Happy Sad Confused - Sigourney Weaver

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

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

I felt I basically had only one or two chances. And I remember when I said the line, because I say it's 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.

You know. Anyway, Jim loved it, and we didn't really get to do it again. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. 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 Said CanF. today. I'm coming off of a whirlwind few days in your Comic-Con, taking a bunch of special events, including a bunch of happy, say, 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 moderate seven events over the last four days at Comic-com, but I am mostly very grateful that folks invited me to so many cool events um and this was honestly if i had the jews one as the coolest this might have been it because um i've never done the deep dive with sigourney weaver and um 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 scornie weaver about nothing but alien aliens the entire alien franchise avatar ghostbusters galaxy quest star wars come on come on um all right a little more on in a second first the usual reminders um patreon dot com i have to say it because we're putting so much stuff up there and your support over there helps us patreon dot com slash happy say i confused early access discount codes uh 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 pike. I can not officially confirm yet, but you'll want to know about them. So go to patreon.com slash happy second fuse for all that sort of cool stuff. 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 hack, so cool, before, during, and after this event. She just gave me everything I could have, any fan would want to hear. 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 her watch it here. I don't know where 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 involve Ripley's return mind blown you can see my brain melt on stage 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 chestbursts seen in the

first alien um the power loader scene get away from her you bitch in that moment in aliens going down the shaft to the queen in aliens her reflections on alien three which i love so many people i know have a soft spot for uh not david fincher but a lot of other people um 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 benedic 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 of Eastwick so much more. and of course, Alien. So they have a 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, 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 DeGourney 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 a not-so hot take. Nobody has contributed more to the sci-fi Comic-Con world than Sigourney Weaver. Are we all agreed?

Ghostbusters, Avatar, Galaxy Quest. Come on! She will be in the Mandalorian and Grogu as if that wasn't enough. And I feel like I'm missing something. Oh yeah, Alien, Ripley. 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!

Wow. Thank you so much for coming. So, so excited. That's a nice way to start a Friday. Friday Sigourney, right? And thank you for that very lovely introduction. Well, every 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 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? You know, I'm an English major, so I just read I just read for the story. If it's a good story, I don't care what genre is 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 this story. I followed this story. 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?

Well, I think, I thought it was a very concise script, 10 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 And that, I think, was that and Ridley sort of cinched the deal, you know.

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, like, embrace that and kind of warn how to be number one on the call sheet, I guess. I don't know that I was number one on the call sheet.

Well, you should have been. Well, I don't. 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 Geyler, thought, no one will ever imagine that the survivor will be a woman. That's thanks to Walter and David. At least in that first film, do you remember what your key in to Ripley was? Was there a guiding force, a inspiration beyond just the words on the page?

Well, I remember that I made friends very quickly with Ian Holm, which is ironic since he's my big enemy. Yes. 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 shift 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 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 is 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 so I was terrified and that was easy to play 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? 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. Leslie was kind of playing around with our lovely young artist who was playing the alien. And he wasn't really sure how to end it and how to kill it. They hadn't really worked on how to make that come across visually.

But he suddenly, I think, got the word, you've got to finish today and tomorrow. 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 our my little escape vessel I didn't want to know anything about it so I had the luxury of 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 the rest of it was, and including the song,

I just thought, how would I stay 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, that because I think it 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. We're going to circle back around to Alien towards the end. There's a surprise you guys should stick around for. the darkest corners of our imagination comes a game show that's more ridiculous than terrifying. Welcome to Tickled to Death. I'm your host, Roz Hernandez, and I'll be guiding guests through the creepy questions and chaotic games,

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unless you get them from a snack machine, in which case, call us. I want to talk about aliens, which is maybe... Maybe the best action movie ever made, maybe the best sequel ever made. I mean, it's... 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 script? You must have been a little gobsmack that they wrote this amazing journey for you.

