With Alien, Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley was already a great screen hero – the unexpected final girl of Ridley Scott’s space-horror, who emerged from the ensemble to become the lone survivor of the Nostromo. But in Aliens, Ripley truly became an icon; James Cameron’s more action-oriented sequel seeing her tool up to take on dozens of marauding Xenomorphs. Whether putting the Colonial Marine grunts in their place, going head-to-head with the alien queen in the Powerloader, or protecting young orphan Newt, the film sees Ripley kick ass.
All these years later, Weaver still looks fondly on Aliens – particularly the outlook that Cameron brought to Ripley. “I love the seriousness that you brought to it. It’s life and death for Ripley,” she tells the director in Empire’s 40th anniversary reunion interview. Still, the production of the film was notably tough. “The whole thing was so exciting but it was also really hard,” says Weaver. “I think of everyone, of those huge guns and all that stuff. Everyone was really going for it, man. It was so real and it was such a gift.”
After the production, with the pressure lifting, Weaver remembers seeing a different side to her director. “We were having dinner one night with Gale and I suddenly said, “You know, you’re really funny. Where was this guy all the way through that shoot?!” she says. “I just don’t think you could [be like that], because you had all of that proving yourself to the crew. They thought, ‘Who is this guy? He’s not Ridley Scott!’ It was such bullshit.” It couldn’t be clearer now that Cameron was the only person who could make Aliens. “It’s so hard to make a movie like this, and then to have to deal with all of that for weeks,” says Weaver. “They finally opened their eyes and went, ‘Oh fuck, we’re working with a master and this is going to be a great movie.’” The rest is history.
Read the full Aliens reunion interview in the Summer 2026 issue of Empire – on sale Thursday May 7. Pre-order a copy online here.