Cailee Spaeny Talks “Terrifying” Practical Effects While Filming ‘Alien: Romulus’
Cailee Spaeny at ‘Civil War’ premiere at the Paramount Theatre during the South by Southwest Film Festival. Courtesy Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP)
Cailee Spaeny has been making a name for herself in Hollywood in recent years, starring in films like ‘Priscilla’ and ‘Civil War.’ The 26 year old actress will now lead ‘Alien: Romulus’ — the newest edition to the Alien franchise, nearly 50 years after the original film.
The Xenomorph remains one of the most iconic creature designs of all time, and done 100% practically in the first Alien films. Now with the return of the franchise, ‘Alien: Romulus’ director Fede Alvarez opted for the use of practical once again to provide a sense of realism for the actors.
Cailee Spaeny spoke to Empire about the use of puppets on-set: “The puppeteers were absolutely brilliant. I mean, they were really puppeteering these creatures. I just don’t think we see that anymore; we turned a corner where everything became green screens and acting to tennis balls. So it’s so nice to bring it back. I think you can feel it on screen.”
The actress continued: “Just the way [H.R.] Giger [creature designer of the original Xenomorph] played with the human anatomy and the sexual parts. There’s something really sort of primal. The second you see that creature, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. And it’s still shocking. I’ve seen that creature so many times, and when it’s right there in your face, and we’re doing scenes where I’m acting against it — it’s still terrifying.”
Spaeny recalled being scared of horror films when she was growing up. “My first memory of Alien is my dad watching it in the living room and me thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll watch this.’ And then once I got an idea of what it was going to be — once the chest-bursting scene came up — I went ‘Oooh, no, I can’t,’ and then ran down to my room. But I was still very curious, so I would come up and peek and then get scared again, run back down the stairs.”
‘Alien: Romulus’ releases August 16, 2024.
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