I was working in France on a film with Giro d'E de Partier 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 going to... Like, what if I'm not available? What do you do then? No, I know. 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? I said, are you kidding me? This is perfect, you know.

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

I just thought he wrote a great script You weren't a Piranha II fan You weren't a big I mean Well I think Terminator had come out But I didn't get to see it And he and Jim kept Setting up screenings for the crew At the end of the day

And they never went So So they did have an attitude and it did take a while, actually. I remember, because I loved Jim right away, it was very easy for me to kind of go around and go, listen, yeah, I love Ridley too, but this guy wrote this,

and he has this film Terminator, and he knows what he's doing. It's a natural. And so he impressed them gradually, and by the end, of course, they were, you know, devoted to him. 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, stealing 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 in your performance. It's iconic. Well, 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 had to think of some of the great samurai movies I'd seen with Tashiro Mafuni.

You know, how, yeah, I mean, he's the best. And I just remember, you know, of course. 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 he knew about Sam, So we did some talking about, you know, how a samurai would get ready. So to me it was more mental and somewhat physical, and I love that sequence because of that.

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 bridge too far, that's badass. Like what was the conversation or were you sold on it from the start? I just remember, you know, by that time we were in these big set pieces

and basically it took a lot of work for the crew to open the door and have me in the power loader with John. John behind me, you know, lifting the legs, but it felt like I was doing it, but everything was rehearsed and everything was in sync, but I felt I basically had only one or two chances. And I remember when I said the line, because I said, I say it's 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.

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. Maybe one other time, but, you know, not very much, because it was such a huge sequence and so much to set up. I'm going to give you this. I don't know if everybody else just geeked out on Herrick's Gehrie Weaver say that line three times, but I did. It's amazing. You get an Oscar nomination for that film, justifiably, which... It's yours you did.

It's all good. It's, 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. I think I was surprised, yes, because it was very unheard of and still kind of would be.

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

Oh, Newton, Hicks, right at the start. 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, that's space, you know, you've got to move on. I mean, it takes some. These things happen. That really should have been. in the tagline of the film.

Alien 3, these things happen. 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 out there. There have been so many, like, amazing, 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? Well, I was, I had done a movie with Neil Bloom Camp 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 nude back to life. And I was very excited about his designs and the script and everything else. And then I won't go into why it was stopped, but it wasn't, it was sort of about control.

Right. I think I can read between the lines there. I got you. I mean, there's been so much, 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 Captain Waterston or Kaylee Spaney or Sidney 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 side. Well, I loved Alien Earth. I mean, I liked Romulus, too. You know, I think they're both really good. I guess for me, especially, and I met Sydney yesterday and some of the cast, I see myself because it's, even though the movie had no profile, it still is a big responsibility.

and so my heart goes out to them and I think that's made now that the movies are so beloved I think probably 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 as an older actor 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 going to be fine. Just hit your mark, say the lines, go for it, you know, and don't think about it after when you go home. Oh, I should have 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 little seminar or whatever it was, because they might not be as nice as the actors. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside. So being a fan for life, turns, into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Pre-sale tickets for future events

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For you, is the door absolutely a thousand percent closed on ever playing Ripley in any capacity again? I mean, since Neil's close call, have there been any discussions with Jim or Ridley or anybody else? 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 going to happen, but I have had a meeting with Fox, Disney, or whoever it is now. You know, I said, I said, I have never, I have, except for Neal, 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, working with Walter to see what the rest of the story would be. It would not be running around air shafts.

It would be... You've done your time. Yeah, it would be a very different... kind of alien with a really good script, scary, of course the alien does show up, 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. It's 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 it's you know you can't but Walter has it he has the touch you have to remember she goes up on the line get away from her you bitch well yeah that's that's Ripley we all approve of this idea

safe to say thank you that's encouraging I want to hit upon some other roles and some other iconic films quickly if we can. Ghostbusters. More fun to play Dana or Dana inhabited by Zool? What's... I think Zoolie.

