To have SIgourney Weaver in his film “Aliens, the return”, director James Cameron had to cheat and lie to make the studio bend. Explanations.
Aliens, the return is the second film of the Alien saga and takes the opposite view of its predecessor. No more unspeakable terror in dark and narrow ship corridors, this time Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) will machine-gun the xenomorphs at all costs!
At the time when the film is being prepared, director and co-screenwriter James Cameron has a major concern: Sigourney Weaver, the film’s star, is not under contract to return, his return must be negotiated. And that goes through paying him the sum of 1 million dollars, an amount that the studio does not intend to give him.
In short, the situation is blocked. But the director has an idea, that of going through Arnold Schwarzenegger’s agent to convey a message (and a big lie):
Twentieth Century Fox Sigourney Weaver
“I called Lou Pitt, Arnold’s agent, and I said, ‘Lou, this can’t go on'”he confesses to GQ. “So we decided that we really like the story with all these Marine characters and the world that we’ve created around it. Really, we thought about it well, and we just don’t need Sigourney anymore.”
I created all of these characters, and my authorial pride tells me we should keep that and cut her and her character from the movie. Without replacing it, just rewrite, and I’ll start tonight.’
“Did I mean to? Absolutely not. But I knew Lou was from the same agency as Sigourney’s agent in New York. And I knew the second he hung up on me, he’d call her and say, ‘Get Sigourney signed immediately [pour le film]’.”
Cameron was right, because that’s exactly what happened, “12 hours” after this phone call, specifies the director of Terminator. His plan worked, and the actress got the million dollars she was asking for and, he concludes, “Everyone was happy”.
Twentieth Century Fox
Weaver then returned twice for the 3rd and 4th installments of the Alien franchise and remains a loyal friend to Cameron, with whom she also filmed Avatar and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of the Water, in theaters December 14. next.