Alien:The idea of the alien as a fawn

Leading from

Alien: Making the Movie

Alien making a kill in the claw room

a) Ridley had an idea about the alien being like a fawn or a young animal that someone would go up to and then its suddenly lashes out, which he talked to Veronica Cartwright about.

It was a beauty and the beast sort of thing.

None of them did try to communicate with it when it would jump out from the dark



b) However it was hard to say if any of that survived in the final movie.

Perhaps there was a lot more to be said about the actual idea than was being recalled by Veronica Cartwright in shorthand, but when she saw the actual movie,

She could only see it as an evil thing that comes out to get the crew.

Although years later she saw it slightly differently being about a creature that had to use its survival instincts to survive


c) The idea of the creature being like a beautiful fawn which suddenly lashes out would would be carried on into the development of the Prometheus movie but soon dropped.

(See also: Prometheus:Babyhead)

1. Veronica Cartwright: I remember when I first saw it, I was a little disappointed in that the part that Ridley had talked about of it being like a fawn or a young animal that you go up to and it lashes out, the beauty and the beast sort of part of it. That was not there as much anymore. That element of none of us did try to communicate with her, where it would just jump out at the dark. And I loved the element that we were creating that, and that was no longer in it. It was more like just shock value. So I was disappointed in that.  (Report from interview for Alien Evolution)
2. Interviewer: How did the ‘fawn’ element go?
   Veronica Cartwright:I don’t know, I think when they were shooting it I mean, well, but you see, like years later I look at the movie and it does have that Hitchcockian feel. I mean it does have, you’re not quite sure whether you see it or don’t see it. Is it there, isn’t it there, when it comes forward at the end and stuff like that, it does have that Hitchcockian feel, so it could have just come out of what I thought we had shot and what Ridley had originally talked about. I didn’t see that element there as much when I first saw it. It seemed to be more like you know, just an evil thing and it’s just coming out and it’s gonna get you. Although years later when I have seen it, I mean those elements are there. I mean it’s survival instinct is what the thing is going on and it has to survive and it has to do whatever it can do to survive.
   So, I’m able to accept it a lot better and I mean, obviously, people just loved it and it just takes years, I guess. (Report from interview for Alien Evolution)