Veronica Cartwright Talks with the Café about Hitchcock, Alien, and the Beaver

With a resume that includes Leave It to Beaver, The Birds, Alien, and The X Files, Veronica Cartwright has fashioned a lengthy, impressive acting career showcasing her versatility. She made her film debut at age 9 as Robert Wagner’s sister in 1958’s In Love and War. Ms Cartwright may have been the busiest child actor of the 1960s. On the big screen, she co-starred in The Children’s Hour, The Birds, and Spencer’s Mountain. On television, she appeared on four episodes of Leave It to Beaver (three times as Violet Rutherford) and she played Jemima Boone, Fess Parker’s daughter, on Daniel Boone. She also guest-starred in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, and other classic TV series. Unlike many child actors, she made an easy transition to adult roles, giving memorable performances in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien, The Right Stuff, and The Witches of Eastwick. Ms. Cartwright was nominated for an Emmy for Best Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for three consecutive years (twice for The X Files and once for ER). Earlier in her career, she won a regional Emmy for Best Actress in a Television Movie for Tell Me Not in Mournful Numbers. She is still in high demand in both movies and television, having recently appeared in Revenge, Grey’s Anatomy, and the Lifetime movie Non-Stop.

Café:  As a young actor, you appeared in films directed by William Wyler (The Children's Hour) and Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds). How did these great directors from Hollywood's Golden Age approach working with their actors?

With Tippi Hedren in The Birds.

Veronica Cartwright:  William Wyler had a very unconventional approach, especially working with children. I was auditioning for the role Mary and he shot off a gun to see my reaction. I ended up getting the part of Rosalie. There were some very emotional scenes and he would have me do them and really get there and then he would start shooting it. Alfred Hitchcock was always lovely. He just told us what he wanted and he always treated me like a colleague. He saw me in The Children’s Hour and then requested to meet me. I went to his bungalow on the Universal Studios lot and he told me his favorite wine cellar was in Bristol, which is where I was born, and then proceeded to tell me the names of wines. At 12 years old, I didn't need that information, but I wish I could remember the names now. He also told me how to cook a steak, which I would need to know when I got married, and I have since tried and it works. He was a riot and he just sat and talked to me. He just made me feel comfortable and I could ask him any questions I wanted about the production, the fake birds, etc.

Café:  You appeared in three of the most intense (and famous) scenes in The Birds: the attack at the school; the birthday party; and the birds swooping down the chimney. Which was the most demanding for you as an actress and why?

VC:  I didn't like those birds swooping down from the chimney. There were thousands of them. We were in a bubble and they would just swoop down and go to fly up and then realize there was nowhere to go. Then, they just dropped. That one was the most challenging because it was so confining.

Veronica as Violet Rutherford.

Café:  Having also appeared on other family sitcoms, such as Family Affair and My Three Sons, why do you think Leave It to Beaver has maintained its enduring popularity? And what was it like to play Violet Rutherford as an adult in 1985 on The New Leave It to Beaver?

VC:  I think just everybody could identify with the Beaver and his older brother. It was a clean, family show. I gave Beaver his first kiss at 9 years old. In the 1985 version, they intercut it with the kissing episode. In the movie, Violet poses as a real estate woman who has a side business of being a dominatrix. It was very funny.

Café:  Daniel Boone fans have long wondered why Jemima Boone, Daniel’s daughter, didn’t appear in any episodes after the second season. Was that the producers’ decisions (perhaps to trim costs) or did you want to pursue other acting opportunities?

VC:  I got to a certain point and they were giving me opportunities to be more of a romantic lead and have more mature story lines with such actors as Fabian. The actress playing my mother didn't care for that, so she wouldn't sign her contract if they brought me back. She felt that it aged her.

Café:  How did you come to be cast as Lambert in Alien?

Veronica as Lambert in Alien.

VC:  I auditioned for the character of Ripley and then I happened to be going to Europe, so I checked with my agent to see if the part had been cast yet. I thought being British it could be to my advantage for them to see me again, so I auditioned when I got to London. I got cast and I thought I got cast as Ripley. It wasn’t until I was contacted by wardrobe to be fitted for my space suit that I found out I was Lambert. She ultimately turned out to be the only sensible one.

Café:  Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers are two very different science fiction films. While both generate plenty of suspense, Alien depends, in large part, on a monster created by special effects. The most frightening aspect of Body Snatchers is its theme. Which kind of movie presents the biggest challenge to an actress? And which do you think is more terrifying?

