During this weekend’s Comicpalooza, which took place in Houston, it was a full house for the epic Aliens 30th Anniversary Panel. In attendance were Daniel Kash (Private Spunkmeyer), Cynthia Scott (Corporal Dietrich), Ricco Ross (Private Frost), Mark Rolston (Private Drake), Jenette Goldstein (Private Vasquez), Carrie Henn (Newt), William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman), Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks), Paul Reiser (Burke), Bill Paxton (Private Hudson), and of course, Sigourney Weaver (Lieutenant Ellen Ripley). Lance Henriksen, who played Bishop, was missing from the reunion due to filming.
Highlights from the panel:
Q: How did you feel about playing the villain?
Paul Reiser: Again, you say villain…
Q: You are the villain, you know.
Paul Reiser: I suppose from your point of view, sure. I know those back at the office were very pleased with my performance. It depends what side of history you are on.
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On the subject, on whether the memories resonate within them still after watching the film these days,
“The movie is so special, just so special. When I watched the movie and I was kind of like analyzing it, I get so many children 8, 10 years old, 12 years old that parents let them watch the movie. They’re like “I love you Hicks! It’s like three generations down. I’ll ask kids, ‘Whats your favorite movie? Captain America?’ and they’ll say ‘Aliens!'”
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Q: (To Bill Paxton) Why do you think the movie holds up?
“I think I ate too much barbeque. Does anybody have a tums?
I just want to say one thing to Paul Reiser, ‘Maybe you haven’t been keeping up with current events but we just got our asses kicked pal!’
The crowd went nuts after he dropped that line.
“I still cant believe i am even in the movie. I was scared the whole time I was making it. Not just as the character. Thank god Sigourney kind of held my hand. I remember one time we were shooting this scene where I think I do say that to you… I had to say ‘Seventeen days…’ Well you guys know the line. Sigourney could see I was struggling and she reached out and just put her hand on my hand and was like ‘it’s okay… it’s okay.‘ Thank you, Sigourney.”
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Of course, one of the most important questions on everyone’s mind was asked, What’s going on with Alien 5?
Bill Paxton: We’re f***ing dead!
Sigourney Weaver: I’m so glad you asked that.
Paxton: I’m not.
Weaver: It’s such a brilliant script and Neill Blomkamp has every intention of doing it. We were asked to wait while Ridley Scott does his Prometheus movie because, understandably, they didn’t want both movies coming out at the same time. So I think now Neill is directing Gone World and I have a little thing called Avatar to do. THEN we’re going to do it. Michael is not dead. He is going to be in it with me and I am really excited about it. Neill grew up with these movies. He broke the tapes, he watched them so many times growing up. To me, even though all the writers have been brilliant, he is the first real fan that got to write a script and direct it and I think its going to be really satisfying to fans.”
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Sigourney was also treated by a lovely clip from her Finding Dory costars, such as Ellen DeGeneres and Ed O’Neill, who left heartfelt messages for the actress.
