to all of us. Congratulations on everything. Let's talk, first of all, just like, the space you occupy truly, in the genre world especially, is that something you've fully embraced from the start? Is it something you wrestled with? I mean, Alien obviously really set you down a path, but it does feel like, you know, some actors would run away from that. But you've kind of embraced these roles in the genre world.

• 8:18Speaker 02

  You know, I'm an English major, so I just read. I just read for the story. And if it's a good story, I don't care what genre it's in. I never really thought about genres. Now, I just thought of good stories. And now genres are a much more well-defined thing. But I'm glad I didn't really think about it. I'm glad I followed the story.

• 8:47Josh Horowitz?

  That being said, let's start with, yes, let's start with Alien. That story, that script, the legend is you didn't necessarily love the script at first, that you had some notes, some thoughts. Is that fair to say?

• 9:00Speaker 02

  Well, I think, I thought it was a very concise script. Ten little Indians, you know, knocking them off one by one. If you don't know what the alien design is, it's very hard to understand what this monster is, running around dripping acid. So, I kind of didn't have any idea of the rather beautiful exotic creature that the alien was, till I met Ridley at the sort of audition, and he brought out these incredible pictures from Giger and from Carlo Rambaldi. And I went, I realized I'd never seen anything like that in a movie, ever.

• 9:45Speaker 02

  And that, I think, was, that and Ridley, sort of cinched the deal, you know?

• 9:51Josh Horowitz?

  It's interesting, because the journey of Ripley in that film mirrors a little bit of your own journey as an actor, because essentially it's your film debut. You'd had some small things, but mostly in the theater. And, you know, an audience watching that film doesn't realize at the start, you are the lead of that film, you are the hero of that film, and you are the star of that film, that you're starring in your first film. Like, you had to kind of embrace that and kind of learn how to be number one on the call sheet, I guess.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  I don't know that I was number one on the call sheet.

• 10:21Josh Horowitz?

  Well, you should have been.

• 10:23Speaker 02

  Well, I don't, I think there, I think there was probably some dismay in the cast that this complete unknown, who'd never really made a movie before, was going to be the survivor. And the reason I was the survivor was our writers, Walter Hill and David Guyler, thought, no one will ever imagine that the survivor will be a woman. So, that's thanks to Walter and David.

• 10:51Josh Horowitz?

  At, at least in that first film, do you remember like what your key in to Ripley was? Was there a guiding force, a inspiration beyond just the words on the page?

• 11:05Speaker 02

  Well, I remember that I made friends very quickly with Ian Holm, which is ironic, since he's my big enemy. Yep. And I said to Ian the first week, because I think we had that scene right away where they let my, the crew lets Kane back in, and I'm trying to keep him out because he's bringing something on the ship that we're not supposed to bring. And I said to Ian later, I said, "Do you think that Ripley feels what she's doing is right all the time?" And he said, "Yes, absolutely."

• 11:49Speaker 02

  And I said, "Wow, I really don't think she knows that at all. It's a complete improvisation. She's flying by the seat of her pants," which in fact, as an actor, I was, because no one ever said the lines. It was just a free-for-all, and for me, being from the theater, I was like, "Brrr." So I was terrified, and that was easy to play.

• 12:11Josh Horowitz?

  Speaking of improvisation, the final sequence isn't exactly improvised, but it was changed quite a bit, fair to say. Was that kind of just fluid? Was that just, was it ever locked in the script? Or was, did you guys just, I don't know, did you not quite get there until you got there?

• 12:27Speaker 02

  I think it's the latter. I know that the guys from Fox came to the set, and, you know, we were a relatively small movie, but I guess our time was running out. Ridley was kind of playing with the, with our lovely young artist who was playing the alien, and he, he wasn't really sure how to end it and how to kill it. They hadn't really worked on how to, how to make that come across visually, but he suddenly, I think, got the word, "You've got to finish today and tomorrow."

• 13:08Speaker 02

  So, they kind of figured out, you know, water and did a test, it worked. And so, again, it was another sort of free-for-all. And I asked Ridley not to tell me where, if there was something in my little escape vessel, I didn't want to know anything about it. So, I had the luxury of not knowing, which is a great thing for an actor. And I'm thinking, I'm by myself, escaped and everything, and then this hand comes out. So, all of the rest of it was, and including the song, I just thought, how would I stay

• 13:52Speaker 02

  frosty if I had to do something like this? And I thought, maybe if I sing to myself, that will just distract me from what I'm trying to do and the impossibility of it. So, it was, again, I mean, I feel very lucky that my first film was that because I think that helped the movie, that we were all kind of, you know, we never rehearsed, we shot on film, and that gives a kind of free-for-all feeling that I think was very good for the film.

• 14:25Josh Horowitz?

  We're gonna circle back around to Alien towards the end. There's a surprise you guys should stick around for.

• 15:09Speaker 05

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• 15:42Josh Horowitz?

  I want to talk about Aliens, which is maybe...

• 15:51Josh Horowitz?

  Maybe the best action movie ever made, maybe the best sequel ever made. I mean, it's...

• 15:57Josh Horowitz?

  Ironically, it's that or T2. I mean, Jim Cameron knows how to make action movies and sequels. Again, Jim Cameron, not Jim Cameron then, at all. So when that comes around, what do you remember? First meeting with Jim, reading the scripts? It must have, you must have been a little gobsmacked that they wrote this amazing journey for you.

• 16:19Speaker 02

  I was working in France on a film with George Depardieu in French. So I had my hands full with that. And then I get this script in the mail, I think. And it's Aliens from this person, Jim Cameron. And Ripley's on every page. And I remember thinking, golly, you think they would have, like, let me know that something like this was gonna...

• 16:45Josh Horowitz?

  Like, what if I'm not available? What do you do then?

• 16:47Speaker 02

  No, I know. And, but I also thought it was one of the most extraordinary scripts I'd ever read. And when I finally got back to the States, I did meet Jim in Los Angeles for the first time. And he said, "Well, do you have any notes?" And I said, "Are you kidding me? This is perfect."

• 17:08Josh Horowitz?

  Again, I feel like this entire room has probably read so much about the making of Aliens. I know I have, but I mean famously, I think you got shot in the UK. That crew didn't necessarily take to Jim. Was it a fraught set? I mean, they kind of rebelled against him as I understand it.

• 17:24Speaker 02

  What I remember is that they really, they loved Ridley and they wanted Ridley to be directing this second film. They, they didn't know who Jim Cameron was. I didn't really know who he was. I just thought he wrote a great script.

• 17:40Josh Horowitz?

  You weren't a Piranha Two fan? You weren't a big, I mean.

• 17:43Speaker 02

  Well, I think Terminator had come out, but I didn't get to see it.

• 17:47Josh Horowitz?

  That's fair, yeah.

• 17:48Speaker 02

  And he and Jim kept setting up screenings for the crew after, at the end of the day, and they never went. So, so they had, they did have an attitude and it did take a while, actually. I, I remember, because I loved Jim right away, it was very easy for me to kind of go around and go, listen, yeah, I, I love Ridley too, but this, this guy wrote this and he has this film Terminator and he knows what he's doing.

• 18:20Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 18:20Speaker 02

  It's a natural. And so, he impressed them gradually.

• 18:25Josh Horowitz?

  Got it.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  And by the end, of course, they were, you know, devoted to him.

• 18:29Josh Horowitz?

  There's so many iconic shots, scenes in that film. I mean, there are a couple that come to mind. One that always strikes me is like a wordless sequence. You're going down in the elevator into like the belly of the beast. It's just you getting ready, steeling yourself, loading the gun, James Horner's score. Do you remember that sequence in particular or seeing the finished product? Because it's just like, it's pure cinema, what Jim was able to do and your performance. It's, it's iconic.

• 18:57Speaker 02

  Well, I, I, I remember it from my actor's point of view, which was, I now have to put myself in the gear of all out battle. How do I do that? And I, I had to think of some of the great Samurai movies I'd seen.

• 19:16Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 19:16Speaker 02

  With Toshiro Mifuni, you know, how, yeah, I mean, he's the best.

• 19:23Speaker 02

  And I, I just remember, you know, of course, I wasn't thinking about anything, but what would I need to do? How would I need to prepare myself? Almost like, everything I do is a preparation to enable me to do what I needed to do. Not that I even really knew what that was, but, and I talked to my husband, I was newly married, and kind of, and, um, he knew about samurai pictures, too. So, we, we did some, some talking about, um, you know, what, how a samurai would get ready.

• 20:05Speaker 02

  So, to me, it was more mental, and somewhat physical, and I, I loved that sequence because of that.

• 20:12Josh Horowitz?

  The irony, of course, is now so many actors probably are thinking of you and Ripley when they're getting into a sequence like that. I mean, it's come full circle, hasn't it? When you read the line, "Get away from her, you bitch," are you sold on it? You're like, "That's a, that's a bridge too far, that's badass." Like, what was the conversation, or were you sold on it from the start?

• 20:35Speaker 02

  I just remember, you know, by that time, we were in these big set pieces, and basically, it took a lot of, uh, work for the crew to open the door and have me in the power loader with John behind me, you know, lifting the legs, but it felt like I was doing it, but everything was rehearsed, uh, and everything was in sync, but I, I felt I basically had only one or two chances. And I remember when I said the line, because I said, I say it something like, "Get away from her, you bitch."

• 21:18Speaker 02

  I go up, which is not really what you're supposed to do. If you want to sound brave, you should go, "Get away from her, you bitch." You should go down, um, and I went up, like a little nerd, and...

• 21:34Speaker 02

  It was like, "Get away from her, you bitch."

• 21:38Speaker 02

  Anyway, Jim loved it, and we didn't really get to do it again. Maybe one other time, but, you know, not very much, because it was such a huge sequence and so much to set up.

