Sigourney Weaver course-corrected James Cameron’s directing approach on the set of Aliens

Everyone knows that when Sigourney Weaver walks onto an Alien movie set, she’s not messing around. Weaver plays Ellen Ripley, the beloved character from the science-fiction action franchise. When she was making 1986’s Aliens with James Cameron, she wasn’t afraid to give the filmmaker a piece of her mind about his approach to one of the movie’s young actors.

According to Weaver, she witnessed Cameron “butting heads” with a young female actor on set who was struggling with some of the props.

What did Weaver say to Cameron?

“I sort of trundled up to him and I said, ‘You know, when you yell at an actor, you yell at all of us, so understand that what she was doing actually was very hard. Maybe shoot something else while she gets used to doing this stuff the way you want it,’” Weaver recalled.

Thankfully, Cameron took Weaver’s instruction to heart and amended his approach. “He’s a good guy. I really do think Jim has mellowed,” Weaver insists.

Weaver sympathizes with Cameron about Aliens

In addition to remembering her chastising Cameron on the set of Aliens, she also recalled getting dinner with him after production for the Alien sequel had wrapped, saying, “He hadn’t been like that directing. He was wildly funny, witty. I can understand why that guy couldn’t come out during ‘Aliens,’ because that was a tough shoot, especially for him. Let’s put it this way: I’m glad I wasn’t shooting ‘The Abyss’ with him.”

I’ve met many people who struggle to accept criticism. Thankfully, Weaver and Cameron are both professionals, and the duo continues to make beautiful movies together. Currently, Sigourney Weaver stars as Kiri in Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, which reached $544M+ worldwide after Christmas Day screenings. Weaver’s has been a part of Cameron’s Avatar franchise since 2009, with the inaugural chapter.

Personally, I can’t begin to imagine how difficult it must have been to work on the set of Aliens. Between the complex Xenomorph puppetry, water-logged sets, atmospheric mood lighting, and more, Aliens is a production with innumerable moving parts. I could easily see being confused by unfamiliar props and so much more while working on a film of that magnitude.

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