Sigourney Weaver was praising James Cameron’s knack for preparing his actors to do “crazy things” when a question from Jimmy Kimmel brought up a bloody anecdote. (Watch the video below.)
“Has he ever asked you to do something crazy that you said, ‘No, I will not do?’” the late-night host asked Weaver, who appeared on Tuesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to promote the director’s new film, “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
“Yes,” she replied, and memories of a hazardous scene from 1986′s “Aliens” came flooding back.
In the film, an alien traps a child named Newt, played by Carrie Henn, in a nest, Weaver recalled. Her own character, Ripley, was supposed to free the girl by ripping apart the nest. But Weaver said she touched it before the take and became wary of its composition. Cameron told her it was “just sort of spun glass,” which didn’t relieve Weaver’s concern.
The actor said she expressed fear of cutting herself and Cameron dismissed it, saying “of course it won’t cut you.” He fiddled with the structure and emerged without a scratch to show it was safe.
“Then ‘action’ — I do it, and I’m bleeding like stigmata,” Weaver recalled.
Now, she told Kimmel, her response to on-set requests comes with a caveat: “I always say yes — but I always make sure.”
Check out the scene and Weaver’s co-star Henn talking about it in an interview, beginning at the 3:05 mark: