Sigourney Weaver reflects on Alien and Ripley as she prepares to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Venice Film Festival

Alien: Romulus closes out the summer with its success at the box office. The movie has been described as Fede Álvarez’s love letter to the franchise as a whole. And as the Venice Film Festival gets underway, the star of the first four movies in the Alien franchise, starting with the 1979 original, Sigourney Weaver is preparing to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award this year with her illustrious career. While she reflects on her career, which also includes being the romantic interest to Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman in the Ghostbusters movies, as well as her humorously antagonistic turn in Working Girl, Weaver talks about the groundbreaking sci-fi film that would solidify her as one of cinema’s greatest heroines.

Deadline spoke with Weaver on the eve of her award and she recounted what it was like to start production on Alien. She recalled, “I had come from off of Broadway. So to me, this was an ‘off of Broadway’ project. It was dark, unique, very original, very physically arresting. As soon as I saw the designs, when I met Ridley Scott and he showed me these [H.R.] Giger and Carlo Rambaldi designs, I realized I’d never seen anything like it before, so that really intrigued me. But I don’t think any of us could have anticipated that it would continue to entertain people in the way it has.”

Weaver then spoke about bringing Ripley to life during the filming of the first film, “What I remember most is Ridley and [director of photography] Derek Vanlint being very innovative in how they linked us all up in these tiny spaces. But I felt like a member of the crew the entire time — I’m glad I didn’t see it as a huge breakthrough opportunity. I always just looked for great stories and wanted to be a part of them, and that’s been my compass, rather than thinking about all the other aspects of the business.”

She also shares her gratitude for the fans holding Ripley at high esteem. And despite the less-than-stellar reception of the last two Alien films that she starred in, she was happy she got to revisit the character through other directors’ visions. “It’s true that Ripley kept living, which I’m happy about. It’s been a great ride. All those different directors and different stories and different evolutions of Ripley. But I was absolutely planning to run back to the theater as fast as I could once it was done!”

On the first film, Weaver also remembers discussing the internalization of her character with co-star Ian Holm, “On Alien, I felt that Ripley was improvising her way through this situation. And I think the most important decision I probably made was becoming good buddies with [co-star] Ian Holm. I remember saying to him very early on, ‘Gosh, do you think Ripley thinks what she’s doing is the right thing?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I do absolutely.’ I said, ‘I don’t. I don’t think she knows.’ So the whole time, I’m hoping I’m doing the right thing. I have no certainty about it, which puts your character into kind of a free fall that I think was very helpful for me.”