8 Movie Characters With Fascinating Backstories You Didn't Know About
3. Alien - Lambert Was Born Male
Ridley Scott doesn’t like to get too chatty with his cast while on set, but in pre-production, he lets them ask any question they want. On Alien they kept asking him about their character backgrounds, so he wrote lengthy biographies for each part.
These bios reveal the crew of the Nostromo were a curious bunch, with Kane being a drug abusing medical school drop-out, and Captain Dallas had a distrust for authority figures; he’s an odd choice for Captain then. Predictably, there’s very little background information on Ash.
Perhaps the biggest surprise comes with Lambert, who was actually born male but underwent gender reassignment surgery shortly after. She was also noted for having severe anxiety issues, which can definitely be seen in the movie.
While Alien doesn’t get better from knowing this info, it does add another layer of intrigue onto the characters.