Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Thirty years ago today, Aliens, the much-anticipated sequel to the 1979 hit Alien, hit theaters.
According to Box Office Mojo, James Cameron’s follow-up to the Ridley Scott original grossed $85,160,248 domestically, and $131,060,248 total. It was a hit with Hollywood insiders too, and went on to earn seven Oscar nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Sigourney Weaver. In the end, it won two, for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects.
Still, the success of Aliens was hard-earned. Here are a few secrets from the set of the 1986 movie:
* In Aliens, Sigourney Weaver plays Ellen Ripley, a weapon-wielding, alien-battling astronaut. In an interview filmed around the time of the movie’s release, the actress revealed that she called herself “Rambolina” on set because of all the stunts she performed. “The Yale School of Drama certainly didn’t prepare me for this, but it was interesting!” she said of the experience. “Actually I felt that the actual use of the guns was very difficult from me. I had a sort of unanticipated, very uncomfortable reaction to shooting and killing things.”
* She practiced with the guns every day at sundown: Weaver said in the 1986 interview that she carried three guns in the movie: a flame thrower, a submachine gun, and a grenade launcher. To make sure she was proficient with each, she had regular shooting practice at sunset.
* Cameron said in a documentary of the film the actress was positive about the script when she first read it, but she helped him make tweaks, too. “I took her input on how she would react, she speaking as Ripley: ‘I wouldn’t do that. I would do this.’ ‘Wouldn’t I be a little more angry here or softer there?’ That sort of thing,” he explained.
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