Alien: Veronica Cartwright cast as Lambert

leading from

Veronica as Lambert in Alien


a) Going for the role of Ripley
Veronica Cartwright was sent on an interview and she had read the script and met them in Los Angeles for the first time.

When she first read the story, she thought it was bizarre and really absurd, did didn't really want to do it, and also there was generally nothing to the characters

She had actually read for the part of Ripley, went back a couple of times, met with Ridley Scott for three or four hours, he brought a whole different psychological concept to the thing and he told her about the sort of research on what type of creature it go be, and she started to think about how this thing was possible.

She also heard that Tom Skerrit and Yaphet Kotto were in it and thought they're damn good actors and there must be more to this than she was reading into it.

And so she happened to be going over to England and thought that she ought to get back in touch with the people.  She was British born and so while she was there she said to her agent "did they ever cast that movie? Because I'm over there and might as well see the casting director" and so her agent set up an interview.

She was probably lucky that she was British because they had quota systems for how many people could work over there and she fit that quota.

She only ever read for the part of Ripley.

Then she got over there, saw them again, read with them, reading again for the part of Ripley and when she went home, she found that she got the role, but she was convinced hat she had the part of Ripley.

b) Change in role
She went back over to England, and then got a call and they said to her "okay, you'll need to come in for your wardrobe for Lambert"

"Oh no, there has to be some mistake", she replied " I'm not playing Lambert, I'm playing Ripley"

But then she was told "No, you're Lambert"

She replied "I've always read for Ripley, I’ve have never even looked at the script from the point of view of Lambert".

So then she called her agent "Aren't I doing Ripley?"

And he replied, "Yes."

So she said, "Then why am I playing Lambert? Because all it looked to me was… all she did was cry,"

This character drove Veronica in the wrong direction for herself but the agent didn't appear to have an answer to that.

The whole confusion drove her to the worst edge of her temper which was understandable.

"Well" Veronica added, "I'm gonna have to re-read this script because I haven't even looked at Lambert's point of view!"

She thought "No, no, this is not for me"

How this confusion about the roles happened is something that has become lost.

Veronica at the time was a much more known as an actress because of her role in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers rather than someone to be overlooked.

c) Sigourney would liked to have played Lambert
And since Veronica wanted the role of Ripley, we might reveal that Sigourney would rather have played Lambert because the first version of the script that she read.

Lambert was a woman wise-cracking all the time when everyone else was going hysterical and she didn't crack up until the end.

This was more of a character that Sigourney would identify with because that was how she assumed she herself would act.

If ever she got stuck in an elevator, that's what she would do.

But later the characters changed when they decided to give viewers a sympathetic character.


Veronica in her role in the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers
d) Re-reading Lambert
When Veronica read the script from Lambert's point of view and talked to the producers, they said "well actually, she’s the audience. It’s from her point of view basically that the audience is looking through"

And so Lambert would become this. She was the one who sort of said, "Let’s draw straws, let’s get the hell out of here, what are we doing sticking around?"

e) Revelation of the misunderstanding
Soon news came through from Gordon Carroll to Ridley Scott "God there's a huge misunderstanding that occurred today"

How it occurred, who knows, perhaps it was it an error due to a typo in Ridley's front office where they would send all the letters and Ridley would tell them who he wanted for this role and who he wanted for that role and he knew that he wanted Sigourney for the role and why.

However Veronica put the whole thing down to politics going on during the making of the movie, and the fact is was Sigourney's big job with the fact that her father was a 'bigwig' and there were a lot of favours going on. 
 
As the film had got bigger than anybody planned, so studio pressure and egos had the last word.

