SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses plot points in “Alien: Romulus,” now in theaters.

Anticipation is high for horror fans eager to see “Alien: Romulus,” the seventh chapter in the iconic sci-fi franchise. The film is directed by Fede Álvarez, who helmed two gory modern horror classics: the 2013 remake of “Evil Dead” and 2016’s “Don’t Breathe.” The film is set between the first two films in the series — 1979’s “Alien” and 1986’s “Aliens” — both of which are considered cornerstones of the genre. Amazingly, it also marks the first film for one of the film’s stars, Aileen Wu. In the film, Wu plays Navarro, a spaceship pilot who has some very close encounters with the aliens. Wu is a student of the subject, having attended both NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, but admits the experience had its fair share of large-scale, surreal moments. Wu spoke to Variety about the intense process of acting with aliens, learning to pilot a spaceship and the joy of shaving her head.

This is my very first feature film. I got a request to shoot it myself, like most actors do, I shot it and two days later I got a call back. Two days after that I got the full script and two days after that I had a phone call with Fede and he was already in Budapest. During the conversation I felt like he was trying to psych me out: "You know, you're going to be covered in blood. You're going to be in this hole for eight hours. You can't get out. You're going to have this creature on your face for a long time. You can't get claustrophobic, are you claustrophobic?" I was like, "No, I'm not claustrophobic." I had a big problem with claustrophobia when I was in high school. The next morning my agent got a call from the studio and then I got the official offer. Two days after that I was on a plane to Budapest. It happened really fast and I didn't know what was happening until we had already started shooting.

We shot the thing chronologically, and one of the first big scenes is we’re all in the space transporter. Navarro, my character, is flying the ship, and they bring in a real pilot to talk to me and explain to me what all the language means, where all the controls are, and why the order is the way it is. They practiced that sequence of flying the ship with me, or at least getting it off the ground.