Aileen Wu had to get used to filming with those ‘Alien: Romulus’ monsters ‘covered in lube’

By Dan Heching, CNN

(CNN) — Up-and-coming actor Aileen Wu feels it’s “a bit unreal” that her feature film debut comes in this weekend’s “Alien: Romulus.”

“I’ve been trying to keep a good head on my shoulders and not let it get to me too much,” Wu said in a recent chat with CNN about stepping into the “Alien” franchise, one of Hollywood’s most historic sci-fi/horror properties. “It’s just been learning as I go of how rich this world is, and the impact it’s had on people for the last 45 years.”

“Romulus” is being billed as the seventh official film in the “Alien” franchise, made famous by Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking haunted-house-in-space story from 1979, starring Sigourney Weaver. That film, along with James Cameron’s 1986 hit sequel, laid the groundwork for the series, which in spite of many ups and downs has shared one major thing in common – the grotesque, gooey and very dangerous xenomorph aliens, who have acid for blood and are birthed via facehuggers and chestbursters.

“We were all really lucky that Fede (Álvarez, director of ‘Romulus’) went all practical with this one. I didn’t see any green screens, didn’t see any tennis balls. It was just all creatures and monsters, in your face, covered in lube, because they’re all glistening,” Wu shared. “It’s really right there, and it’s quite disturbing.”

Those realistic methods are in close keeping with the franchise as a whole, which has a long history of using practical effects ever since the now-legendary death scene of Kane (John Hurt) in the first film, the first victim of a chestburster. The cast did not know that Scott and his crew used real-life animal entrails from a butcher’s shop to achieve the gory effects, thereby eliciting iconic, realistic reactions.

And while Wu “would not dare” put herself in the same grouping as Hurt or others from the previous films (“Sigourney Weaver is a god,” she shared), her character’s run-in with the creatures – as seen in the final trailer for “Romulus” – meant that she had to spend a fair share of time with them on set.

“I definitely had that thing on my face, days on end,” Wu recalled of the facehuggers, one of which can be seen wrapped tightly around her head in the stunning poster for “Romulus.” “I tried my best to make peace with them while I had to work with them.”

She added that watching the now-viral marketing campaigns for the movie showing people at Comic Con and in Times Square lying on the floor with facehuggers on them made her “feel queasy and not comfortable.”

“I feel so bad for those people, because I can relate,” she said, going on to describe the intricate details of how she had to match her breathing to the “bladders” on the facehugger, which gave the impression it was breathing in unison with its victim (gross!).

And while “Romulus” makes sure to pay homage with callbacks to all the previous entries in the “Alien” franchise, as Álvarez recently told Variety, some of those are coincidental. Case in point, Wu’s shaved head in the new movie, which some might think is a tribute to Weaver’s similar hairstyle (or lack thereof) in 1992’s “Alien 3.”

“I’ve actually been rocking a shaved head since 2019,” Wu said, going on to share how she buzzed her hair off to feel closer to a family member in China who had cancer while she was in New York studying acting. “I felt so far away and I wanted to do something that would make me feel very close to them and tell them that I’m with them. So when they shaved their head, I shaved my head as well. And I loved it. I was like, ‘This is so easy!’”

So after “Alien: Romulus,” is Wu ready for more in the sci-fi/horror genre?

“In the future, but I’m going to take a quick break, hopefully, if the universe allows,” she answered, laughing. “But I love it. It’s so freeing to play these really intense life-or-death situations. You have no chance to go in your head, it’s a very physical experience.”

“Alien: Romulus” is currently playing in theaters.

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