Sigourney Weaver gave a masterclass at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday that spans her entire career, including, of course, her time as Ellen Ripley, head of the Alien franchise.
Sigourney Weaver and the Cast of 'Aliens' Reunite 30 Years Later | TODAY
Ridley Scott directed the first film in 1979 before James Cameron came on board to direct the sequel, "Aliens," seven years later. This was Weaver's first meeting with Cameron, who would also direct her in the "Avatar" films. The two hit it off immediately, except for one thing: Weaver didn't realize how many guns Cameron had written into the script.
"He was just so open to any thoughts that I might have, and I just loved his instincts," Weaver said of Cameron. "The only thing I wasn't thrilled about, of course, was all the guns. I was reading really fast because I was trying to experience the story, and I had skipped over a lot of the stage directions, which had a lot of guns in them."
Weaver said that one day Cameron brought a bunch of guns to the set. "I said, 'What are those for?' and he said, 'Well, what do you mean?' I said, 'Well, I'm all for gun control, and there's no way I'm going to pick up a gun and do anything with it,'" she recalled. "He said, 'Well, you didn't read the script.' I said, 'I did, but I didn't read all those paragraphs about guns.'"
