In a 2022 GQ video interview, James Cameron revealed that 20th Century Fox lied to him about Sigourney Weaver’s contract before Aliens went into production, and he almost left the project because of it. Fox told Cameron that Weaver was locked into doing a sequel through her original Alien contract, which turned out to be untrue.
Cameron wrote the whole screenplay believing the false information and only learned the truth after he had finished it. The standoff that followed, and the bluff Cameron used to get out of it, became one of the more remarkable behind-the-scenes stories in film history.
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Taking On The Sequel
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Cameron took on Aliens fresh off the success of The Terminator in 1984. Directing a sequel to Ridley Scott’s film struck many as a questionable career move. Friends pointed out the asymmetry of the situation; if the film succeeded, people would attribute it to the popularity of the Ripley character, and if it failed, the blame would fall squarely on Cameron.
Faced with what appeared to be a no-win situation, Cameron pushed ahead without flinching. “You’re probably right, and that’s very logical, but I just dig it, and I want to do it,” he told them.
Problems Before Production
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Fox told Cameron that Weaver was already locked in through a contractual option from the original film. Cameron had no reason to doubt this, and he took the studio at its word and got straight to work.
Fox may have done this deliberately to trap him into making the film with or without her. The studio had not spoken to Weaver at all before Cameron came aboard.
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The Casting Crisis
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With the assurance of Weaver’s participation, Cameron wrote the entire screenplay around the Ellen Ripley character. When Cameron came back with a finished script, the truth finally came out. As Cameron recalled, “The only variable for me was Sigourney. Getting her into it. ‘Cause they assured me that they had her on, under an option for a sequel. […] So, I went off and wrote this thing.”
“Okay, I’m going to get to work with Sigourney. This will be cool. […] I come back, and, lo and behold, no option. They haven’t even talked to her. So now it’s up to me to land Sigourney! […] And I don’t know her from a stranger on the street.”
Cameron had no studio backing and no existing relationship with Weaver, so he called her directly, sent the script over, and set up a meeting. Weaver read the screenplay and was taken by the story.
Weaver’s Salary Negotiations
Courtesy Of 20th Century Fox
The goodwill did not last long. Weaver’s agents reportedly made demands that Fox found unreasonable, and Fox walked away from the table. The studio refused to meet Weaver’s asking price, and her representatives refused to negotiate, which left Cameron with a finished screenplay and nowhere to go. Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, the film’s producer and Cameron’s second wife, decided to force the issue.
“That’s when Gale and I said, ‘Okay, f*** all y’all, we’re going to get married in Hawai’i, and it’s all off.’ And we just walked away. And they said, ‘Wait a minute, did they just walk away? They can’t do that!’ But you can! This is just movies. How movies happen and don’t happen.” Cameron later admitted the walkout was a bluff.
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The Bluff That Closed The Deal
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To make the bluff more convincing, Cameron called Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s agent, a man named Lou Pitt, and told him confidently that he loved the world of space marines and action-packed gun battles he had written for Aliens, and that he could easily rewrite it without Sigourney Weaver.
Cameron chose Lou Pitt specifically because he knew Pitt worked at the same agency as Weaver’s agent. The plan was to seed the rumor so it would travel across the hallway to Weaver’s representative. Cameron had no intention of rewriting Aliens without the Ellen Ripley character. “The deal was done in 12 hours. […] Sigourney got her million bucks, and everyone was happy.”
A Different Kind Of Sequel
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Ridley Scott‘s 1979 original Alien was a horror film about ill-prepared miners forced to evade a human-sized alien creature that had infiltrated their ship. Cameron’s 1986 sequel moved the franchise in a completely different direction, turning it into an action film about marines deployed to a human colony overrun with hundreds of the same creatures.
The film ended with Ripley fighting the dragon-sized xenomorph queen while wearing an outsized mechanical loading suit. The sequence became one of the most memorable climaxes in science fiction cinema, and Weaver’s performance turned Ellen Ripley from a survivor into an action protagonist.
Cameron noted that shooting the film was hell. Despite the brutal production and the behind-the-scenes turmoil that preceded it, Aliens is widely considered among the greatest films of the 1980s, and one of the best science fiction, action, and sequel films ever made. Aliens earned more than $183 million worldwide against a production budget of $18.5 million.
The film picked up several awards and nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Weaver, which was notable at a time when voters largely ignored the genre.