VC:  Actually, there was no CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery). The Alien was a man from the Masai tribe who was over seven feet tall. They built the suit to fit him. He could only move very slowly and took mime lessons and tai chi. In a sense, Body Snatchers is more psychological. The scary thing about Body Snatchers was the aspect of living in a grey area and not feeling love or hate. There was always the prospect that if you fell asleep you could wake up and be a zombie. Alien was more like a Hitchcock film where your mind was doing more of the scaring because you would just see glimpses as an audience member until the Alien stepped out. They were both equally challenging for different reasons. I guess Alien was more terrifying because of the monster, but then again the other one is a creepy concept to think of.

As Cassandra Spender, with Fox Mulder
in the background.

Café:  On several episodes of The X Files, you played Cassandra Spender, an alien abductee who was the ex-wife of The Cigarette Smoking Man and mother of Agent Jeffrey Spender. How would you describe your X Files experiences?

VC:  Well, the first two episodes were shot in Canada. My character is wheelchair bound and we discover she has a chip in the back of her neck like Scully. I had been abducted and by the end of the second episode I was abducted again. When I came back I was now able to walk. My take on what happened was that since I knew so much about the aliens, I had become one of them. It was really fun. Chris Carter directed one of my episodes.

Veronica in Goin' South, directed by
Jack Nicholson.

Café:  You’ve worked with a number of famous directors: Hitchcock, Wyler, Ridley Scott, Philip Kaufman, and even Jack Nicholson. Who is your favorite director and why?

VC:  They are all great for their own reasons. I've done three movies with Phil. He knows you’ve done your homework and he trusts you to make a well rounded character. Jack is just nuts. He’s great. It’s like one big giant party. Ridley has a terrific eye for detail. And I already talked about my experiences with Hitchcock and Wyler.

Café:  You and your sister Angela appeared together in a 1960 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“The Swartz-Metteaklume Method”) and you were a guest star on Make Room for Daddy. Were there ever any plans to make a movie starring the Cartwright sisters? (Perhaps a science fiction film for fans of Alien and Lost in Space?)

VC:  Well, at one point, Angela and I decided to get together with Tony Dow and a bunch of other actors like Billy Mumy, Billy Grey, Johnny Crawford and several others to make a space movie, but it never got off the ground.

Café:  Are you working on any projects now that you’d like to share with your fans?

VC:  Yes!  I’m on Resurrection, the ABC show, at 10 P.M. on Sundays starting March 9th. My character’s name is Helen Edgerton. Also, I am in the motion picture The Town that Dreaded Sundown. It is a remake of the 1976 movie of the same name and will be released by Sony in September.


You can learn more about Veronica Cartwright at her web site: www.veronica-cartwright.com. You can also follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/veesland.

It's Best to Sit Alone if You Watch James Cameron's "Aliens"

It is definitely best to sit alone in a chair when you watch this fast-paced, action packed sci-fi horror thriller. If you sit on a sofa beside other people, it is likely you will hit them swinging your arms, scare them by jumping out of your seat, or scream things like “no,” “look out,” “shoot it,” and “get out of there,” throughout the entire movie. The tagline of the movie is: “This time there’s more.” That means you will feel ten times the tension you did when you watched Alien!

Ellen Ripley, (Sigourney Weaver) the only survivor on the ship, Nostromo, is found floating in space by a salvage ship. Ripley has been in a cryogenic sleep for fifty-seven years. She wakes up to find herself in a hospital recovering. She soon learns that she is required to go before a panel of executives from her employer, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, to explain her reason for blowing up their space ship, Nostromo. The panel doesn’t believe her story about an Alien who sneaked aboard the Nostromo and killed every crew member on board but her. They tell her they don’t believe it because a colony of terraforming scientists has been living on the planet LV-426 for thirty years without seeing any Alien or Alien ship. She loses her space flight license and is offered a lowly job of running loaders and forklifts.

Ripley is plagued with nightmares about what happened on the Nostromo. Then, one day, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), a Corporation lawyer, and Marine Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope) inform her that all contact with the colony on LV-426 has been lost. They want her to join a Marine unit and explain what happened in detail on the Nostromo to help prepare them for what they will be facing LV-426. Ripley refuses to go because she is still recovering from the traumatic experience fifty-seven years ago. However, from Ripley’s point of view, it just happened last week. Realizing that she will never conquer the fears in her nightmares, she reluctantly agrees to go. Now the action begins so hold onto your seat!!!

Ripley meets the Marines on the warship, Sulaco. She is pleasant to all of them but Bishop (Lance Hendrickson) who is an android. Ripley is not fond of androids since an android tried to kill her on the Nostromo. She explains to them how only one alien killed the entire crew on the Nostromo. However, the Marines are rather boastful and think they are more than qualified to eliminate any aliens on the planet. Ripley isn’t happy about how lightly they listened to her story. She helps them load their supplies with a forklifter which foreshadows one of the best fighting scenes in the movie.

