Sigourney Weaver Revisits James Cameron After Aliens Shoot

sigourney weaver said she saw a different side of James Cameron after filming Aliens, and she tied that view to the chaos of a shoot that did not run smoothly at Pinewood Studios. Her remarks, in Empire’s July 2026 issue, arrive as the sequel marks its 40th anniversary this summer.

Weaver and Cameron at dinner

Weaver recalled a dinner with Gale Anne Hurd and said, “We were having dinner one night with Gale and I suddenly said, ‘You know, you’re really funny. Where was this guy all the way through that shoot?!’” She added, “I just don’t think you could [be like that], because you had all of that proving yourself to the crew.”

That exchange lands with more weight because Aliens had already become one of the defining follow-ups in science fiction, taking the franchise from the claustrophobic, haunted house-style setup of Alien into action and adventure. Weaver’s memory does not read like nostalgia; it reads like a production note from someone who was inside the pressure.

Pinewood pushback

Production on Aliens was not smooth at Pinewood Studios. Weaver said, “It was such bulls--t.” She also said, “It’s so hard to make a movie like this, and then to have to deal with all of that for weeks.”

James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd relieved first assistant director Derek Cracknell and cinematographer Dick Bush from their duties during the shoot, after the British crew at Pinewood Studios pushed back against Cameron. Weaver’s account fits the picture of a director still forcing his way into authority while the movie was being made.

Forty years later

Weaver also said, “They finally opened their eyes and went, ‘Oh f--k, we’re working with a master and this is going to be a great movie.’” She added, “The whole thing was so exciting but it was also really hard,” before finishing with, “I think of everyone, of those huge guns and all that stuff. Everyone was really going for it, man. It was so real and it was such a gift.”

Within two years, Cameron had reshaped science fiction cinema with The Terminator and Aliens, and Weaver’s latest comments sharpen the behind-the-scenes record around that run. For readers coming back to Aliens this summer, the new detail is not about whether the film matters; it is about how much resistance sat underneath a sequel that still holds up four decades on.