Sigourney Weaver is Astonished by the Legacy of Aliens and Ripley

“I think it’s taken a long time,” Weaver said, however. “I often think that Ripley was very powerful out in the world, in a way, to remind women that we’re very strong, we get the job done, we go for it, and we don’t stand around waiting for a man to take care of us. It’s great that that now has spawned all these other franchises, which is excellent.”

Weaver went on to say that “women are the strongest sex; we take care of the family, we have jobs, we’re the glue that holds the world together.” While she acknowledges that Alien and Aliens were a “breakthrough at the time,” she notes that it was a “logical expression” of what women can be. Of course, this all spawned from a place not of feminism or empowerment, the actress revealed, but of simple shock value.

“The first one – they made Ripley a woman just because they didn’t think that anyone could ever imagine that she’d be the lone survivor. It was just a plot point! It wasn’t really for feminist reasons,” Weaver revealed.

She reveled in the chance to share time together with her former castmembers alongside producer Gale Anne Hurd and writer/director James Cameron, but also loved being able to see the fans at the show, with the knowledge that they still cared deeply for this film three decades later.