• 21:49Josh Horowitz?

  I'm gonna give you this. I don't know if everybody else just geeked out on Here, Exigourney Weaver, say that line three times, but I did. Amazing.

• 22:06Josh Horowitz?

  You get an Oscar nomination for that film, justifiably, which...

• 22:14Speaker 02

  That's yours, you gave me.

• 22:15Josh Horowitz?

  It's all good. It's, uh, I mean, pretty shocking at the time. I mean, because, again, in the genre space, were you shocked? I mean, that must have been a moment to be acknowledged for that film.

• 22:29Speaker 02

  I think I was surprised, yes, because it was very unheard of, and still kind of would be.

• 22:39Speaker 02

  But I knew that Jim had created the structure of a character and the story, so that it was very, it was meaningful to people, and so I was delighted to be in a genre picture that did skip over all of that, and just for the story and everything else, regardless of the genre, it was embraced by the Academy.

• 23:05Josh Horowitz?

  I want to talk about Alien 3. I love Alien 3. I absolutely adore Alien 3. I know David Fincher himself has trouble talking about Alien 3, but for the record, there's some amazing stuff in that film. Where are you at with Alien 3, given David's feelings about it? Again, there was some troubled production, it was his first film.

• 23:27Josh Horowitz?

  Do you like that movie? Do you enjoy that film?

• 23:29Speaker 02

  I like it because it's so utterly different from the first two. And I felt that Fox was very smart to keep choosing very gifted directors who wanted to do something completely different with the Alien story. And I had total confidence in David. It was a script that had originally been written by Vincent Ward and was all these monks in space in a kind of medieval garden. And my character, I guess, crash-landed and then I was in a coma for about half the movie.

• 24:13Speaker 02

  So I wasn't as crazy about that script. And I feel like David would have loved a chance to sort of work on the script before we had to start shooting. And we did delay, but not enough for him to feel he'd solved a lot of the problems. So I think we had the most amazing group of actors, amazing crew. So it's meaningful to me. And I don't really compare them. I know, I think we were all a little shocked when he killed...

• 24:50Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, Nudan Hicks, right at the start?

• 24:52Speaker 02

  I know, just, you know, in the morgue. And that was hard for Ripley and for me. But once that was done, you know, you've got to... That's space, you know, you've got to move on.

• 25:09Josh Horowitz?

  I mean, it takes a...

• 25:11Speaker 02

  These things happen.

• 25:14Josh Horowitz?

  That really should have been the tagline of the film. Alien 3, these things happen.

• 25:21Josh Horowitz?

  Well, I'll have you know, to name drop, no less than Christopher Nolan has told me he loves Alien 3. So it's got it lovers.

• 25:28Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 25:29Josh Horowitz?

  Out there. There have been so many, like, you obviously do, you work with Jean-Pierre Junet, Neil Blomkamp almost directs one. There have been so many filmmakers that have come close. Danny Boyle back in the day, I feel like for a minute. Was there any filmmaker in particular that you were dying to work with that I mentioned or didn't mention that you approached along the way?

• 25:48Speaker 02

  Well, I was. I had done a movie with Neil Blomkamp and Chappie, which I think the critics totally misunderstood. They were still, and maybe they still are, you know, evaluating science fiction films based on their special effects. And Chappie's just a real story about a robot who wants to be a real boy like Pinocchio. And so they completely misunderstood it and, you know, I think underestimated it. But Neil had pitched me his Alien film, which did bring Nute back to life. And I was very excited about his

• 26:31Speaker 02

  designs and the script and everything else. And then I won't go into why it was stopped, but it wasn't, it was, it was sort of about control.

• 26:43Josh Horowitz?

  Right. I think I can read between the lines there. I got you. I mean, there's been so, I mean, Alien continues. Last night, by the way, Sigourney moderated an Alien Earth event. So I love that you embrace, and look, I've talked to all these young actors that talk about you, whether it's Catherine Waterston, or Kaylee Spahney, or Sydney Chandler. It must be lovely to connect with these folks that have kind of inherited the mantle, as it were, of female lead protagonist hero in the Alien saga.

• 27:14Speaker 02

  Well, I loved Alien Earth. I mean, I liked Romulus too. You know, I think they're both really good.

• 27:23Speaker 02

  I guess for me, especially, and I met Sidney yesterday and some of the cast, I see myself because it's, even though the movie was, had no profile, it still is a big responsibility. And so, my heart goes out to them, you know. And I think that's made, you know, now that the movies are so beloved, I think probably the, there may even be more pressure. But I really, I'm thrilled to still be working at my age because I feel I have an opportunity

• 28:02Speaker 02

  as an older actor to, to bond with the younger actors and kind of, you know, I guess the message I would always like to send out is, "Don't worry so much, it's gonna be fine. Just hit your mark, say the lines, go for it." You know, and don't, don't think about it after, when you go home, don't go, "Well, I should've done this or that." Of course, everyone does that, but I really have faith in these young actors and I think the cast of Alien Earth, the direction, everything else was just extraordinary, fascinating. And I was very glad to see that they didn't bring any of the creatures with them to the,

• 28:44Speaker 02

  to the little seminar or whatever it was, because they might not be as nice as the actors.