Source Quotes
  1. Cartwright: Because  I got auditioned in L.A. the first time, and then I happened to be going over to England, I’m British, I was born in England, and so while I was over there I said to my agent, ‘did they ever cast that movie? Because I’m over there and might as well see the casting director.’ And I think I was probably lucky that I was British because they've quota systems for how many people can work over there,  so, I worked, you know, I was,  I fit that quota.
    Interviewer: Now,  is it true that you, you had, had er,  originally auditioned for the role of Ripley, and didn’t know that you
    Cartwright: Yeah
    Interviewer: didn’t have that role until you showed up for costume dressing?
    Cartwright:  Yes, I know I ever test for the role, yes,
    Yeah. I only ever read  for the part of Ripley, yes things how could have been different – Interviewer: You showed up, you showed up
    Cartwright:I, I get a call, I go over there , I get a call and they said, ‘okay, you need to come in for your wardrobe for Lambert’.
    I said, ‘Oh no, I’m not playing Lambert, I’m playing Ripley.’
    No no… you're, you're, you’re Lambert’.
    I said, ‘Oh, I’ve have never even looked at the part from Lambett's point of view’. And so I called my agent and said, ‘Aren't I Ripley?
    And he goes, ‘Yes.
    So I said, ‘Then why am I playing Lambert?
    And I said "Because all it looked to me was… all she did was cry, " and she drove me absolutely…I thought "no , now this is not me." And so, erm,  I read the script from that you know,  from her point of view,  Lambert's point of view and I talked to the producers and they said, ‘well actually, she’s the audience. She is, the one that's,  it’s from her point of view basically that the audience is looking through-‘
    Interviewer: She’s the only logical one on the ship
    Cartwright: I know, I am. I’m the one who says, ‘Let’s draw straws, let’s get the hell out of here’  you know, I’m logical. I was emotional, but logical. (Alien Q&A panel - Texas Frightmare 2013 - May 4th, 2013)
  2. Interviewer: How did you first come across the Alien project? 
    Veronica Cartwright: I first got in touch with Alien, I was sent on an interview and I had read the script and met them in Los Angeles for the first time. And I had actually read for the part of Ripley, when I read, and I think I went back a couple of times and met with Ridley Scott and then I happened to be going over to England and I thought, well if I’m going over there I might as well see about getting back in touch with them and so my agent set up an interview, I think it was Mary Selway that was casting it. And I made an appointment and I went back in and saw them again and read with them and then ended up coming home and then I ended up getting it.
    But I thought that I was - actually when I got it I thought I was the part of Ripley, so when they took me back over to England, and said that I would be going in for wardrobe for Lambert, I said, oh there has to be some mistake, and they said, no. And I said, but I’ve always read for Ripley. And so I called my agent and I said aren’t I doing Ripley and he goes yeah. Cos that’s the only part I’d ever read for. So I said, well I’m gonna have to re-read this script because I haven’t even looked at Lambert’s point of view! And I guess Lambert sort of ended up being the voice of what the audience was feeling at the time. She was the one who sort of says, let’s get out of here, what are we doing sticking around? And I guess she expresses the fears of the audience.

    Interviewer: Did you know Sigourney Weaver wanted to be Lambert? 

    Veronica Cartwright: No, I mean I had always gone up whenever I had read for it, which was like three times, it was always Ripley, so it was probably as big a shock to her as it was to me. (as reported from the interview for Alien Evolution)
  3. Interviewer: confusion with Veronica Cartwright and Sigourney about who was reading for what – how did that all happen?

