{"id":8801,"date":"2026-04-30T19:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=8801"},"modified":"2026-05-01T04:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:06:20","slug":"aliens-40th-cast-reunion-were-still-the-same-punks-we-were-then-says-james-cameron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/04\/30\/aliens-40th-cast-reunion-were-still-the-same-punks-we-were-then-says-james-cameron\/","title":{"rendered":"Aliens 40th Cast Reunion: \u2018We\u2019re Still The Same Punks We Were Then,\u2019 Says James Cameron"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Aliens<\/p>\n

@Bob Penn \/ Sigma \/ Getty<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Before James Cameron made Aliens<\/em>, nobody knew quite what to expect. The now-legendary director only had The Terminator<\/em> under his belt back then \u2013 and as much of a hit as that film was, it wasn\u2019t a dead-cert that he\u2019d be able to deliver a worth follow-up to Ridley Scott\u2019s sci-fi horror classic Alien<\/em>. Fast forward 40 years, and it\u2019s unfathomable that it was ever in doubt; Cameron knocked it out of the park, taking Sigourney Weaver\u2019s Ripley and turning her into an all-out action hero, teaming her up with a ragtag bunch of memorable grunts, and sending them out to face a whole load of marauding Xenomorphs. Part action film, part war movie, all while retaining that horror core, Aliens<\/em> blew the roof off.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

To mark four decades of Cameron\u2019s incredible sequel, Empire<\/em> sat the filmmaker down with Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn (Hicks) and Jenette Goldstein (Vasquez) for an epic reunion interview; it had been 10 years since they were last together (that\u2019s two Avatar sequels ago), and they went deep on their experiences of shooting the film, the challenges of the production, and when they last actually watched it.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

You can read the full reunion interview (a massive 14-page blowout) in the Aliens<\/em> issue \u2013 pre-order online here \u2013 but first, here\u2019s a sneak peek of the conversation:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

EMPIRE: When was the last time all of you were together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sigourney Weaver:<\/strong> Was it the 30th anniversary?
Michael Biehn:<\/strong> Yeah, at Comic-Con in San Diego.
James Cameron:<\/strong> Can you imagine? Forty years, guys.
Weaver:<\/strong> I know, it feels like yesterday to me.
Cameron:<\/strong> And we\u2019re still the same punks we were then.
Weaver:<\/strong> Well, you especially.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

How long is it since you last sat down to watch the film? Did you think it held up well?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Jenette Goldstein:<\/strong> I saw it last year in Liverpool at a convention. You see something different each time you watch it. Every part of it is just filled. I\u2019ve seen it so many times \u2014 I\u2019m embarrassed to say how many!
Biehn:<\/strong> The last time I saw it would have been about three or four years ago in Australia, when I was asked to introduce the movie. Even though I did The Terminator<\/em> with Jim, I think Aliens<\/em> is the best movie I\u2019ve ever been in. It\u2019s absolutely astonishing that it holds up from a visual-effects standpoint, 40 years later.
Cameron:<\/strong> I screened Alien<\/em> and Aliens<\/em> back-to-back for my teenage kids about five or six years ago. They were impressed equally by both films, which is a good reaction. So I got some dad points for that.
Weaver:<\/strong> Well, I envy you guys. I\u2019m certainly not going to sit around in our little den and watch it on my TV, so I haven\u2019t had an opportunity to look at it again all the way through. I would love to, though. I just remember it all so vividly \u2014 it\u2019s almost like it happened to me. But I certainly hear what you\u2019re saying, Michael. Because I read this script that came out of nowhere by this person James Cameron, and it was one of the most extraordinarily structured, thematic, loaded scripts I\u2019d ever read. I felt like it was this beautiful aria between Ripley and the Alien Queen. Jim\u2019s such a wonderful director. Except for Titanic<\/em>, his films are almost unsinkable!
Cameron:<\/strong> I wish you had led with that when we first met! I was petrified of you. I had been writing for months with your picture up on the wall right in front of my little writing station. I was desperately trying to channel what you and Ridley had created for Ripley, and extrapolate forward with my own post-traumatic-stress-syndrome motif.
Weaver:<\/strong> I loved that. I thought that was the perfect beginning for her.
Cameron:<\/strong> Yeah, but when we first met I was terrified of what you were going to say about it. And it turns out, funnily enough, that you hadn\u2019t even read all the machine-gun and flamethrower parts of the script!
Weaver:<\/strong> That\u2019s true, I just had to find out what happened next!
Cameron:<\/strong> All that prose that\u2019s in-between my dialogue, why bother?<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Aliens\"<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Is there any one scene that you look back on filming with particular fondness?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Cameron:<\/strong> I think when the APC burned and everybody was screaming!
Goldstein:<\/strong> Right, when I couldn\u2019t breathe, when I was being suffocated.
Cameron:<\/strong> When Jenette was choking to death and everything was on fire!
Goldstein:<\/strong> Definitely.
Cameron:<\/strong> I\u2019m sure Carrie has her fond memory of being stuck in the alien hive with me putting slime on her face. She looked at me plaintively and said, \u201cYou know, it should be illegal for you to do this to little kids.\u201d Shut up and take the slime, kid!<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Empire's<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Read the full Aliens<\/em> reunion interview in the Summer 2026 issue of Empire<\/em> \u2013 on sale Thursday May 7. Pre-order a copy online here.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

@Bob Penn \/ Sigma \/ Getty Before James Cameron made Aliens, nobody knew quite what to expect. The now-legendary director only had The Terminator under his belt back then \u2013 and as much of a hit as that film was, it wasn\u2019t a dead-cert that he\u2019d be able to deliver a worth follow-up to Ridley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-47"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8803,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8801\/revisions\/8803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}