• 29:29Speaker 05

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• 30:02Josh Horowitz?

  For you, is the door absolutely 1,000% closed on ever playing Ripley in any capacity again? Since Neil's close call, have there been any discussions with Jim, or Ridley, or anybody else?

• 30:16Speaker 02

  You know, Walter Hill is a very good friend of mine, and he wrote 50 pages of where Ripley would be now, and they are quite extraordinary. So, I don't know if it's gonna happen, but I have had a meeting with Fox, Disney, or whoever it is now.

• 30:40Speaker 02

  You know, I said, I have never, except for Neil, I've never felt the need. I was always like, "Let her rest." You know, "Let her recover." But what Walter has written is so, first of all, seems so true to me, and it's very much about the society that would incarcerate someone who has tried to help mankind, but she's a problem to them. So she's sort of tucked away. And anyway, I think it's a very strong first 50 pages, and I'm thinking about, you know,

• 31:25Speaker 02

  working with Walter to see what the rest of the story would be. It would not be running around air shafts. It would be...

• 31:35Josh Horowitz?

  You've done your time.

• 31:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, it would be a very different... Kind of alien with a really good script. Scary. Of course, the alien does show up.

• 31:48Speaker 02

  Inevitable. But I love what he's done with the character. He really gets her strength and her anger and her humor. And it's very hard to write. Surprisingly hard to write Ripley. Everybody makes you sound like a gym teacher. "All right, people, let's do this, let's do that." It's, you know, you can't... But Walter has it. He has the touch.

• 32:16Josh Horowitz?

  You have to remember, she goes up on the line, "Get away from her, you bitch." Well, yeah, that's Ripley.

• 32:23Josh Horowitz?

  We all approve of this idea. Safe to say.

• 32:30Speaker 02

  Thank you. That's encouraging.

• 32:34Josh Horowitz?

  I want to hit upon some other roles in some other iconic films quickly if we can. Ghostbusters.

• 32:45Josh Horowitz?

  More fun to play Dana or Dana inhabited by Zul? What's...

• 32:51Speaker 02

  I think Zulie.

• 32:55Josh Horowitz?

  Have you ever answered a door seductively saying, "Are you the key master?" in real life?

• 33:01Speaker 02

  I probably have. But, you know, I didn't realize till, I think Ivan did some, one of those 30 years later things. I didn't realize that when I went for the audition, and being a theater actor, when I read that Dana turns into a dog, that's how I read it. And when I got to the audition with Ivan Reitman, I then, once I got to the end of that scene, I did then, you know, grab cushions in my teeth and do some howling. And I, he then, well, first of all, he said, "Don't ever do that again."

• 33:42Speaker 02

  He said, "It's so grotesque. An editor will want to use it." But what I didn't know is he then called Harold Ramus and said, "You know Sigourney Weaver just came in and read for Dana and she turned into the dog. Why don't we think about making that the story?" And so to find out that 30 years later. And I couldn't imagine, I actually was disappointed that I actually had to turn into a special effect. I was prepared to play the dog all the way through.

• 34:15Josh Horowitz?

  Count me among the many obsessed with Galaxy Quest. Last year was, I believe, the 25th anniversary. I actually caught up with Sam Rockwell and Justin Long to talk about it.

• 34:36Speaker 02

  Excellent.

• 34:37Josh Horowitz?

  The only thing, the only people that love Galaxy Quest more than the fans, I think, are the actors. You all, I mean, you all really seem to have a deep affection for the making of that film and how it turned out. And I know for you, part of the joy was playing against type, correct?

• 34:51Speaker 02

  Well, I was, I'm much closer to Toni and Gwen than I am to Ripley. You know, I'm, I'm, I related to Gwen because she was, you know, a woman in Hollywood who was constantly being judged and evaluated by how she looked all the time and how she moved, how she looked in her costume. And I thought that was very accurate. And so I really enjoyed playing her. When I first wanted to be in it, I was told, "No, they don't want anyone who's ever done science fiction to be in this movie." And I thought, "Well, if anyone knows how to make fun of science fiction, it's those

• 35:36Speaker 02

  of us who have been in these movies." Luckily, they changed directors, and so I got to be in it.

• 35:44Josh Horowitz?

  I know, lucky for all of us, I know... Those guys are still anxious to do a continuation. I know you guys came close. Sadly, we obviously lost the great Alan Rickman. And I think right close to his passing. It was coming pretty close to happening.

• 35:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, they were absolutely gonna do it. And it had a very funny story.

• 36:04Josh Horowitz?