    Ridley :
    I think that must have been true, I wasn’t party to that, I only have a front office who send out letters and say right, that’s who I want for that , that’s who I want for that. Somewhere along the line I do believe that Veronica who was certainly more known than…much more known than Sigourney at that juncture had thought that she was reading for the other part and this certainly came to me from the boys and the boys eventually were going to be personified in Gordon Carrol who said `god there’s a huge misunderstanding occurred today’ this was as late as her arriving in London. I don’t know how that happened. But I think it may be true. But anyway, thank god I wasn’t witness to that. But she was fairly bad tempered. That’s 2 or 3 weeks of prep. Jesus. But what a…that’s a terrible thing to happen. You know. And a really great thing that happened for Sigourney, but I don’t see how Sigourney could have been in any doubt whatsoever because I had her read and test for this character. So it must have been a typing error, a typo.
    (as reported from the interview for Alien Evolution)
  4. Veronica Cartwright: When I first read the story, I thought it was bizarre... really absurd. I talked to Ridley for about three or four hours. He was fascinated by it. He did all sorts of research on what type of creature this could be. - 'Aha... oh, yes...!' And then it gets scary. You start thinking that this thing is possible. ( Starlog May 1979, p28)
  5. Fantastic Films: What convinced you to do Alien
    Veronica Cartwright: At first I didn't want to do it. Then I met Ridley Scott and be brought a whole different psychological concept to the thing. So I went back and re-read the script. And then I heard Tom Skerrit and Yaphet Kotto were in it. And I thought they're damn good actors and there must be more to this than I'm reading into it.
    Fantastic Films: Did the script seem weak to you
    Veronica Cartwright: The script was so linear. it was a very difficult script. The characters were basically not there. And what wasn't there we had to created. (Fantastic Films #12)
  6.  Veronica Cartwright: I thought I was playing Ripley. I called my agent back in LA and I said "Aren't I doing Ripley?" and he said "I think so." I mean, that's what he thought too. I even auditioned again when I was in England and the part that I read for was Ripley. They didn't bother to tell me, and I'd never even looked at the script from the point of view of Lambert, so I had to re-read the script. (Dreamwatch #47, July 1998, Veronica's Closet)
  7. Veronica Cartwright: There was a lot of politics going on during the making of that movie. It was Sigourney's first job, but her daddy was a bigwig, there were a lot of favors going on. It just got bigger than anybody planned, and studio pressure and egos got involved. (Dreamwatch #47, July 1998, Veronica's Closet)
  8. Sigourney Weaver: Actually the part I wanted to play was Lambert,  Veronica Cartwright's part. In the first script I read, she just cracked jokes the whole time. What was wonderful about it was that here was a woman who was a wise-assing, telling stupid jokes just when everyone else was getting hysterical. And she didn't crack up until the end.  That's the character I could identify with because that's how I assume I would act. If the elevator gets stuck that's what I do. The character changed however when Ridley and Veronica decided to give viewers a sympathetic character (Screen Flights / Screen Fantasies, An Interview With Sigourney Weaver by Danny Peary, p159

Alien: Casting Tom Skerrit as Dallas

leading from



a) First Approached
Tom Skerrit was in Minneapolis half way through working on a film called Ice Castles and he received the script for a movie called  "Alien".

At the time he understood that it was going to be an inexpensive film, two or three million dollars.

He read it through and it was at a time when they didn't know who the director was at the time.

His initial response was ‘Well, it's okay. I mean, it's crafted well,

And they told him, ‘You're the only one they sent it to. There's no director and no other actors and it's a $2 million budget.’ 
 
When he read the script, he thought "oh this is not  an actor’s script, and it's a two million dollar film no director – it’s gotta be, you know, another Ed Wood movie."

He saw that it was an ensemble piece but thought that there was not much for an actor to do here and two or three million dollars wasn't going to make a great special effects science fiction movie, so he turned it down.

b) Reapproached in timelines A & B
In 2001 , looking back, Tom Skerrit's memory of the event stated that about a month later, he got a call from s Gordon Carroll telling hum  "We’ve got Ridley Scott, and the budget’s up to ten or twelve million bucks. " and that was certainly was a higher budget.

Tom's earlier story stated that his response to that was "hold on here, on second thoughts, let me see. I’ve heard of this Ridley Scott guy, I’ve heard that he did this thing called The Duellists. Can I see this?"

The producers said "yes, and we'll run a screening for you tomorrow"

By 2013, his memory of the event was that he saw the film a week or so after turning down the script, that he was blown over by it.)

He had never seen a movie that caught so much production value as The Duellists.

It was a magnificent looking film painting from beginning to end.

On seeing it, he wanted to remember who the director was, and so, on hearing the name Ridley Scott attached to his scri, his response was "Sold. Sold!".

He knew how Ridley did it with his own money for nine hundred thousand dollars and so when he saw it, he thought "jeez, I’d like to work with this guy, I love this." and those thoughts also translated into ‘Oh God, I'd love to mentor with this guy, watch him and see how he works.

All he needed to know was that Ridley was going to do this film and he would make magic out of it

And perhaps in this other telling of events a week later, he got the call from the producer telling him the good news

c) Eager to join
To some extent he knew Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton.

He didn’t know Sigourney began she was brand new in the cinema seen and he was quite eager to work with Jon Finch (who had been cast as Kane until he was taken ill early into filming) and Ian Holm.

d) Rehearsals
In Ridley's offices, the actors gathered to start doing some dialogue together and while Ridley would interrupt to describe his visuals.
 
They got through a couple of pages when Ridley told them "Here’s the platform: Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Tobe Hooper's film Texas Chainsaw Massacre wasn't a film that he had seen yet but he heard that it was pretty scary

Ridley continued "I’m going to scare the shit out of them.

