Filmmaker Ridley Scott on ‘Alien,’ AI, the afterlife and why most horror films fail

By Joshua Encinias

You can thank nature for the terrifying creature in Ridley Scott’s horror classic, “Alien.”

“The evolution of the beast comes from parasites inside of trees. They bore their way into beetle grub and the grub grows into a version of the beetle,” says the director.

Scott calls the alien a “beast” and fans devotingly refer to it as the xenomorph. You know, that long-headed, acid-spitting, exoskeleton-having, nightmare fuel that’s terrified (and, at times, bored) audiences for 45 years.

The xenomorph is back on the screens this Friday with director Fede Álvarez’s “Alien: Romulus.” The sequel takes place between Scott’s “Alien” and James Cameron’s “Aliens,” and this time around, Álvarez takes the series back to its horror roots.

“’Alien’ is our world in the future, that’s what it tries to be,” says Álvarez. “’Alien’ is not ‘Star Wars.’ It’s supposed to be us a few years from now trying to colonize space.”

The story picks up 20 years after the original “Alien.”

While scavenging the far flung edges of a derelict space station, a group of young colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. It is all genetically designed to scare the pants off audiences.

Brooklyn Magazine spoke with Ridley Scott about handing directing duties to Álvarez. He also tells us about creating the “beast,” his decades-long concern with AI and his thoughts on God.

The interview was edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Ridley Scott in 2015 (Photo by Bill Ingalls)

You directed the first “Alien” movie 45 years ago. How did you get involved in the project?
The screenplay by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett was unusual and different but it was pretty good. I was coming from a comic strip generation so when I read the script and got it instantly. I said, “I’ll do it.” I was the fifth choice as a director. Originally, they had given it to Robert Altman, which is like, “What? What the fuck is this? Are you kidding?”

The biggest challenge was how we designed the beast. Most horror films fail because of terrible monsters. Some are so bad that they become amusing. They become cult films. A cult film is a good way of saying “It’s a pretty bad movie, but I kind of like it with a beer.”

Discovering the beast’s designer H.R. Giger almost by accident, I flew to see him. He lived in Switzerland but he didn’t want to make the beast. He was afraid of flying. Finally, we convinced him to come by train and by boat to England. He stayed in England for 10 months. He was a sweetheart. Only once in a long time can something like that happen. I haven’t seen such a good beast since. It’s kind of a beautiful beast.

For me, the creepiest moment in any “Alien” movie is in the first one when the alien reaches out in the dark. It’s the most human the xenomorph feels. Will you talk about casting Bolaji Badejo in the original Alien suit?
Bolaji was from Nigeria and he was in Soho in England at lunch at a pub. By the bar, this guy is standing two feet above anyone else’s head. He was 6’10 and very thin, so I sent somebody over to him with a card to tell him we were making a movie. “If you’re interested, give us a call.” And he first of all thought it was a joke. So he then called me, came to the office, and from that moment on he became the alien. There are no digital components of it. They didn’t exist. It’s a guy in a rubber suit. That was tricky. That’s why we showed it very infrequently and the most detailed thing was the head, which was made by a guy called Carlo Rambaldi.

How did you create the way the alien moves?
Bolaji did this very slow, poetic thing for me and I then over-cranked it as well. It was constantly over-cranked at different speeds. So nothing was normal speed ever. It was that basic, that simple. I think there’s a real invention of making a creature like that feel real. First of all, you show as little as possible. I think that’s why “Alien” was the scariest of them all because the alien was so fresh and different.

All three of the “Alien” movies you directed and “Blade Runner” are extremely interested in AI. What’s your main concern with it?
We were slightly ahead of the game about AI on Blade Runner. If you offload so much information into a product called a replicant, he goes beyond AI, he’s beyond human. He’s more human than human, if you like. At what moment when you pack in massive information do you pass the line that might give him that magic word: emotion? And by the time you install the components that all add up to emotion, you might have passed that point not realize it. When you pass that point, having done it, then you’re in real trouble.

How should we use AI?
You’ve got to look at it as a tool. [Scott holds up an iPhone.] This bloody thing is both an incredible thing and also a nightmare because too many youngsters have it. They shouldn’t have it yet. This thing makes you feel smarter than you actually are.

There’s no question that AI’s going to raise a lot of questions and therefore I think we’ve got to lay down some ground rules, but I don’t know how you do ground rules. Once the button is pushed how do you stop it? It’s hard. I don’t think you can control it.

How hands-on were you as a producer of “Alien: Romulus”?
Not much. I read it, I have opinions. I’m listened to or not. I came in when Fede finally put it together. I usually like to know who the cast is and the choice of Cailee Spaeny is really great. He caught lightning in a bottle.

I loved “Napoleon.” Critics and audiences didn’t seem to like it as much.
We did pretty good. There’s only one critic that really matters to me after all these years. The only critic really ought to be yourself. When you’re writing an article, you will finally proofread it and you’ll approve it. That should be the movie. I’m not saying I know everything, but I’m pretty experienced between many, many literally hundreds of commercials and movies.

What does the “Alien” series have left to say after 45 years?
There lies the challenge, and yet, “Star Trek” went on for 40, 50 years. Never say never.

“Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant” are about the origins of life. Do you believe in God?
Oh, the old, eternal question. If you look up at the universe at night, it’s entirely ridiculous to think we’re the only ones. Why are we the selected few? Of course, there are many forms of life out there, there has to be.

The jury’s out on God for me. I hope it wasn’t just an invention to control what happens on Earth. And right now we’re not seeing a religion exactly control anything. Everything is out of control, isn’t it? Absolutely out of fucking control. But people fervently believe in their various denominations and all I can do is step away from that. I don’t comment on that.

So you do believe in aliens?
In terms of actual physical aliens, aliens could be bigger than this room. I don’t think people comprehend the possibility of the physical shape. There could be aliens and landscapes with the same conditions as this wonderful planet that we’re killing. Then, in fact, it might induce a similar form of humanoid that kind of looks like us. I think they know there’s water on the moon as well. You’ve got deep frozen water. Are microbes inside the water alive? That would be an alien.

Do you ever want to continue your stories from “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant”?
Never say never. Right now, I know what I’m doing next, and I’m always thinking like two or three films ahead. Something always comes up and I take it seriously because content is your lifeblood as a filmmaker.