  Are you still in principle game, given the material coming in the right way? Or does Alan's lost make it a little unusual or not right?

• 36:11Speaker 02

  I think it would have happened by now. But I did, at a certain point, they talked about Benedict Cumberbatch playing a version of Alan's part.

• 36:25Speaker 02

  It's very hard to come back to it without Alan there. Because it's hard to tell from the film. Some of his scenes were cut because they weren't good for a child. They decided at the last minute. It was a children's film because it was gonna go up against Stuart Little. They cut some of Alan's great scenes. And I wish they put out a director's cut. Because those scenes are the best.

• 36:51Josh Horowitz?

  Hard to imagine it's even better, but that's awesome. Then, of course, we should talk about Avatar. There's more Avatar on its way.

• 37:00Josh Horowitz?

  What a gift to reteam with Jim after all these years. He's mellowed a little bit, it seems. Like, you know, he's a genius. He obviously can... The thing about Jim, they always say, is like, he can do everybody's job on set as better or as well as everybody. What's been the experience like, working with Jim this time around versus way back when?

• 37:20Speaker 02

  Well, it's wonderful. It wasn't until I went on tour with Jim, our sort of little victory tour after the Venice Film Festival, and had dinner with Jim a few times, that I finally went, hey, you're really funny. How come we never saw this Jim the whole time we were shooting? I think because it was a difficult shoot and he had so much to do. But I think he has mellowed. He's so lovely to work with. He's so... Interested in what the actor might contribute. He'll try anything. The beauty of this technology is that you can't, you know, you don't have sets, you don't have lighting.

• 38:04Speaker 02

  You basically have the actors in their suits and everything comes from that. People think that these movies are voiced. Not at all. This is the most pure acting I've ever had to do because you aren't thinking of hair, makeup, or any of those things. That, it's all about the connection between you and your fellow actors. So I think that we've all really enjoyed that, having the privilege of working this way. And I think Jim is having a great time working with this particular company. You know, we're like a family now because we've all known each other.

• 38:48Speaker 02

  The little kids, like Trinity, who is seven, she's now like fifteen, you know, gorgeous. Jack is like, you know, a giant. So it's really, it's really amazing to still be together, still working after all this time.

• 39:05Josh Horowitz?

  Have you shot, like, when's the last time you shot stuff? Because again, this goes way back. Two and Three were shot years and years ago.

• 39:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, but we kept, we kept coming back to them and refining them, which is very easy to pick up. And of course, Four and Five are absolutely extraordinary scripts. So I'm pretty sure Jim will direct them.

• 39:29Josh Horowitz?

  I was gonna say, he seems to be hedging, but you believe he's gonna figure it out.

• 39:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, we don't want him to feel trapped. But I think that he would, he really, we really do love working together and, and so I think, I think that will work out. Not exactly sure when we will shoot them, but I guess it depends on how Three does. So please go to see it 5,000 times.

• 39:57Speaker 02

  It is gonna be a great movie. Very different in keeping with our times. It is a darker movie.

• 40:06Josh Horowitz?

  And we'll start to learn maybe a little bit more about your character's mysterious past.

• 40:11Speaker 02

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 40:14Josh Horowitz?

  Something else to look forward to is, of course, you have to be a part of the Star Wars universe. It's like written in the stars. It has to happen. I'm surprised it took this long. Is that just like a phone call from Jon Favreau? Like, how did that come around?

• 40:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, like, I got this call from Jon. I mean, I don't want to be greedy and just eat franchises. I'm a monster. But I got a call from Jon Favreau, whom I'm a great admirer of, and, you know, we talked, and he said, "Just start watching the show." And I was, of course, amazed by it and fell in love with it. And Pedro and Grogu, I mean... Also, I love how the Star Wars universe has... It's not trying to pay off each movie with the whole backlog of movies. It's now, you know, individual stories set in the same universe.

• 41:14Speaker 02

  Ours is set in the Outer Rim. So I was thrilled. I was only on the set for a few days, but I was surrounded by all kinds of different creatures. I got a drink from someone with a very different kind of head than I have.

• 41:35Josh Horowitz?

  Don't talk about Pedro Pascal that way. What?

• 41:40Josh Horowitz?

  You get to work with both Pedro and Grogu. Quality time with Mandalorian and Grogu?

• 41:44Speaker 02

  You know, I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

• 41:47Josh Horowitz?

  Also lucky, I mean, to see you in that iconic costume, like, the X-Wing pilot costume. Again, who would've thunk it? Amazing.

• 41:56Speaker 02

  Not I, yeah. It was a whole new world, so I feel very fortunate that I got to do that.

• 42:03Josh Horowitz?

  I mean, we've touched on only a small part of your career. I mean, there's obviously all the amazing non-quote-unquote "genre" work, too. Do people consistently bring up one or two things on the day-to-day? Or is it... Like, can you clock Alien versus Galaxy Quest fan coming from 10 yards away? Like, what is it like to be Sigourney Weaver out in the universe?

