Alien: Romulus Star Describes “Disgusting” Taste of Facehugger

Alien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez wanted to make sure that viewers not only felt the terror of a xenomorph Facehugger attack – they could practically taste it. Alien: Romulus has several horrific scenes of would-be victims fighting for their lives against the Facehuggers – even when the grotesque parasite creatures are shoving a phallic tendril down their throats. Álvarez has gone on at length about using practical effects for Alien: Romulus, including some high-end animatronic puppets to create Fachuggers that had multiple point of articulation.  That means that when you watch the cast members of Alien: Romulus fighting off a Facehugger, there’s an actual physical object (not CGI effect) they are wrestling with. 

Fede Álvarez and the cast of Alien: Romulus stopped by ComicBook’s suite at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, and even though it was somewhat crass to ask, we had to: 

What does it taste like to have a Facehugger in your mouth? 

In a word: Lube. 

“Silicone? Jesus Christ… This is the end…” explained Archie Renaux, who plays “Tyler” in the film. “Yeah this is really not glamorous at all but there was a lot of lubrication on it to make it look disgusting… Yeah it was a very invasive experience.” 

Fede Álvarez has indeed confirmed that Alien: Romulus may have used the most lube ever for a single movie production – so there’s some nightmare fuel for any of you aspiring actors. As the conversation with the cast continued, Álvarezr revealed that not only did the cast have to deal with the creepiness of the animatronic Facehuggers – they also had to deal with their director being the one who was on the controls, terrorizing them: 

“I was puppeteering that shot [with Archie Renaux]. There’s a shot… Archie gets a ‘close encounter’ where he was asking for an intimacy coordinator while we were doing it. But yeah I had the privilege to puppeteer the Facehugger in that one.” 

Synopsis: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.

Alien: Romulus is now in theaters and IMAX. It stars Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla, Civil War) and features David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Isabela Merced (Transformers 5, Madame Web), Spike Fearn (The Batman) and Aileen Wu. The film earned $108.2 million, worldwide, in its opening weekend.