20 Things You Somehow Missed In Alien
16. Genuine Tension
As a director who appreciated the finer points of his craft, Ridley Scott began to manipulate the actor's real-life relationships to better help them reflect the ones they were supposed to have on-screen. Most notably, he didn't allow Bolaji Badejo to socialise with any of the other cast members, so there was no chance of a rapport developing between the creature and its prey.
More subtly though, Scott envisaged that a crew like this would have long-standing axes to grind with one another that might never crop up on screen. So he had Yaphet Kotto constantly antagonise Sigourney Weaver on set so that there would be a tension between Parker and Ripley.