Although it was fascinating, it seemed as if in the first half hour while they were doing this, they only managed to get a couple of lines in while Ridley was caught up in his visuals.

The rehearsal was interrupted when an assistant director came in to speak to Scott about a technical issue,  “We need you on the set to show you something.”  and Ridley apologised as he left the room.

Skerrit looked around at the other actors, and now he was ship's captain he felt that he had to say something, said "I guess this makes me the captain of the ship. We might as well all know that we’re in this together." somewhere with that his other words were “Hmm, Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Okay. Let’s go to lunch.




Source Quotes
  1. Tom Skerrit:I was working halfway through ‘Ice Castles’ when I received a script for a movie called ‘Alien,’ (http://bringmethenews.com/ February 19, 2013)
  2. Tom Skerrit: I had turned it down initially when I was offered that because I had, they didn't have the director at that point and, and the budget was small, and it seemed to me that they weren't going to make a good film out of that, given the parameters, but they came back a few weeks later and said, "Ridley Scott is going to shoot that", so I met Tony as a result of that and I saw the finesse, the , the detail, what they looked at when they were looking at a camera, because they'd always look through a camera, so that you're looking at a photograph, a damn good photograph. ( Tom Skerritt | CONVERSATIONS AT KCTS 9 12 Jan 2010)
  3. Interviewer: How did you first hear about Alien and how did you get the part?
    Tom Skerrit: That I remember very clearly. I was in Minneapolis doing another film. I got the script called Alien and my understanding of it at that time was that it was going to be an inexpensive film, two or three million dollars. I read it through, and they didn’t who the director was at that time. I read it through and I thought well this is all special effects. Not much for an actor to do here, it’s ensemble. I don’t know. Two or three million dollars is not going to make a great special effects science fiction picture. So I turned it down. Three or four weeks later I got a call from England, one of the producers, I forget which one it was at the time, perhaps Gordon, said Ridley Scott was going to be directing it and this was the budget. I thought well, "Hold on here, let me see. I’ve heard of this Ridley Scott guy, I’ve heard that he did this thing called The Duellists. Can I see this?" And they said "yes, we’ll run a screening for you tomorrow." So I went to see this The Duellists. And it was a masterpiece. I mean, he…I have never seen a picture that captured so much production value as The Duellists. Magnificent looking film, painting from beginning to end. So I had to do Alien at that point. And the only other actor I knew at all was Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton to some extent. I didn’t know Sigourney, who she was, she was brand new. So…and to be working with John Hurt and Ian Holmes…yeah. (report from the interview for Alien Evolution, 2001)
  4. But originally, the actor turned down “Alien,” which celebrates its 40th anniversary on May 25, though he thought Dan O’Bannon’s script read well. “There was nobody involved at the time apparently,” said Skerritt. “I read it and thought, ‘it’s solid. It’s not a great script but it’s solid enough I can see it. But it was a $2 million budget! I thought, okay at 2 million bucks this might be an Ed Wood movie.

        As fate would have it, he went to see 1977’s “The Duelists,” for which Ridley Scott unanimously received the award for best first work at the Cannes Film Festival. “I was just blown over by ‘The Duelists,’” noted Skerritt.

        “I thought, this is a masterpiece. It’s a painting. I thought I wanted to remember who this this guy is. Then I got a call from one of the producers of ‘Alien,’ Gordon Carroll, and he said “They’ve kicked up the budget and a guy named Ridley Scott is doing it." I said, ‘I’m sold.’ All I needed to know was Ridley was going to do this and he would make magic out of it.” (https://variety.com/2019/film/news/alien-40-anniverary-ridley-scott-1203223989/)
  5. This one came along and I read it and I thought, ‘Well, it's okay. I mean, it's crafted well,’ And they said, ‘You're the only one they sent it to. There's no director and no other actors and it's a $2 million budget.’ And I thought, ‘Hold on, a $2 million budget, no director… And it feels like it could be an Ed Wood movie!’.

