30 Years Later, Aliens is Unlike Anything in Bill Paxton's Career

"It all comes back to Aliens. All roads lead to Aliens, coming in and going out," Bill Paxton said with a smile of his iconic role as Private Hudson in the film, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year. The actor joined his fellow stars, along with director James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd, talking to press - and a packed room full of fans about the experience of making Aliens, and it still being so revered three decades later, at San Diego Comic-Con. He noted that it's remarkable how much he remembers about shooting the film.

"It's always great to see this gang. We all remain good friends over the decades. It's so funny because I see these guys, and I remember my first day going to Pinewood Studios, just in pre-production, and Jim had us with these Marines from the U.S. Embassy come down to train us," Paxton said. "The whole thing was a great experience. It's crazy to look at Carrie Henn, who I remember as Newt, you know, it's something."

To Paxton, as well as the other actors Comicbook.com spoke to, "this is like no other movie I've ever made before or since," in that they seem to remember every detail from start to finish.

"It was obviously a huge break for me when I got the call. Scott Rudin, the producer, was actually the head of casting at Fox at the time, and Weird Science had come out. Jim was already in London with Gale in pre-production. I had been in England visiting my girlfriend, who I've now been married to for years and is the mother of my two children," he said, reminiscing. "I remember auditioning on the Fourth of July, and I had to take a train, and a bus, then walking out to Pinewood Studios, it's way the hell out in the country. Getting there way early, getting onto the backlot, I'm looking at the sides, I'm obviously really nervous. I do the reading and stuff, but I knew Jim, I knew Gale. We worked together, not just on Terminator, but I worked for Jim as his set dresser! So I thought 'I'm never gonna get this. Your friends are the last people to hire you.'

"In the interim, Weird Science came out and I got my first good critical notices from that. Jim was on the phone with Scott Rudin talking about 'hey, I've got a list of 12 guys here,' and my name came up. Jim said, 'I know Bill, I'd love to use him, is Fox good with that?' [Rudin] said 'oh yeah, he's got a movie out, a John Hughes movie, he's getting some good reviews,' and the next thing I know I get a call from Jim. He says, 'I want you to play Hudson,' and I was just like 'Oh my God. Here we go!' Here we go."

If Paxton was to do a super-powered movie (he was in the comicbook movie Two Guns, and played John Garrett on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), don't expect him to suit up and fight for Truth and Justice, though.

"I love the supervillains the best. You bet. Any that come to mind? I don't know," he said with a laugh, "I'm available if [the studios] think of somebody!"

Aliens: The 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray and Digital HD hits stores September 13, 2016. The special edition includes new making-of featurettes, new deleted and extended scenes, pre-production art and casting galleries, and more never-before-scene special features.