Carrie Henn Interview

Aaron: Yeah fair enough. So often people talk about the best time they had on a film, to make sense obviously, but I want to know something about some of your worst memories from Aliens. I’m gonna go ahead and just assume it was that hive sequence where you were stuck in that little nook and cranny in the hive wall but maybe not?

You assumed correctly. There were many things about that scene that I hated. It was literally a hole I had to crawl through to get into the cocoon. That was kind of through the side. It was made of fiberglass and it could only be broken once.

We had to do several… the scene over and over and over and over again and everything had to be depicted exactly. You’re gonna pull this part Sigourney, you’re gonna pull this part first and then this… everything had to be done and practiced multiple times without it but James Cameron had said to me you cannot break this, you cannot do anything we can’t make it exactly the same again. So I couldn’t actually rest my hands on the glass. I was sitting like on a stool, a wooden stool but that was covered in fiberglass but I couldn’t rest them on there because it could possibly be too much weight and break it.

Aaron: Yeah because you had your hands at an awkward angle, didn’t you?

Yeah so sitting like that for ages and then they pull me out and then I’d be able to walk around a little bit and then they’d put me back in and then walk around a little bit and then… It took several days to actually do that scene because there were so many different aspects and different angles that they got it from and so we were actually on set. We were at the Acton Power Station when we were filming that so we weren’t at Pinewood. I just had a trailer and I didn’t have like a nice bath or shower or anything like that. Like I did in my dressing room back at Pinewood because I could wash and clean up before I went back to the hotel.

So, they offered to provide us with a hotel closer to Acton, to the Power Station and my mom and I, we didn’t, we never wanted to make a fuss and that’s probably the English side of us. We’re like “No, no, no, we’ll just go back to the hotel” so the wardrobe people were lovely and they said “You can take the costume home… just make sure you bring it back”.

So we would go back to our hotel we were staying closer to Pinewood and everybody that worked at the hotel knew what was going on but this was around Christmas time. So I went back to the hotel in full costume and I had slime and everything because the slime is what took so long to get off. So, I had the slime and everything. My hair is all filthy. My face is filthy and I had my winter coat over it with the hood up and they were having like a Christmas ball.

Aaron: You must have got some dodgy looks?

Well it wasn’t too bad. I was able to kind of scamper and quickly go because I knew where at least I knew where everything was so I was able to rush in and get to the elevator and my mom… we were waiting for the elevator and these four people came. These two couples came and they were in tuxedos and like formal dresses and everything.

They were like looking at me and my mom and then we got into the elevator and I just kind of went straight to the back corner because I wanted to be… anyways and then they got in and they like avoided me and they went to the opposite. They were at the front corner… it was far away. Anyways so I mean there was like a lot around that whole thing and then like Sigourney cut her hands on the fiberglass. Yeah it was a really tough scene on so many levels but that was probably the most draining scene out of all of them.

Eric: So, your expressions as Newt and that way you kind of look really browned off. They’re completely real. That wasn’t acting?

Yeah, it’s funny because as a kid there’s little things that you think that like “Oh, man, you’re really gonna get in trouble” and there was a teeny tiny… I mean probably like a needle size piece of fiberglass sticking off right where my hand was and I accidentally bumped it once and I mean I’m sure nobody even noticed it but I was terrified. That somebody noticed I had messed that teeny tiny bit up and I was gonna be in trouble….

Aaron: There’s a quote from you during that scene. I think it’s just hilarious and it was something like you telling Jim that it should be illegal for him to do that to little kids.

I can’t believe I said that. He did bring it up when we were at the San Diego comic-con at the panel and he brought that up there and I was absolutely mortified that I said that to him. Yeah and my mom was in the audience and she’s like “I can’t believe you said that”.

Eric: Well as you said earlier a self-declared military brat, how did your parents feel about you appearing in a film with such a heavy military component because it was in many ways a futuristic war movie?

We didn’t really completely understand everything that I was signing up for at the time. It was kind of those things that it fell into our laps. It happened. My parents asked “Do you want to do this? If you want to great. If you don’t that’s great too. It’s completely up to you”. I look at it now. My kids haven’t seen it. They just saw a little bit of that San Diego comic-con convention and they were just like “mom, all the bad language in that. I can’t believe it and all the guns”. I think it was a different time then too than it is now and I know my kids here worse on the playground. The kids say things and all that kind of stuff.

I mean at the time like the guns didn’t bother me because I was at a base that I would see that kind of stuff. I don’t think it necessarily concerned my parents because they knew that I had respect for guns. I mean like I wasn’t gonna go and pick them up. I knew that that wasn’t something I was supposed to do and I knew like saying the bad language and things like that wasn’t something that I was going to do but I don’t remember there ever being like a discussion about it or anything like that… maybe behind the scenes.

Aaron: Were you conscious of them being fake guns?

I wasn’t. Some of them like the ones with that flamethrower at the end that we were talking about earlier. There were some like Sigourney. She had to make sure she got everything right because there was some fake bullets and there was some real ones in there for various things. So I guess I never treated it like it was a fake even though I knew they were. I always treated them like they were real and just stayed away from them.

