The Aliens Scene That Left Sigourney Weaver 'Covered In Blood'

Sigourney Weaver stopped by John Mulaney's late night show "Everybody's Live!" on Wednesday, May 21, and she shared a surprising story from her time on the set of "Aliens." The 1986 sci-fi-action-horror sequel was, of course, the film that cemented Weaver's "Alien" character, Ellen Ripley, as one of the best final girls in the whole horror genre. It was also the movie that showed Weaver just how bizarre director James Cameron could be sometimes.

"If Jim Cameron were to tell me to do something, I would just do it because there's a limit to his sense of humor," Weaver explained. "If he says, 'I want you to do this,' and you go, 'Well, that doesn't look safe. Would I... Are you sure?' I've done that, and it hasn't worked out."

This was an ominous way to start her story, although she told the rest of it in a humorous tone:

"On 'Aliens,' there was this alien nest that the little girl is in, Newt. And Ripley's supposed to run in and tear apart this nest and grab the little girl, put her over his shoulder and run out. And Jim [Cameron] is saying, 'You run in, you tear this apart, it's all candy glass, it's not real glass, it's fine, it's safe. You know, and then you run out.' And I'm over there, and I went, 'Gosh, I don't know, Jim, it feels really sharp.' And he goes, 'Sigourney!' And he says, 'Look,' and he tears it all apart with his own hands. ... And I said, 'Jeez, okay. I mean, it just looked ... It felt sharp."

Despite her concerns, Weaver went ahead and did the scene. It's a moment that's overshadowed by what immediately comes after it — Ripley realizing she's stepped inside the Xenomorph Queen's lair of eggs and deciding to burn the whole place down — but it's still intense in its own right. The movie makes you believe that this strange goo substance forming Newt's (Carrie Henn) "nest" is thick enough to keep her trapped, while Weaver's performance suggests that Ripley's just strong and desperate enough to pull Newt out of there anyway. But if Weaver's conversation with Mulaney is any indication, those grimaces on Ripley's face as she pulled the nest apart weren't just good acting on Weaver's part.

"So, then I do it," Weaver continued, miming out ripping the candy glass away from the nest. "I run in. Like that. Grab the girl. Run out. I look down, and I'm covered with blood. Because, you know, I guess I'm not as butch as [Cameron]."

For context, "candy glass" (or sugar glass) is a type of prop glass made out of a mix of sugar, corn syrup, and water. Whereas regular glass will definitely cut up your hand if you rummage through shards of it, candy glass is supposed to be a lot gentler on the skin. Perhaps Weaver's skin was particularly sensitive to it, or maybe there's something special about Cameron's hands that spared him from injury. That was certainly John Mulaney's theory, at least:

"So, I guess the moral of that story is Jim Cameron has no blood?" he joked. Weaver replied, "Maybe that's true."

Although Cameron may have accidentally injured Weaver in the 1980s, it seems they're still good friends in the 2020s. After shooting "Aliens," Weaver returned to work with Cameron on his 2009 film "Avatar." Given what happens to her character in that movie, most fans assumed Weaver wouldn't be back for the sequel. But somehow, Cameron managed to find a cool (and weird) new way to bring Weaver back for "Avatar: The Way of Water" and "Fire and Ash," as well as (potentially) the fourth and fifth "Avatar" movies.

During her conversation with Mulaney, Weaver shed some light on the last time she'd spoken to Cameron. "He's madly trying to finish editing 'Avatar 3,'" she noted. "It's gonna be really good, but he's not finished editing it." When Mulaney jokingly asked her if the current edit of the sequel is "a little shaggy," Weaver replied, "It may very well be. He doesn't show it to us."

"Avatar: Fire and Ash," which Cameron has been talking about for over a decade by this point, will finally hit theaters near the end of this year. How has Cameron changed since he and Weaver made "Aliens" 40 years ago? Here's what Weaver had to say on the matter:

"He can be very scathing, but I would say that he's gotten funnier and funnier as the years have gone on. Because he really loves shooting now, and he really loves his crew. So, he is, you know, kind of vicious, but it is witty now."

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" is slated to release in theaters on December 19, 2025.