• 42:25Speaker 02

  You know, it makes me realize how lucky I am. I have, I feel like the fans don't go to everything. So that I have Gorillaz and the Mist fans who are often coming up to me. Especially now that we've just lost the amazing Jane Goodall.

• 42:52Speaker 02

  So there's a lot of concern about the Gorillaz. Some people love the year of living dangerously. I feel like they don't overlap. I do have small children coming up to me talking about Alien, which is worrying. Because they're very small, they're like three or four, and I'm thinking, how do they cope with this? They're gonna, they're gonna be in therapy for years, so...

• 43:19Josh Horowitz?

  How did your child handle watching Alien, watching mom run away from a xenomorph? At what age did it?

• 43:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. I didn't show it to her, because I wanted her to feel that being her mom was the most important job. I didn't want her to be... So I never showed my movies at home. I think she finally saw Alien at a friend's house in high school, and then studied Aliens in a sci-fi class in college. She's a good sport about all of this. Must be really weird.

• 43:57Speaker 02

  You know, she, and she just got married, so she can't wait to show her husband Ice Storm. I said, "You really want to show him Ice Storm?"

• 44:09Speaker 02

  Anyway, so, no, she's very good about it.

• 44:12Josh Horowitz?

  We're about to bring out a special guest. I just want to cue the folks backstage to have our special guest ready. But before we do that, yeah, here's the golden question about, related to Alien and Aliens, which one do you prefer? You can only choose one, Sigourney, I'm sorry.

• 44:29Speaker 02

  You know, they're so utterly different. There's so much each director's vision that I don't have a favorite. I think that Jim Cameron wrote an extraordinary big part for a woman in those days. And I will always be grateful. But Ridley Scott has always had very strong female roles, too. And so I, absolutely. And so I'm, you know, I've just been really lucky. The guys I've worked with really appreciate strong women, so I just, I found a really

• 45:14Speaker 02

  good group.

• 45:15Josh Horowitz?

  Well, speaking of strong women, look, we talked about the ensemble in Alien. And again, the way that Ridley and company cast that film, it really holds up. It's an amazing company of actors. We're gonna have a little reunion onstage right now because we have another acting legend in the house, and she's also contributed so much, not only to Alien, but to the entire genre, from The Birds, Witches of Eastwick, so much more. Please give a warm welcome to the one and only Veronica Cartwright is here. Shall we put these down? We're gonna bring another chair.

• 45:56Josh Horowitz?

  Veronica, thank you so much for joining us. What a treat.

• 46:19Speaker 06

  Thank you so much for inviting me.

• 46:20Speaker 02

  It's very cool.

• 46:22Josh Horowitz?

  Have you guys seen each other in the last 40 years?

• 46:25Speaker 06

  Yes, we've seen each other a couple of times, a few times. But it has been a while.

• 46:32Speaker 02

  It has been a while. Sometimes the cast of Aliens will get together at Calgary. I think we did that. And, but this is, you know, this is very unusual. And so it's really cool.

• 46:46Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 46:47Josh Horowitz?

  It's a special treat.

• 46:48Speaker 06

  To women.

• 46:50Josh Horowitz?

  It's a special treat for all of us. Veronica, I'd love to get your perspective on some of what we discussed because, again, nobody really knew what Alien was going to be. I've heard you talk about it like, "Oh, this is a B-movie. This is another, this is a job and it's a B-movie." Was that fair to say what your attitude was at the time on set?

• 47:07Speaker 06

  Well, I don't think we... What Ridley did was cast people that were not like superstars or movie stars. He cast really good people because what Ridley likes to do is do the scenery and the, all of the stuff to make sure that it all looks perfect. And he got really competent and great actors together so that we could... He didn't have to worry about us. And, um, so, it was great. I mean, I must say, you brought up the first thing of Kane letting us into the, um,

• 47:50Speaker 06

  the shuttle without being, you know, "Do we keep you a part? Do you not?" And I come in and, of course, I'm so upset. Well, it's in the director's cut, but it's not in the main movie. And, um, I went to slap Sigourney across the face because she was a bitch for not letting us in.

• 48:10Speaker 06

  Well, every time I went to slap Sigourney, she ducked. So Ridley comes over...

• 48:18Speaker 02

  No, I think you got me a couple of good...

• 48:21Speaker 06

  Well, no, but because Ridley comes...

• 48:23Speaker 02

  It's not in the movie?

• 48:24Speaker 06

  It's in the director's cut, not in the first cut.

• 48:27Speaker 02

  Oh, I didn't realize.

• 48:28Speaker 06

  So, um, so Ridley comes over to me and he goes, "Would you just fucking get her this time?" I said, "Well, okay." So I go like that, you duck, and I backhanded you. And you were not a happy camper, but the pro that she is, she's stuck with it.

• 48:49Speaker 02

  No, I thought it was perfect. You know, we did a lot of, not exactly improvisation, but it was Ridley preferred us not to quite know what we were gonna do. He wanted it, that, that, that, that feeling of just being in such danger that you, you're not quite, you know, you're not quite thinking clearly and all hell is breaking loose.

• 49:14Speaker 06

  But at the same time, we were a crew that had been together for years and so those tensions all build up. I mean, as Ridley said, we were truckers in space and that's what we were. Things were breaking down and we had to keep getting them fixed and, and I thought myself I was the bravest of all, saying, "Let's get out of here." But nobody listened to me.

• 49:40Josh Horowitz?

  It would've been one film then, no franchise. You'll escape the alien. What, um, what do you remember about the sets themselves and the xenomorph? I mean, like, the sets, like, are so palpable, they do feel lived in. It is that kind of iconic, it's iconic now. But how did it feel stepping onto those sets? And did the xenomorph in person read as something that the audience was gonna buy, or, "Oh, this is really silly, I'm worried"?

• 50:00Speaker 06

  Oh, no. He was scary as shit.

• 50:05Speaker 06

  I mean, he was magnificent. He was like seven foot two. He was part of the Maasai tribe. Um, Balaji's hands, I mean, Maasai are built very long and thin. His hands were below his kneecaps. So when they put his gloves on and his whole body suit, I mean, it was just, it was unbelievable. And he had gone and taken tai chi and mime classes. So he could roll himself up into a ball and slowly stand up and then just stand there. Like, when I'm, my demise, I, I mean, he was petrifying, 'cause he just stood there and then he went like...

• 50:45Speaker 06

  He was magnificent. He was so wonderful. And what I loved was, he would walk around with these big blue sneakers, with the big white sneakers and his head off, but his body suit on. And Tom Skerritt said, "You know, this guy's got to be able to sit down." He had him build a swing for him. So he used to sit in this swing with the tail behind him. It was hysterical. And big blue sneakers. It was hysterical. He was lovely.

• 51:10Speaker 02

  He was lovely, and also, you put someone like that in the suit. It also becomes, it's terrifying, but it's also one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see. So erotic, frightening, elegant, you know. I think it's exactly what Ridley was looking for.

• 51:31Speaker 06

  Well, because they found him, he was a graphic artist. They found in a pub. And he just sort of fit this description of, because there was sort of ambiguity as to which way they wanted to go. Was it going to be a hermaphrodite? Was it going to be this, that, and the other? And they saw him, and he was willing to do everything except the maggots and the brain.

• 51:52Josh Horowitz?

  Can you blame him?

• 51:54Speaker 02

  Understandable.

• 51:55Josh Horowitz?

  There's so much lore about, like, all the scenes, but especially the first chestburster scene with John Hurt. I'd love to hear just your perspectives on how it played out in real time for you guys.

• 52:07Speaker 06

  We were left up in the dressing room for hours while they fed up John in his chest, you know. We didn't know quite what was happening.

• 52:17Speaker 02

  It was in the script.

• 52:18Speaker 06

  It was in the script. And Segura and I had actually gotten to go down, because we shot a scene after that event. And we didn't know what it was that was supposed to be coming out of this chest. So they took us down to the puppet place where they had this, it wasn't flesh-colored at this point, it was just a gray penis. And these guys were so excited, because they go, "Look, look." And the chest would breathe, and they'd go, "Oh, wait until we get the teeth in there." And we're going, "Oh, okay." It was just so weird. It was very weird. But when it all happened... Well, for me, anyway, there were four cameras. And we walked behind this shield of plastic and there were big buckets of offal around.

• 53:03Speaker 06

  I mean, I retched as I walked on the set. And it was just so tense and what you see was the first take. I mean, it was unbelievable. And I leaned right into a blood jet. Which I did not realize was there.

• 53:19Speaker 02

  I mean, everyone, we came down, everyone was wearing a, like a poncho.

• 53:23Speaker 06

  A plastic poncho.

• 53:27Speaker 02

  Dan and Ron were off in the corner going. It's like Christmas for them to see the chestburster come out. And what I remember about that day, because it was very early on, really, is I was so stunned by John's acting. You really felt he was dying. And I just, it was such a powerful performance. And I, you know, honestly, yeah, when the little thing jumps out, there's this great take where we're all kind of, we all watch it.

• 54:04Speaker 02

  You know, they, um, Josh, Noah Hawley uses real effects. And these guys would be under the table and then honestly, this thing came out and ran out of the room in like one or two takes. And we're, it's a master. It's the only one where we're just like, what the fuck? You know? It's like, what just happened?

• 54:35Speaker 06

  It was great. I mean, what was so interesting about it, it was so simple. Now they do CGI and everything. There was a slit down the table and a guy on a dolly underneath the table with the little guy and, and then he turned and stuff. And it was just mesmerizing and then whipped him off. I mean, it was just whipped him off. It was amazing. The whole thing was, it was magnificently done.