    Meanwhile, Skerritt had coincidentally seen Scott’s first feature The Duellists around this time. It just knocked me out,” he continued. “I thought, ‘Oh God, I'd love to mentor with this guy, watch him and see how he works.’ A couple of weeks later they called me up and said, ‘So the budget's been kicked up to $10 million and they found a director and it's a guy named Ridley Scott. And I said, ‘Sold. Sold!’ It's really from the beginnings always been about the directors in looking at material. And that's basically how that whole thing for me started with Alien.” (https://uk.ign.com/articles/2019/05/25/alien-40th-anniversary-tom-skerritt-captain-dallas)
  6. Tom Skerrit: I remember getting the offer and reading the material, I asked for more background, and they said they had a budget of $2 million and no director. I read it and, well, it’s not really an actor’s script. At the time, I was being spoiled by having a lot of good roles coming along. My work up until that point involved directors like Robert Altman and Hal Ashby. It didn’t come off the page. (https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/40-years-of-alien-remembering-one-of-the-most-influential-sci-fi-movies-of-all-time/)
  7. But Scott was not a great director of actors at this stage in his career. Skerritt recalled how the first rehearsal, in Scott’s London office, set the tone. "We started doing a little bit of dialogue, and then he would interrupt to describe his visuals," he said. "It was fascinating but, in the half hour we were doing this, we only got a couple of lines in. He was so caught up in the vision of it." The rehearsal was interrupted when an assistant director came in to speak to Scott about a technical issue. (https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/40-years-of-alien-remembering-one-of-the-most-influential-sci-fi-movies-of-all-time/)
  8. The director apologised and left the room. Skerritt remembered: "I immediately looked around at everybody and said, ‘I guess this makes me the captain of the ship. We might as well all know that we’re in this together.’" Scott, it turned out, didn’t become more hands on with his actors when the shoot started. The only time Skerritt recalls him commenting was after they had shot the breakfast scene, prior to the Nostromo landing on the planetoid LV-426. Scott’s comment after the scene? "Interesting." Skerritt remembers: "That was about the only thing I remember him saying to us." (https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/40-years-of-alien-remembering-one-of-the-most-influential-sci-fi-movies-of-all-time/)
  9. Vulture: One of your biggest films is, obviously, Alien. People I know who’ve worked on horror movies say that horror-movie sets are often the funniest sets. Was that the case for Alien? I know it’s more than just a horror movie, of course.
    Tom Skerritt: Well, there were very good actors involved who took their craft very seriously. That was interesting, because at first I just did not want to do that film — because nobody was attached, no director or anything else. Then (Ridley Scott) showed up, and he’d done this film called The Duellists, and I said, “Oh, man, I want to work with this guy.”

    If I may just tell a little quick story here. I remember we’d gathered together to meet each other and do a read-through of the script. We got through about two pages, and Ridley says, “Here’s the platform: Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” which I hadn’t seen, but I’d heard it was pretty scary. And he says, “I’m going to scare the shit out of them.” That was about as far as we got with the read-through, because somebody comes in, “We need you on the set to show you something.” So he left. And I looked at everybody and thought, Well, okay, I’m the captain of the vessel. So I better just say something important. I said, “Hmm, Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Okay. Let’s go to lunch.” That was it. (https://www.vulture.com/2021/10/tom-skerritt-has-a-story-to-tell.html0

  10. Skerritt: Well my story's a little different. I, I was offered the role, I was sent the script,  told it was a two million dollar project and didn’t have a director, so I guess I was the first one that they did ask. And. er, I was somewhat snobbish in those days because  I was getting a lot of work and I thought, "oh this is not,  this is really not an actor’s script, and a two million dollar film – it’s gotta be, you know, another Ed Wood movie. "And then, um, couple of weeks later I saw The Duellists , have you seen the Duellists,  

    Interviewer: Ridley's first film

    Skerritt: you must see it, the first film he ever did, he was a graphics artist

    Interviewer: It's a double feature

    Skerritt: Yuh, it was just a remarkable film and he did it with his own money for nine hundred thousand dollars. It’s just a stupendous film. And I saw this and thought, ‘jeez, I’d like to work with this guy, I love this’. Maybe another week later I get a call from the producer, and he said,  and he says ‘we’ve got Ridley Scott, and the budget’s up to ten or twelve million bucks.’ 

