Alien star Cailee Spaeny on child movie trauma, Sigourney Weaver and her obsession with Australia

American actress Cailee Spaeny reveals why she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Australia as her new movie Alien: Romulus is released in cinemas.

It’s fair to say that Australia has made an indelible impression on Cailee Spaeny.

The Golden Globe nominated star of Priscilla, Civil War and Mare Of Easttown had never even left her native USA when she was whisked to Sydney in 2016, aged just 18, to shoot her debut film, the monsters vs. machines blockbuster Pacific Rim Uprising.

Eight years later – and with a reputation as one of the most promising actors of her generation firmly in place – she’s still dying to get back, singling out holding a koala and being taught to surf by the son of a Hollywood legend as two of her fondest memories of her time Down Under.

“I think about it all the time,” she says a little wistfully over Zoom call while promoting her new movie Alien Romulus. “My first movie ever was in Sydney for about five months so I just fell in love with that country and the people and the crews.

“I miss it all the time – I am always talking to my Aussie friends and I can’t wait to get back there and do a bit of surfing and have a couple of drinks on the beach. It was really, really lovely and I hope I get to go back soon.

“Scott Eastwood teaching me how to surf on Bondi Beach was one of my favourite experiences. But honestly, the people too – some of my favourite people are Australians and they have a special place in my heart.”

Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny in Priscilla. Picture: A24

One of those people is Euphoria star Jacob Elordi, who played the King of Rock and Roll opposite her Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s acclaimed 2023 biopic.

“I hope it keeps coming,” she says of working with Aussie actors (she also starred with Chris Hemsworth in the 2018 thriller Bad Times At the El Royale). “You have really got something going on down there – there’s something in the water. I mean the talent that comes out of Australia is staggering. It is really impressive and exciting. Jacob is just … what a talent. He really blows my mind and is very proud Australian.”

Many critics singled out Spaeny’s beautifully measured performance as Priscilla (given the stamp of approval by the woman herself) but the actor admits that at times her mind was elsewhere. While filming that sedate period movie in Toronto, she was cast as the lead role in Alien: Romulus – the seventh film in the franchise that began with Ripley Scott’s 1979 classic, Alien – and she was already thinking about kicking up a gear into the action world.

“Not that I didn’t enjoy that experience but every single day I was in hair and makeup putting these giant wigs on, doing a two-hour long makeup process, wearing heels and running around on set all day being this very quiet, interior character,” she recalls. “And as I got towards the end of that I was going ‘Oh my god, all I want to do is have a pulse rifle in my hand, roll around in some blood and dirt and kick some alien butt’. And I got to do that. It was great – and the best way to shake off Priscilla. Even though I absolutely loved that process, I always want something else.

Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine and David Jonsson as Andy in Alien: Romulus. Picture: 20th Century Studios

“I never want to get too comfortable and I want to try new things – and there couldn’t be anything more opposite than those films.”

Scott’s original Alien and James Cameron’s turbocharged 1986 sequel are generally accepted to be the best two movies of the long-running franchise. In setting Romulus between the two, director Fede Alvarez is harking back to those glory days and sought the counsel of the two directing greats, while also bringing his own horror smarts from movies such as Don’t Breathe and Evil Dead to the table.

“I knew that I wanted to take this chapter back to the beginning, not only story-wise but in terms of visual style,” says Alvarez. “I wanted to keep it simple and focus on a few characters you could get to know and love.”

The first Alien movie to feature young-adult characters, it follows a group of space colonists who come face-to-face with the infamous acid-blooded, chest-bursting xenomorphs while scavenging a derelict space station.

The 26-year-old Spaeny, born the year after the fourth movie was released, found that her introduction to the franchise echoed that of many of her castmates – namely borderline negligent fathers who showed it to their children without the knowledge or consent of their mothers. Apparently the sight of the very first Alien bursting from John Hurt’s chest in a shower of blood and gore that shocked both the cast and audiences still hits as hard as it did 45 years ago.

Cailee Spaeny was seriously spooked by the first Alien film, which is now 45 years old.

“It takes a long time for that chest-burster scene to pop up, so you don’t really know what’s going on,” says Spaeny with a laugh. “It’s a little bit spooky and then that moment happens with John Hurt, and you’re forever scarred for the rest of your life. I didn’t know how to process it and I ran down to my room … it was sort of etched into my memory forever.”

Having met her years earlier, Alvarez wrote the part of the resourceful Rain Carradine with Spaeny in mind – although that’s news to her, give she says she still had to audition.

“To have a role written for you and still have to audition – it would be really embarrassing if I didn’t get the role,” she laughs. “But obviously that is a huge compliment that he wrote it for me.”

Looming large over the entire Alien franchise is Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, a trailblazing character that is often credited with helping to redefine and challenge gender stereotypes, particular in the science fiction and action genres.

Tiffany Smith, Spike Fearn, David Jonsson, Isabela Merced, Cailee Spaeny, Fede Alvarez and Archie Renaux at the Alien: Romulus Panel in Hall H at San Diego Comic Con last month. Picture: Getty Images

Ripley’s combination of brains, courage and kick-arse competence have ensured her inclusion at the pointy end of lists of the best movie characters ever created and many action actresses since have paid homage to Weaver for helping to kick down the door that they have been able to cartwheel through.

“What do you say about Sigourney Weaver?,” says Spaeny. “She’s so iconic and such an incredible actress and there is only one Sigourney – no one ever comes close to being anything like her. She really did something – and I think she did it consciously – of making a point to play a female in sci-fi horror differently.

“And thank God she did because that gave me the space to be me and inject myself into it and never feel pressured to play whatever it means to be a woman in sci-fi horror. I am very grateful for her and for that performance. I think a lot of us are and maybe one day I can thank her myself. I think she’s truly incredible.”

Alien: Romulus is in cinemas now.