The Marines, Ripley, and Burke arrive on the LV-426, led by the young Lieutenant Gorman. The only colonist they find is a young girl who has been hiding from the Aliens by herself. Her name is Newt (Carrie Henn) and she tells them everyone else is dead. Soon they discover all the colonists are in one place. The young inexperienced Gorman sends his unit to locate the colonists and check for survivors. Gorman, Burke, Newt, and Ripley stay in the vehicle watching the progress of the Marines. They enter the building and are attacked by a slew of Aliens. Gorman, who panics and cannot decide what to do, is knocked unconscious when Ripley starts driving the vehicle into the building to save the Marines. She saves Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Private Hudson (Bill Paxton), and Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn). The rest of the Marines are dead or taken by the Aliens to be cocooned. The rest of the plot is about how the Marines, Ripley, Newt, Burke, and Bishop try to survive.

Ripley’s relationship with Newt is one of the key ele-ments in the plot. The young girl has lost her family and is alone. Ripley becomes attached to Newt in a motherly way. It is her love for the child that makes Ripley the strong willed character she becomes in the movie. I own the uncut DVD of Aliens and there is a scene I wished had not been left out in the original version. Burke comes to see Ripley shortly after she has been found by the salvage ship. She has asked him to find her only child, a daughter, for her. Burke shows her the information and photo of her daughter who grew up and died of cancer. I think this scene was important to show why Ripley cares so much about Newt.

The plot progresses quickly and there are several twists and turns along the way. The ending is awesome. Ripley has a scene in the end that makes her one of the most famous kick-butt women characters in movie history. She says a line that has become a famous movie quote too. It is my favorite line in a science fiction horror movie.

James Cameron was told he could do a sequel to Alien only if his movie, The Terminator did well. Needless to say, it was quite a hit! Aliens was a huge hit not only in the United States but other countries too. It was the number one movie in the United States for four consecutive weeks. The movie totaled $131 internationally. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Actress for Weaver although she didn’t win. Aliens did earn two Academy Awards for Sound Effects and Editing and for Visual Effects.

The movie was filmed over a period of ten months at Pinewood Studios in England. The terraforming colony scenes were filmed in a decommissioned power plant in London. Cameron thought finding the right cast was the hardest thing. Sigourney Weaver wasn’t sure she wanted to play Ellen Ripley again. It is a good thing she did because she was paid $1 million for her performance! Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton had all worked with Cameron on The Terminator. The casting of Newt was the biggest challenge. Approximately five hundred children tried out for the part, but Carrie Henn whose father was in the military was chosen.

James Horner, one of my favorite composers, wrote the music for Aliens. Horner said that Cameron gave him very little time to write the music. He thought he would never work for him again. However, Cameron liked Horner’s score in Braveheart (1995) and hired him to do the score for Titanic (1997) which is one of the most popular scores in movie history. As it turned out, Cameron also asked Horner to do the score for his successful movie Avatar (2009). Horner also did the score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) which is one of my favorites, and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). I own all five of these movie soundtracks. I love to listen to them and yes, they are on my iPod. I look forward to hearing more of James Horner’s music in the future.

Michael Biehn replaced the actor, James Remar, who was to play Hicks just a few weeks before filming. There is one scene in the movie where we see the back of Remar playing Hicks, but no one can tell the difference between Biehn and Remar. All of the actors except for Biehn were trained by the S.A.S, the British Special Air Service, an elite unit. Cameron had only written about 90 pages of the script, but 20th Century Fox liked it and told him he could make the movie. The Alien nest set was used in the movie Batman (1989). The tiny bathroom in Ripley’s apartment was actually a British Airways toilet. The Alien Queen required 14-16 operators to move her. Lance Henriksen wanted to wear special contact lenses to make Bishop a really creepy android. However, Cameron said he didn’t have to wear them because his acting made Bishop creepy enough.

Alien and Aliens are my two favorite sci-fi movies. I vary from day to day which one I like the best. I do think the atmosphere in Alien is a little creepier. However, the action and excitement in Aliens couldn’t be better. It is such a fast-paced movie that once the characters land on LV-426, the ending seems like the next scene. The shadows and use of dark lighting, off whites, and grays make the setting seem so chilling. The aliens were hidden so well in the darkness that when they jumped out at Ripley, I found myself jumping out of my theater seat. The scene when the Marines are first attacked by the aliens, my husband told me that I squeezed his hand too hard. Afterwards, I put my hands on my lap and squeezed them.

My son and I have watched Aliens many times together. He loves the film as much as I do. I never watch my DVD without thinking of all those times we saw it together. He bought me the uncut video and then the uncut DVD. I read in Entertainment Weekly in the 20th Anniversary Double issue recently that the Alien Anthology is on a Blu-ray disc set containing Alien, Aliens, Alien3, and Alien Ressurection with five hours of new interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Son, if you read this I want you to know that I would love this Blu-ray set. It sure would make a nice Christmas present this year.