10 Actors Who Knew Their Action Movie Was Doomed From Day One

2. Sigourney Weaver – Alien: Resurrection

Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is one of the key movies in the sci-fi/horror sub-genre, and a near perfect execution in filmmaking which also introduced an iconic heroine in Sigourney Weaver’s Lieutenant Ellen Ripley. She would of course reprise the role in that rare occasion when James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) more than equalled the iconic feats of the first movie.

But then came Alien 3 (1993), a film that in the opening credits completely undid the fans investment in the satisfying finale of Aliens' surviving characters. Which then threw Ripley into a storyline that, compared to the first two films, was rather boring with a dismally dark visual tone, and use of early CGI which hasn’t aged particularly well. Sigourney Weaver believed the franchise had run its course following the negative response to that film, and with a seemingly irreversible conclusion to her character’s arc.

But a script for a further movie soon surfaced and a desire from the studio to revisit the story by bringing Ripley back from the dead. Weaver initially stood her ground, feeling strongly that there was absolutely no reason for her to return. However, after meeting with scriptwriter Joss Whedon she eventually agreed to reprise Ripley after all, and despite her reservations about Resurrection being one movie too many for the series, a reported $11m salary and a co-production credit was ultimately enough to persuade her otherwise.