• 55:03Speaker 02

  Very quick. They were just extraordinary. With just some hose and some, you know, little things to squeeze and everything. They just made the whole thing happen, all of it. It was, it was so elegantly done.

• 55:17Josh Horowitz?

  Now I kind of wish everybody in unison had just turned and said, what the fuck?

• 55:25Josh Horowitz?

  The film holds up. I mean, we're talking about these practical effects. And you would think somehow like, oh, we're now so used to like slick CGI and everything. And that has its place, but I don't know, does it strike you? Like, how wide does this movie hold up as well as it does?

• 55:42Speaker 06

  Well, I think it's perfect because it is practical. I mean, it's no CGI where you're looking at something that's made up after you've finished the movie. Everything was practical. Those sets were the most magnificent things you've ever seen. We took over the entire Shepparton studio. And each soundstage had something on it. And at one point, the desert scene was the largest soundstage in Europe at the time. And they filled that thing with sand. And they put these spacesuits on us and moon boots and hockey gloves that were painted and wouldn't bend and forgot to give us air holes, so we were... It was...

• 56:25Speaker 06

  But it was every set, the big vaginas is the... You know, is the... I mean, and you look at those things and you think, oh, my God, what am I in?

• 56:37Speaker 06

  I mean, and the engine room, it was so claustrophobic because everything was connected. You went to the engine room. You went down the hall. To the left was the hospital. To the right was the dining area. Everything was connected. And every day you went onto the set, you'd have to walk down this, which gave you that feeling of claustrophobia. It was... Everything was done for a purpose. And then as the movie progresses, they would stand there with those cylinders of glycerin and spray them on us. Oh, God almighty. Every particle of dust, by the end of the day, was glued to your body. It was pretty gross.

• 57:14Speaker 02

  I loved the sets. Coming from the theater, I thought, wow, so nice of them to build these really real sets for us. And then, of course, we'd be in these sets, like the consoles. We were never allowed to touch those buttons.

• 57:31Speaker 02

  We always had to touch fake buttons over here. And so the whole thing was, to me, very funny, you know? It was absolutely real, but you couldn't use it.

• 57:41Speaker 06

  Anne Ridley loved smoke. There was smoke constantly. Our original actor for John Hurt was John Finch. And he had just gotten out of the hospital having pneumonia. And after the first day of shooting with all that smoke, he was back in the hospital. And so John Hurt comes in. And in the meantime, I'd had all my hair cut off, and it was like a crew cut. And John comes in, and he had the same haircut and the same complexion. I said, "I didn't know we were clones of each other." It was like, "Oh, no." It was just...

• 58:19Josh Horowitz?

  Sigourney, do you remember the first time you saw the film? Is there any recollection of...

• 58:24Speaker 02

  Yes, I'm sure I can recall.

• 58:26Josh Horowitz?

  I mean, for either of you, like, it must have been, again, you have the experience on set, and it sounds like it was very rewarding. But like, again, the music, everything coming together.

• 58:35Speaker 06

  Well, you know, they didn't give a premiere. There was no premiere. I went down to the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and saw it by myself. And people, when the chestburster happened, were getting up out of their seats and leaving the theater. Nobody had seen anything like it. It was really super impressive, I thought. I mean...

• 58:54Speaker 02

  Well, I forgot they didn't have an opening for us.

• 58:56Speaker 06

  They didn't have an opening. I know, we were just a B movie.

• 58:59Speaker 02

  I know.

• 59:00Speaker 06

  Then...

• 59:10Josh Horowitz?

  For both of you, is it kind of like a demarcation point in your career? There's before Alien, and there's after Alien? Because it's still a part... Look, we're here. It's still a part of all of our lives. Do you look back at Alien as kind of a pivotal moment in your respective careers?

• 59:27Speaker 02

  Well, I certainly do, because I, you know, I learned not to look in the camera.

• 59:35Speaker 02

  Which I kept doing and Ridley kept saying, "You can't look in the camera." And I said, "Well, I'd love to not look in the camera, but you keep putting it right in front of me." So I didn't, and actually, Tom Skerritt explained to me where I should look, you know, sort of not in the camera, but around it. So all these basic things I had to learn very quickly. So that certainly, but I'm so amazed and thrilled that it is still such a loved movie. And I think so much credit should be given to Ridley Scott.

• 1:00:14Speaker 02

  Truckers in space, you know? It's not elegant sci-fi. It's the real deal. Absolutely.

• 1:00:27Josh Horowitz?

  Well, events like this make me realize, like, I can't believe I get to do this for a living, because what a treat for me and for all of us here today to get to talk about Alien and their respective careers.

• 1:00:39Speaker 02

  It's a treat for us, too. Thank you so much.

• 1:00:44Josh Horowitz?

  Thank you, guys, so much for taking the time out today. Give it up one more time, Veronica Cartwright, Sigourney Weaver, everybody. Come on.

• 1:00:57Speaker 03

  And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh.

• 1:01:17Speaker 07

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