    I said, ‘On second thought…(Alien Panel Discussion With Tom Skerritt & Veronica Cartwright at 05/04/13 at Texas Frightmare Weekend)
     

Alien: Productions Begins

leading from

Alien: Initial casting of Jon Finch as Kane

leading from 


Jon Finch in Roman Polanski's Macbeth
 
a) Memories of an earlier near meeting.
Ridley wanted to work with Jon Finch on the Duellists, he sent the script to the agent who Jon had just left and so received no response

Jon was doing a film with Roger Vadim on "Une Femme Fidèle down in the Loire Valley on, and Ridley found found that they were staying in the same hotel when he was working on the Duellists.

When Ridley saw Jon about Alien a couple of years later, he told him about that time "I was staying in the same hotel as you"

Jon replied "Why didn't you say hello?"

Ridley responded, he said "Because of the fact I had sent you a script, I thought "Sod him why should I talk to him"

Of course, the agent hadn't sent the script onto Jon 


b)  Letting go of Jon Finch
John Hurt had been asked if he'd like to do Alien, but he had already committed to the South African film, so that was dropped.

So Ridley approached Jon Finch to play the role as he had been impressed by his work for Roman Polanski's Macbeth. Ridley was impressed both by the work of Polanski and Job Finch.

So Finch had been cast as Kane, and on the very first day on the bridge, Ridley noticed that Jon started to look extremely pail that day. H R Giger wrote that this even took place on July the 4th when Jon Finch would be found to be sick again and then taken to hospital

Ridley went over to Jon and said "Do you feel alright?"

Jon said "No, I feel terrible, in face, I feel really bad. How do l look?'"

Ridley replied ''Terrible.''

And so he revealed to Ridley "I'm a diabetic"

Jon Finch as Kane

c) Brian Johnson's slightly different memory of the event
However Brian Johnson remembered that Jon Finch when into the sculptors place to have his life mask done and of course he hadn't told anyone he was diabetic but while he was having it done, he passed out, perhaps he had gone into a diabetic coma and there he was with two straws sticking out of his nostrils, they said to him "Okay Jon?" and there was no response. 
 
So one way or another, they got the medic there, they had to lift him out of the seat and carry him to a dressing room where he was checked up and taken to hospital to findout out that it was an extreme case of diabetes and that was the last they saw of Jon Finch for Alien.

As far as Ridley could make out, Jon had been drinking too much coca-cola and had not been taking his insulin. Brian understood that because he hadn’t declared his diabetes on his insurance, the company couldn’t go on using him. 
 
Jon Finch would reveal years later, he actually was suffering from a case of pneumonia, and that he had a bronchial attack that he never had again

d) Peter Beale's concerns
Peter Beale, the UK  executive in charge of production for Fox meanwhile was very concerned about it and expressed that concern to the main offices, wondering if the production should continue because Ridley's first film The Duellists lacked commercial success and so did not warrant full confidence

e) Michael Seymour's delight
Curiously Michael Seymour seemed to Giger delighted by Jon Finch being taken ill because he imagined that this meant three more days to build the set. 
 
Roger Christian would acknowledge that Jon Finch had done three days of filming before he was taken ill, and that Ridley was using incense smoke being puffed around with a bee-puffer which caused a problem for Jon Finch