Aaron: The last Alien film that came out. Alien Covenant. Everyone made a big deal out of the fact that most of the principal cast had body doubles that were massacred in various ways. Now while it wasn’t until Alien 3 that your dummy, even though I don’t think this one was based on you, have that treatment and I still cannot watch those scenes. They are horrific. I turn away every single time. That’s they only scene in any of the Alien films that I have to turn away from nowadays. The autopsy. You had a dummy made for Aliens. Did that creep you out as much as it would creep me out?

I was never really around when it was being used. It was really only used… Sigourney had a bad back and between carrying the guns and carrying a nine-year-old child, it was a concern that it would be too much for her back. So, they decided to create this dummy and see how it was. Now for me I laugh because I can see when it’s the dummy and when it’s not when I watch it now. I’m like “Oh it’s so obvious”. Probably to me because I know it’s not me but that was really the only in time that it was used during it. It was more creepy like I had to have the face done and things like that.

Aaron: A full casting?

Yeah well, I think actually if I remember correctly, I think Louise actually did part of the casting but I had to do the face.

Aaron: I think she did the legs didn’t she?

I think she did if I remember correctly. I don’t remember doing them. I vividly remember the face.

Aaron: I bet. That must have been so claustrophobic?

Yeah it was pretty scary but Stan Winston was there with his guys and they were amazing during the whole thing and just talking to me about it and what exactly they were doing, the process and everything so that was nice.

Eric: What were your memories of Stan Winston who unfortunately passed away a few years ago now?

Yeah, I was really sad when I heard that. As a kid it was always cool to be the youngest one on the set but as I’m getting older, I’m realizing that it’s not nice because I’ll be the one left but he was amazing. He was so nice, so down to earth. I mean all of his guys were fantastic. He was just a really really really nice guy. I really enjoyed working with him and I feel very honored to have had that opportunity.

Aaron: Did you have much interaction with him personally outside of the body casting?

Well he did a lot of things.

Aaron: He did second-unit didn’t he?

Yeah, he did a lot of things on the set. So he was there a lot and it was nice because like in the Med Lab when the Aliens were kind of coming out you everywhere, the Facehuggers and they showed me how everything worked. He would always make sure that I knew how everything was going to work so that I wasn’t surprised by it where I wasn’t scared by everything like that. Everyone was so I think very conscious of it. I probably didn’t realize then as much as I do now growing up like thinking back to it. Even at the San Diego comic-con convention, Gale Anne Hurd made a comment and she said we were always so worried that we’d traumatized you for life and I said “Oh no that didn’t happen so you’re in luck”.

Aaron: Though the special edition restored a lot of the footage, there is still a little bit of you that I’m aware of where Newt is trying to run away from Hicks in the Operation Center and you bite his hand again. That wasn’t included in any of the edits, probably for good purposes actually because he makes a rabies comment about you so that would have been bad for his character. I was just wondering if you recalled any additional stuff that you shot that wasn’t seen in either the theatrical release or the special edition.

That was the only scene that I could think of that I had never actually seen in any of the other releases but I think everything else was in either the theatrical or the special edition.

Aaron: There were very little deleted scenes that were left on the side that at least I’ve seen.

Yeah well there was a huge debate because two of the biggest scenes that they deleted were the ones with my family and then Sigourney – the hearing about her family and both of them were very personal to us because the scenes with my family included my own real brother. So obviously I wanted that and the scenes where she sees the picture of her daughter is actually a picture of her mother.

Eric: That also reinforced the bond that would come with your two characters later on.

Exactly so personal on a personal level but also for our characters it was a very big deal when they were deleted. They were deleted purely for time frame whereas now our movies are how long and… they don’t even think about it but at the time it couldn’t be about a certain amount of time.

Aaron: Yeah, it was all about getting multiple showings in a day in the cinemas.

All about the money.

Eric: You’ve spoken of having written a journal and made a scrapbook during the time on set. Might this ever see the light of day and get published somehow or is it considered too personal because I’m sure if nothing else we’d love to see some pictures you took at the time?

Well it was part of my schooling at the time is I would write a journal about different things that would happen. I do wish I had written more journal entries than I did. I don’t know how many people would be that intrigued by what I have to say. I did at one point think about writing a book, more for my children. Like my grandmother was born in rural Ireland and she wrote a story all about her life for her grandchildren. So I often thought about writing it like for my children or my grandchildren. Someone told me I should write it because not very often times you hear about like a child’s perspective about things like that. I don’t know. I thought about it. I just don’t know how many people would be very intrigued by it besides my family.

Eric: I think a lot of people would be very interested particularly because as you say you had that different perspective. You would have interpreted things that adults wouldn’t and of course you can now look back at it in adult years and say well I should have looked it in this way but because I had the child’s perspective I understand. I do think a lot of it as I said especially if you did any pictures yourself or your family did any pictures you would not believe how ravenous the fandom can be in that. You can have a stick of bubblegum Sigourney Weaver touched and you could probably put it on ebay and it will sell for a million dollars or something. Believe me, there will be interest for it.

I don’t know. We’ll see. Maybe one day.