Have you ever answered a door seductively saying, are you the key master in real life? 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 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. He said it's so grotesque, an editor will want to use it. But what I didn't know is he then called Harold Ramos

and said, you know, Sigourney Weaver just came in, 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. Um, count me among the many obsessed with Galaxy Quest. Um, last year was, I believe the 25th anniversary, actually caught up with, um, uh, uh, Sam Rockwell and Justin Long to talk about it. Excellent. The only people that love Galaxy Quest more than the fans, I think, are the actors.

You all love, 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? Well, I was, I'm much closer to Tawney and Gwen than I am to Ripley. You know, 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 felt 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 of us who have been in these movies, and luckily they changed directors, and so I got to be in it. 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. Yeah, they were absolutely going to. to do it and it had a very funny story. 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?

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 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 children. They decided at the last minute it was a children's film because he was going to 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. 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. What a gift to re-team. team with Jim after all these years. He's mellowed a little bit, it seems. Like, we, 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? Well, it's, 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 gym 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 don't have sets, you don't have lighting, 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.

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. The little kids, like Trinity, who is seven, she's now like 15, you know, gorgeous. Jack is like of, you know, a giant. So it's really, it's really amazing to still be together, still working after all this time. Have you shot, like, when's the last time you shot stuff? Because this,

again, this goes way back. Two and three were shot years and years ago. 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, um, I'm pretty sure Jim will direct them. I was going to say he seems to be hedging, but you believe he's going to figure that. 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 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. It is going to be a great movie. Very different in keeping with our times. It is a darker movie. And we'll start to learn maybe a little bit more about your character's mysterious past. Yes, yes, yes.

Something else to look forward to is, of course, you have to be 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 John? Favreau? Like, how did that come around? Yeah, like I got this call from John. I mean, you know, I don't want to be greedy and just

eat franchises. It's a monster. But I got a call from John Favreau, who I'm a great admirer of, and he, 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 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.

Don't talk about Pedro Pascal that way. What? I know. So you get to work with both Pedro and Grogu. Quality time with Mandolori and Grogu? You know, I'm the luckiest girl in the world. Also, lucky, I mean, to see you in that iconic costume, like the X-Wing pilot costume, again, who would have thunk it? Amazing. Not I. Yeah. It was a whole new world, so I feel very fortunate that I got to do that. 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.

What 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? You know, it's, it makes me realize how lucky I am. I have, I feel like the fans don't go to everything, so that I have Gorillas in the Mist fans who are often coming up to me, especially now that we've just lost the amazing Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall.

So there's a lot of concern about the guerrillas. 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 going to be in therapy for years, so.

How did your child handle watching Alien, watching Mom run away from a xenomorph? At what age did I see it? 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. But, you know, she just got married, so she can't wait to show her husband Ice Storm. I said, you really want to show my storm?

Anyway, so, no, she's very good about it. We're about to bring out a special guest. just want to cue the folks backstage to have our special guests ready. But before we do that, yeah, here's the golden question about it relates to alien and aliens. Which one do you prefer? You can only choose one, Sigourney. I'm sorry. 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. 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 good group. Well, speaking of strong women, look, we talked about the ensemble in Alien, and that, again, the way that Ridley and Company cast that film, it really holds up. It's an amazing company of actors. We're going to have a little reunion on stage right now because we have another acting legend in the house, and she's also contributed so much not only the 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. So we put these down? We're going to bring another chair. These chairs are wobbly. Hi. Veronica, thank you so much for joining us.

What a treat. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's very cool. Have you guys seen each other in the last 40 years? I mean... Yes, we've seen each other a couple of times, a few times. But it has been a while. It has been a while.