Source Quotes
  1. (11:21 / 00:11:40) Ridley: John Finch had been cast as Kane, and on the very first day on the bridge which we're about to come to, the scene that we're about to come to is the first time on the bridge, apart from the tracking shot, I did the tracking shot first and I noticed that he started to look extremely... he didn't look well, I didn't   ask him, (00:12:00) I thought he was just naturally pale that day, we got into, I think the first slate, and I did er  action and then cut when I went over to him and said "do you feel alright?" and he said "No, I feel terrible", he said" in fact, I really feel bad", and so we got the medic there. They had to lift him out of the seat, and carry him to a dressing room where he was checked up and taken to the hospital to (00:12:00) finding out that  it's an extreme case of diabetes and er, that's in fact was the last of Jon Finch for the Alien and er I had to literally reconvene at lunchtime thinking about who we could get and I knew that John Hurt was in London, so I pitched to John and er, went and saw John Hurt that night and cast him that night. He was there at the studio the next morning.  (Alien commentary from Alien Quadrilogy DVD and Alien Anthology Blu-Ray combined)
  2. Ridley Scott: I had cast Jon Finch, who was Polanski's Macbeth, as Kane. First day, first shot, Jon Collapsed. I talked to him, he said, "I'm a diabetic..." He had gone yellow and couldn't get up - we had to lift him out of the scene. He was fine, but he had to recuperate. He hadn't taken his insulin and was drinking too much Coca-Cola. That night we looked at the book and came across John Hurt who I have always liked. (Empire November 2009 p109)
  3. Ridley Scott: I think it is known that there was another actor originally playing that part, Jon Finch, who became ill, and we had to recast. Probably identified at that moment very strongly by playing Macbeth for Polanski. I'd been impressed by Polanski's work anyway, and also by Finch. He said ''Yes, l'd love to do this.'' He came on board. The first day, the first shot, he starts to look as yellow as this pencil. I thought ''God, what's wrong?'' We did a couple of takes and he seemed absolutely lacklustre, no energy. We cut, and l got up and went over to him and said ''What's up? Are you all right?'' He said ''No, l'm terrible. I feel terrible.'' He said ''How do l look?''
    I said ''Terrible.''
    We had to lift him out of his seat, and he was carried away, and it turns out that he was a diabetic. (Alien Quadrilogy Documentary)
  4. Brian Johnson: We started off, and we had – Jon Finch was the character that John Hurt took over. And Jon Finch went into the sculptors place to have his life mask done, and he hadn’t told anybody he was a diabetic, and he had to discover while he was inside his life mask. And he actually passed out. And they went, okay John, and there was no response. And they got the ambulance out there and dragged him out. Because he hadn’t declared that on his insurance, the company couldn’t go on using him.  So we had a 2 week period – we’d been filming on the interior of the Nostromo, in the cabin. The set was probably 4 or 5 feet higher than how you see it on the film. Because Ridley was shooting, in 2.35 or whatever it was, I can’t remember the format now. It was letterbox, anamorphic. He couldn’t get the roof of the set, and the actors and everything else in. He was getting really frustrated. John Finch was out and they had to wait two weeks for John Hurt to come on board, and in that time they got a saw and cut four or five feet out of the set, to make it neat. (http://www.originalprop.com/)
  5. Brian Johnson (31:14) I don't know if you remember, but  originally, erm, John Hurt's character was played by Jon Finch, did you know that, oh right, well Jon Finch was contracted to do the... to do the show and they took him down to the plasterers shop to do the life cast and he hadn't told anybody he was diabetic and he went into a diabetic coma in the cast just with two straws sticking out of his nostrils erm and they had... he had to be rushed off to hospital and as far as I remember, because they had to wait for John Hurt to start, that was the time when the set was changed, the dimensions of the Nostromo interior were cut down by three or four feet so Ridley could get all the ceiling bits that were hanging down in the shot because of using the format we were using, a lot of the stuff was out of the top of the frame so, um he used it to his advantage. No questions about that. And we got John Hurt who was superb (Alien Makers 2)
  6. HR Giger ; Jon Finch the main actor, is sick again and had to go to hospital. Michael Seymour is delighted because this gives him at least three more days to build sets (Giger's Diaries,  July 4th 1978, p81)
  7. Shadowlocked: Did you have anything to do with Finch's initial casting as Kane in Alien?
    Roger Christian: No. But I'd constantly seen him and kept up with him. He looked really ill [on the Alien set]. Despite what the books and the other sites say, he actually did three days of shooting.

