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- How James Cameron deployed his relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger to secure Sigourney Weaver in "Aliens"</p>
<p>Jordan HoffmanJuly 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM</p>
<p>Gregg DeGuire/Variety via Getty; Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis/Corbis via Getty; Noam Galai/Getty</p>
<p>James Cameron, Sigourney Weaver, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (kinda) all worked together (inadvertently) to make 'Aliens' a success</p>
<p>It was never "Game over, man!" for James Cameron, who pulled some unusual strings to get his leading lady.</p>
<p>The groundbreaking 1986 sci fi action-adventure film Aliens celebrates its 39th anniversary today, which makes it like 104 in Xenomorph years. The franchise is still cooking, with Alien: Romulus grossing out audiences last summer and the series Alien: Earth hitting FX in about a month. But for many years, it looked like the original 1979 "horror movie in space" Alien was going to be a one-and-done.</p>
<p>20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett</p>
<p>Witness Sigourney Weaver, carrying the load of the 'Alien' franchise on her back</p>
<p>Studio executives hemmed and hawed at the idea of bringing the repulsive face-hugging, chest-bursting, acid-blood-spewing interplanetary beasties back to the silver screen for years, unsure, at first, if it would be a good investment. Over time, a hot new screenwriter on the scene, James Cameron, was commissioned to create a treatment. It sat on a pile for a while, during which time the art director and special effects designer with one directing credit under his belt, the low-budget Piranha II: The Spawning, kicked off his mainstream career in earnest with the apocalyptic action picture The Terminator.</p>
<p>When that movie overperformed at the box office (because it ruled), his military-themed approach to the next chapter in poor Ellen Ripley's eternal struggle against powerful alien monsters seemed much more viable. There was one key problem: the studio (20th Century Fox) had never secured Sigourney Weaver for any sequels.</p>
<p>Cameron's take hinged on Weaver returning, and he was assured by the suits that it wouldn't be a problem. But in between Alien, where she was notoriously lowballed, and the sequel, Weaver became a pretty big star, appearing in award winners like The Year of Living Dangerously and mega hits like Ghostbusters. Part of what made Alien work was that it was an ensemble piece, with characters getting bumped off one by one, until only Weaver's Ripley remains. At the time, Veronica Cartwright, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt, and Harry Dean Stanton were all better-known actors — Ian Holm and Weaver were newer faces to mainstream audiences, and those are the two characters that have lived on in the franchise.</p>
<p>Anyway, Weaver's management team did what they were paid to do: bust the studio's chops for an increase in salary. They rightly declared that her involvement was worth $1 million plus a share of the profits, a very high sum in those days, especially for an actress. The studio then nickel-and-dimed their way into a long, long production delay. Cameron, now on board to direct his own screenplay, stood his ground: he would not make the movie without the real Ellen Ripley. It was a three-way standstill.</p>
<p>That's when Cameron — a natural born tinkerer — came up with a crafty way to get the ball rolling again.</p>
<p>20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett</p>
<p>Sigourney Weaver in a mech suit facing down the Alien Queen in 'Aliens'</p>
<p>With The Terminator in the rearview, and a great boost to Arnold Schwarzenegger's career, Cameron was tight with the Austrian strongman's agent, Lou Pitt. So he picked up the phone. Just two old buddies shooting the breeze turned into Cameron venting about his stalemate situation. According to a 2022 video interview, the future King of the World fibbed and said, "We've decided that we really like the story and all the Marine Corps characters and the world we've created and everything. And really, we've thought about it, and we really just don't need Sigourney. I've created all these characters, and my pride of authorship tells me I should go ahead with this, and we'll just cut her out of it, and we'll just cut her character out of it. We won't recast it; I'll just rewrite it. So, I'm going to start on that tonight."</p>
<p>The director said he had absolutely no plan to ever go through with such an idea, but the phone call had the desired effect.</p>
<p>20th Century Fox Film Corp/Courtesy Everett</p>
<p>I once caught a fish this big</p>
<p>Pitt worked at ICM and so did Weaver's agent at the time. Pitt lit a fire under everybody's behind, and a deal was finally signed in about 12 hours.</p>
<p>Clearly there was no bad blood between director and star — as the pair have reunited on the Avatar franchise, and Weaver's involvement in Alien and several additional sequels made her an international superstar and an extremely wealthy person. Oh, and don't forget that Aliens marked her first of three Academy Award nominations.</p>
<p>Now if she could just figure out a way to get those aliens to leave her alone!</p>
<p>Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty</p>
<p>Sigourney Weaver at a Los Angeles event three months after the release of 'Aliens'</p>
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<p>Check out the original trailer for Aliens below and let us know in the comments if you saw this movie during a rainy day in summer camp and you nearly soiled yourself with fear.</p>
<p>on Entertainment Weekly</p>
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