Legendary actress was the first choice to star in ‘Alien’, but personal tragedy saw her replaced by Sigourney Weaver. Learn the story | Films

It is impossible today to think of another actress playing Ripley, the heroine of the first four films in the ‘Alien’ franchise. Sigourney Weaver laid the foundations for the character and became a feminist icon, not least because she was one of the first female protagonists in a genre hitherto dominated by brutes, action.

However, Weaver was not the first choice to play the protagonist in Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien: The Eighth Passenger’. In fact, she participated in the auditions and was like a kind of “spare tire”.

However, the production team had opted for Meryl Streep, one of the young stars of the time, about to receive her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for ‘The Sharpshooter’ (today, there are 21 and counting).

In addition to Weaver and Streep, who attended the same university, Yale Drama School, Helen Mirren (‘Excalibur’), ​​Katharine Ross (‘The First Night of a Man’), Geneviève Bujold (‘Gemini – Morbid Resemblance) and Veronica Cartwright, who ended up receiving the role of Lambert in ‘Alien’ as a consolation prize.

Casting director Mary Goldberg had chosen Streep because she believed she “fit” the Ripley achetype best. Within the production, there were even doubts, with Scott himself thinking that the now cinema legend, winner of three Oscars, could be “too delicate” to play the space mining company in a deadly confrontation with the creature later known as the Xenomorph (a of the most lethal ever created by cinema) aboard the ship Nostromo, which has its crew members disemboweled one by one.

However, a major tragedy in Streep’s personal life forced a change of plans. The actress’s husband, also actor John Cazale, one of the biggest names of the 1970s, with films such as ‘The Godfather I and II’ and ‘Dog Day Afternoon’, died of lung cancer in March 1978.

Filming for ‘Alien – The Eighth Passenger’, in England, would begin soon after and the producers wisely understood that the actress needed to deal with grief – Meryl Streep would return to the screen shortly after with ‘Kramer Vs. Kramer’, which gave her his first statuette from the Academy, in 1980.

The story of one of the most famous science fiction franchises would be completely different, especially because Sigourney Weaver made numerous contributions during filming, as told by Ridley Scott. It was the actress’s idea, for example, for her character to sing the sweet “You Are My Lucky Star” while facing a life or death battle with the Alien.

The contrast between the action and the sweetness of the music went down in the history of the genre in a moment imitated (and never surpassed) many, many times.

Of course, Weaver had other successes, such as ‘In the Gorilla Mountains’, ‘A Secretary from the Future’ and ‘Avatar’, showing her resourcefulness with outstanding appearances in any genre, but she will forever be remembered as Ellen Ripley.

Sigourney Weaver even said that Meryl Streep almost made her give up her acting career. “Meryl got all the roles. I think the fact that I’m so tall and the fact that a talent like Meryl Streep is in the world largely discouraged me from trying acting. Of course, I continued anyway, but Meryl was seen as a star from the beginning”, said the actress, in an interview, many years later. “But I learned that everyone has their time and that’s how things are. Everyone has their own own path. It may not be the path you want, but in the end it is best for you.”

And Sigourney Weaver’s path was certainly the Alien franchise: in addition to ‘The Eighth Passenger’, she starred in ‘Aliens: The Rescue’ (1986) – for which she received one of her three Oscar nominations -, ‘Alien 3’ (1992 ) and ‘Alien: The Resurrection’ (1997).

Check out the trailers for the first two films in the series below.