    Shadowlocked: Most places say that he only did one shot - even the Quadrilogy documentary, which includes the shot where he looks so unwell.
    Roger Christian: No, he did more than that. But the smoke, after the first two or three days…Ridley loves smoke, and that was when we were using the bee-puffer, the incense smoke. At that stage, that was really upsetting him. Plus there was the diabetes, as it transpired. But no, he did more than one shot - he was there for the first couple of days. He was really trying, and he looked great, actually, as the character. And then he got so ill he just couldn't carry on, and Hurt just took over and Ridley didn't have to re-shoot that much; just the parts with [Finch].(http://www.shadowlocked.com/)
  8. Note, there was a video or article online where Jon Finch suddenly revealed that he had Pneumonia but that seems to have been lost in the past.
  9. Jon Finch: The first time I nearly worked with him was on, er, the Duellists, which was his first picture and, erm, he sent er, er, he sent the script to my then agent who I just left, and I was doing a picture with Roger Vadim down in the Loire Valley, and he told me this, couple of years later, when I saw him about Alien, and he said, "I was staying in the same hotel as you", and I said "why didn't you say hello", he said "because you hadn't replied to my, the fact I had sent you a script, I thought "Sod him why should I talk to him"" , so he didn't talk to me because the agent hadn't actually sent the script to me, so I lost out on Alien, then we did, erm, er, on er the Duellists , sorry. Then we did Alien, and I did, erm, I think about three days on that, plus all the xxx with the chest and the neck, head and all that stuff you know, and erm, after three days, I had an extremely bad bronchial attack the first time in my life, never happened since either, and ended up in intensive care, and I had to take two weeks off after that, so, you know, a loss there, they couldn't work it, so sadly I missed that one and er, and John did it, John Hurt did the, you know, and the whole thing, I wanted the, especially when the little bastard who came out of the stomach you know, I thought I knew all about this, working at it for ages, you know, and he was sold, the little alien was sold, I don't know maybe forty or fifty thousand dollars recently, you know, anyway, that was it, that was the first time and the second. (Alien Quadrilogy: Jon Finch sets the record straight)
  10. (In response to David J Schow picture of John Finch on Facebook) Charles Lippincott:  Wow, I was just talking about him tonight! Peter Beale, who was the UK Exec in Charge of Prod. for Fox, was worried and concerned about Ridley Scott and Alien because Jon Finch diabetes raged out of control and he had to be replaced by John Hurt. Beale was really concerned about it and expressed that concern to the main offices, wondering if the production should continue as Ridley's 1st film was not a tried and true blockbuster to warrant full confidence. (Facebook Saturday 2nd May, 2015)

Alien: Sigourney Weaver cast as Ripley

Alien: Ron Cobb's Nostromo Surveyor/Lander

leading from
 
 
a) Ron Cobb's Nostromo Surveyor/Lander drawing on paper with triangular grid (scan 1)
 
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FoFiyVln_8rbOFNZr49MLX3x4Y92lYDrixiLMa1QVWVOdEigNfC7Sc336-XHELUrkRd4RZSeA4ycHC6qir7qVoNOBA4VZhOkgdWLykz1e18khgBct-ioe5lQaDqIAyx0SB43q8YmVVBf/s1600/nostromolander.png
 
 
 
 
b) Ron Cobb's Nostromo Surveyor/Lander drawing on paper with triangular grid Source: http://roncobb.net



Alien: Helen Mirren auditioned for Ripley

leading from




Helen Mirren had come to understand that there was no problem with roles for women, but it could be a question of taking a role for a man and giving it a woman's name. She auditioned for Ripley back at the time of Alien's production and when she read the script, she had no idea which character was male and which was female, they were just people engaging with each other in this situation. They all had what she found to be asexual names such as Ripley, and quite honestly she wasn't even sure if Ripley was supposed to be man or woman. All of the characters could have been interchanged, they could all have been male or female, any one of them could have been anything. And this was a revelation. So she came to think about how when people talk about writing for women, she would say "Don't write for women, write for people. Give it an asexual name and then decide whether you're going to cast a woman" and this what she would believe.
  1. Helen Mirren: There's no problem with roles for women. just take a role for a man and give it a woman's name. Done! It was reading the script of Ridley Scott's Alien - which I had the privilege of doing though unfortunately I didn't get a role in it - that made me realise it. All of the characters had names like Ripley. There was no , "a lean 32 year old woman who doesn't realise how attractive she is" - there was absolutely none of that! You had no idea who was a man and who was a woman. That was the revelation. (Empire, April, 2016)
  2. You hear of many A-list actresses doing that — women like Angelina Jolie or Jodie Foster, who take scripts originally written for men and star in them, because the roles become more interesting.
    Helen Mirren:That's happening much more now. That was the great thing with the first Alien — I read the original script for that, and when you read it, you had no idea which character was male and which was female. They were just people engaging with each other in this situation. They all had these sort of asexual names, so when Ripley said or did things, you had no idea whether Ripley was a man or a woman. You could have interchanged all the characters — they could have been all male or all female — any one of them could have been anything. When people talk about writing for women, I say, "Don't write for women, write for people." Give it an asexual name and then decide whether you're going to cast a woman. I've always believed that.
    Did you audition for the original Alien?
    I did, actually. Yes, I did, I went up for it. (http://www.vulture.com/2010/12/helen_mirren_chat_room.html#)