Romulus Actress Recounts Her Traumatic Xenomorph Scene

This story contains spoilers for Alien: Romulus.

Few scenes in the Alien film franchise can match the graphic horror of the Xenomorph chestbursters. Actress Aileen Wu's character suffered one of the worst deaths in Alien: Romuluswhich detailed how Facehuggers “impregnate” their victims.



In an interview with IndieWire, actress Aileen Wu revealed that she had been averse to horror films since she was a child. This proved to be a conundrum when she auditioned for Alien: Romulusdirected by horror enthusiast Fede Álvarez. Wu said he only watched Alien after receiving the casting call. “I didn't grow up with this franchise, but I've always known about it. It's so iconic,” she said. “I didn't watch the first one until I got the audition notification, and I was like, 'OK, time to do my homework.' And I was like, what a brilliant and perfect movie.” Alien: Romulus cast Wu as Navarro, a no-nonsense, enterprising mechanic. His character was relatively short-lived, however; as shown in trailers, Navarro is the film's first Chestburster victim.


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Wu revealed how filming his Facehugger scenes was equally challenging. Alien lore has established the stages of a Xenomorph’s life cycle, from egg to Facehugger to Chestburster to adult. Wu filmed her Facehugger sequence over four days, which required her to do a lot of stunt work. “The first day was a lot of wire work,” she said. “The camera sees me flying across the room, my head snapping back. I'm really surprised my neck survived that day.but I had never worked with wire before, so it was a little tricky.” In that scene, the Facehugger latches onto Wu's character completely, leaving her docile as the creature implants the larva into her chest cavity.



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“The scene where he was on my face and I was lying there, those were hard daysbecause I was literally lying there while the whole scene was happening,” Wu recalled. Álvarez also gave her cues about her breathing pattern.The hardest part was adjusting my breathing to the creature's bladder.,” he continued. “Fede was very specific about this, he said, 'This is for the fans. The hardcore fans are I'm going to learn about the biology of this creature and how it supports the process of laying that egg in you. It has to give you breath, so whenever the bladder is full on the creature, you have no breath. And when the bladders are empty, that's when it gives you breath.'”

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Navarro's friends managed to detach the Facehugger, but it had already entered its second phase. Wu said that was his favorite part of the sequence. “It's just that profile shot, that disgusting thing coming out of my body,” he explained. The experience was still unpleasant; the special effects crew made sure the Facehugger accessory was always soaked in lube during filming. “It was really disgusting. Someone had a bucket for me, and they would run in and make me spit out the lube and wash my mouth out before doing the next take.” Alien Fans know what's coming: as teased in the trailers, Wu's character gets one of the most graphic chest-shot scenes in a Alien movie.

“[My favorite part] It's just that profile picture, that disgusting thing coming out of my body.”


Alien: Romulus It's in theaters now.

Source: IndieWire

Alien Romulus Movie Poster

Alien: Romulus

Alien: Romulus follows a team of space explorers who discover an uncharted planet with a dark secret. As they investigate, they are hunted by deadly xenomorphs and discover ancient ruins that reveal the planet's terrifying history. The crew must use their skills and technology to survive the relentless attacks and find a way to escape the hostile environment.

Director
Faith Alvarez

Release date
August 16, 2024

Launch
Isabela Merced, Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux

Writers
Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues, Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett

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