Sometimes the cast of aliens will get together at Calgary. I think we did that. But this is, you know, this is very unusual. And so it's really cool. Yeah. It's a special treat. 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. Is that fair to say what your attitude was at the time on set? 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 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 so it was a good. great. I must say you brought up the first thing of Kane letting us into the shuttle without being

do we keep you apart 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 I went to slap Sigourney across the face because she was a bitch for not letting us in

Well, every time I went to slap, Sir Gordy, she ducked. So, Ridley comes over. Oh, no, I think you got me a couple of good guys. Well, no, but because Ridley comes... It's not in the movie? In the director's cut, not in the first cut. Oh, I didn't realize. 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 ducked and I backhanded you. And you were not a happy camper. But the pro that she is, she stuck with it. 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 going to do. He wanted it that, that feeling of just being in such danger

that you're not quite thinking clearly and all hell is breaking loose. 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 I thought myself, I was the bravest of all, saying, let's get out of here. But nobody listened to me. It would have been one film then, no franchise. You'll escape the alien. What do you remember about the sets themselves and the xenomorph?

I mean, like, the sets 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 going to buy? Or, oh, this is really silly, I'm worried.

Oh, no. He was scary as shit. I mean, he was magnificent. he was like 7'2. He was part of the Masai tribe. Balaji's hands, I mean, Massi 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 mine 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 mean, he was petrifying because he just stood there

and then he went like, he was magnificent. He was so wonderful. And what I loved was he would walk around with these big blue sneakers or the big white sneakers and his head off, but his body suit on. And Tom Scarrett 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 there swing with the tail behind him. It was And big blue sneakers. It was hysterical. He was lovely. 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. 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 haemaphrodite? Was it going to be this, that, and the other, and they saw him. And he was willing to do everything except the maggots in the brain. Can you blame him? Understandable. There's so much lore about, like, all the scenes,

but especially the first chest-burster scene with John Hurt. I'd love to hear just hear perspectives on how it, it played out in real time for you guys. We were left up in the dressing room for hours where they fit up John in his chest. You know, we didn't know quite what was happening. It was in the script. It was in the script.

And Sigourini 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 the shield of plastic, and there were big buckets of awful around. 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. I mean, we came down, everyone was wearing a, like, a poncho.

A plastic poncho. Dan and Ron were off in the corner going, it's like Christmas for them to see the children. chest-burster 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. You know, they, 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? It was great. 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 it turned and stuff. It was just mesmerizing, and then whipped him off. I mean, it was just whipped him off. It was amazing. The whole thing was magnificently done. 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 so elegantly done. I kind of wish everybody in unison had just turned and said, What the fuck? The film holds up. I mean, we're talking about these practices. 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? 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 finish the movie. Everything was those sets were the most magnificent things you've ever seen. We took over the entire Shepardon 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 space suits on us and moon boots and hockey gloves that were painted and wouldn't bend and forgot to give his air holes. So we were... It was, 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? 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 on to 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. Oh, God Almighty. Every particle of dust by the end of the day was glued to your body. It was pretty gross. 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. 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. Anne Ridley loves 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. Sigourne, do you remember the first time you saw the film? Is there any recollection of... Yes, I'm sure I can recall that. 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. 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 chessbuster 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... Well, I forgot they didn't have an opening for us.

They didn't have an opening. I know. We were just a B-Movie. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. 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 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? Well, I certainly do because I, you know,

I learned not to look in the camera, which I kept doing, and I, 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 Scarrett explained to me where I should look, you know, sort of not in, the camera, but around it.

And so all these basic things I had to learn very quickly. So that's 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, Truckers in Space, you know. It's not elegant sci-fi, it's the real deal. Absolutely. Well, events like this make me realize 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 your respective careers. It's a treat for us, too. Thank you so much. Thank you, guys, so much for taking the time out today. Give it up one more time. Veronica Cartwright, Sigourney Reaver, everybody. Come on.

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. Hi, I'm Brandy Pissanti. For the last 15 years, I've starred in one of the most successful reality shows of all time. On my no show, the real reality, my guest and I will reveal the real story of what it's like

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