As work began on the sequel to Ridley Scott's smash hit, there was one major problem that James Cameron, in his role as the film's director, had to try to overcome. Sigourney Weaver, who played the lead role, demanded an obscenely large sum of money to return as Ellen Ripley.
The solution for Cameron was to simply trick the actress's agent into reprising the role. Which he did by pretending to rewrite the film's script with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role instead. In an interview with GQ, the director explained a little more about the absurd situation, saying:
"I called up Lou Pitt, Arnolds agent, and I said, 'Lou, we're kind of over this. So, we've decided that we really like the story and all the Marine Corps characters and the world we've created and everything. And really, we've thought about it, and we really just don't need Sigourney.
I've created all these characters, and my pride of authorship tells me I should go ahead with this, and we'll just cut her out of it, and we'll just cut her character out of it. We won't recast it; I'll just rewrite it. So, I'm going to start on that tonight."
A weird story for sure, and Cameron sums it up like this:
"Now, did I have any intention of doing that whatsoever? No, not at all, but I happen to know that Lou is at the same agency as Sigourney's agent, who was in New York. And I knew that the second he hung up with me, he called him and said, 'Sign Sigourney now.' And guess what? The deal was done in 12 hours after that. So, I never wrote a word of that hypothetical story that I said I was going to do, that I had no intention of writing anyway. Anyway, it worked, and Sigourney got her million bucks, and everyone was happy."
Of course, it's impossible to imagine an Aliens without Sigourney Weaver today, and the question is whether the film would even have happened without her.
What do you think Aliens would have looked like if they hadn't managed to get the actress on board? Would another woman have filled the role or would the film have been more male-dominated with Arnold, Sly or someone else in the lead?