Ridley Scott Recalls Biggest Fears Filming Alien

Ridley Scott recently revealed some of his biggest fears he encountered while filming the iconic 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien. He also talked about his concerns with the franchise’s Xenomorph villain.

In a video with GQ, Scott talked about his process working on the original Alien movie, and how he was afraid that the movie wouldn’t have enough scares. “Don’t forget, we had no digital effects in those days,” he said. “Nothing. And so backdrops have to be painted, and I have to find a very tall, thin man to squeeze into a rubber suit. And therefore, when you do that, you can shoot very little, show as little as possible, because it doesn’t really hold up.“

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Scott emphasized the importance of the Alien villain making a lasting impression on viewers, which was a critical part of the film’s success. “And so, by being subliminal and minimal, it works very well. I think the creature was unique, and you have to believe. It doesn’t matter how good my cast was — cast was fantastic — but without that beast, it wouldn’t have been the same.”

Scott also expressed his concerns that the threat of Alien’s xenomorph might have eventually become too repetitive, which led him to create tension between the crew members, ultimately revealing that Ash was an android programmed for the employer’s interests rather than the lives of the crew on the ship. “I was worried that we might run out of scares and creepy things in the corridor, so the new thing would suddenly come in, Ash would object to something, and then would actually have a bad turn as an AI,” Scott added. “And Yaphet Kotto had to take the fire extinguisher and knock him around the head, probably knocked his head off, so now we see wires and metal and organic…He is an AI.”

Scott Drew Inspiration From Another Epic Sci-Fi Film for Alien

Scott also went on to talk about how the character of HAL from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired Ash in Alien. “The first time was Stanley Kubrick when he invented HAL…HAL emerged as a computer — which, no one knew what a computer was in those days,” he said, explaining another reason why audiences found Ash’s character so terrifying. “The computer knows from the corporation that the journey’s success is more important than the crew. So we borrowed that and made that into Ash where he was the ‘company man.’”

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“Of course, if you’re going to make a company man, you don’t want a black box. You want somebody who’s going to consort, meet, chat, drink coffee and be with people,” he added. “They will not know he’s a company man, because he’s kind of more human than human.” In the end, Scott’s creative decisions with the film proved to resonate well with audiences, with Alien becoming one of the most influential science fiction and horror films of all time.

The full GQ interview with Ridley Scott, which sees him break down his other films, including Gladiator II and Blade Runner, is available on YouTube.

Source: GQ via YouTube, ComicBook.com

Alien

The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating an unknown transmission.

Director

Ridley Scott

Release Date

June 22, 1979

Cast

Sigourney Weaver
, Tom Skerritt
, John Hurt
, Veronica Cartwright
, Harry Dean Stanton
, Ian Holm
, Yaphet Kotto

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