a.ii) Meeting with Gale at Pinewood
She started off the interview with the proverbial "And so, what he had been up to?"
He replied "You know, I just finished this movie Revolution" this was a movie directed by Hugh Hudson at the time had been famous for Chariots of Fire, and it starred Al Pacino (although Revolution when it was later released became a flop. )
Talking to them about it, he told a twenty minute long tale that rolled off the tip of his tongue about how he had the supporting role to Al Pacino.
It was one of those stream of consciousness thing but as a truth it was complete fabrication.
Her response was "Wow! Wow! I can't wait to see that. it sounds
fantastic"
It looked as if Gale really bought it because a week later she told him "You're going to meet Jim Cameron"
He had seen Terminator, but Jim Cameron was a big name in his head although Schwarzenegger was.
Then he was hauled in before Jim Cameron, Gale, and another actor to read Hudson's lines, which was what all the male and female actors had to read for their audition.
The night before he managed to get the whole script and he found that it was a page turner, he couldn't stop flipping the pages
Another day he was called back to read for both Gale and Jim. After he read, ge went into Jim's office.
Another meeting came and he was called out to Pinewood Studios and walked onto their soundstage in Pinewood.
He entered the office and saw that Jim has plastered the walls of his office with the complete storyboards, all arranged in sequence and hand drawn.
Jim was a very fine artist and Mark was like a kind in a candy shop, awestruck
Then they told him "Listen we want to let you know, you got the role as Drake, but there is a condition to it, the one condition is we need you to bulk up"
It wasn’t that he was attracted to it, they just saw him in the part.
Truthfully, he felt that he'd been very lucky to audition for so many classic films and fit the director’s picture.b.i) Bulking up
At the time he was about a 180 lbs, neither huge nor tiny, but had to put on about 35 or 40 lbs for the role.
Long before Bill Paxton and James Remar arrived, he was working on location at Pinewood.
First he was training with a stuntman (who operated the powerloader that the character Ripley operated in the movie) who was a massive man from Lincolnshire with arms as thick as both Mark's thighs.
He put Mark through his paces, really pumping him up.
He made Mark drink amino acids for bulking up,
While in the cafetera when he was talking to Jim Cameron, someone came up behind him with the words "Hey Mark, how are you?" and it was Hugh Hudson, the director of Revolution which he had just come off from.
It was then when Jim Cameron and Hugh Hudson met.
Hugh said to Jim, "oh, Mark's going to work with you now"
Jim replied "oh yeah, he's he's doing this movie Aliens that I'm going to do",
Although he had love and respect for her as a person, he thought "Oh. spite by name is a woman"
 |
| Drake's bone necklace |
 |
| The bones that hung from his hat. |
They spent all day on the set unable to really help but play jokes on each other.
There was a scene where Bill Paxton did the knife trick, they grabbed him and he was totally shocked.
He had had no idea as he thought it would be just him and Lance doing the knife trick.
See also about the Knife Trick in Aliens: Bishop The Android
f) Acid Bath
Filmed at the beginning, the death scene came for Drake , when Vazquez shoots an alien to pieces, unfortunately he gets sprayed with acid.
This was Mark's introduction to action film making, as if he were being thrown in at the deep end with four hour makeup and then having chemicals put all over him that bubbled and fizzed.
There before him for the reveal scene was this massive puppet with wires that went over pulleys that were manned by like times two me, and these two ment would make the legs move and there would be another two men making the arms move.
There was also a little man dressed in black who was tucked away into the skull of the queen and his only job was to push out the goo through her teeth, so that it would drip down her teeth and he would watch it.
He would later refer to this man as the 'goo guy'
 |
| Ripley encounters the Alien Queen from Aliens (1986) (Alien Blu-ray) |
h) Bill Paxton calls Mark
Mark was living in London and his son was young at the time, perhaps even had just been born
Bill Paxton would phone Mark once a week and pester him.
He would say "Dude, man, You gotta come over Mark, this is going to be huge. It's going to be a big fucking movie man"
Mark near enough responds "Yeah, yeah yeah, I know Bill"
Bill made the offer of "Come and stay at my apartment"
Paxton turned to Mark and said "This is going to be fucking awesome"
Mark said to him "Dude, it's only been out for three days!"
This made Mark realised that Bill Paxton was right, that this was going to be a major crazy hit and so it was
geekchicelite: Is it often a misconception that getting a role such as Private Drake in Aliens automatically opened doors for you?
Mark Rolston: No, you know, it was crazy. I knew it was a big movie, but I was living in London and my son was young at the time, and Bill Paxton, he just kept hounding me, he’d literally call me once a week, he’d be like ‘Mark, man, you’ve got to come, dude, this movie is going to be incredible, it’s going to be huge’, and I was like yeah, yeah, I know, Bill. He was like ‘come and stay at my apartment’, and I took him up on it and within five days I was starring in a movie with Lance Henriksen, I got an agent within a week, every door was open to me because Aliens was this big, hit movie. Consequently, I got so busy that I never returned to England, which was good in some ways, sad in others. I lost my first family, I didn’t lose them, but my first wife, she tried her luck in L.A. and she was the quintessential English rose, she wasn’t Hollywood, so she couldn’t get arrested, she became despondent so she returned to the UK. (http://www.geekchicelite.com/interview-mark-rolston/)- aftermoviediner: Can you tell me about your experience of auditioning for Aliens?
Mark Rolston:I just did a movie, Revolution, with Hugh Hudson, the famous director of Chariots of Fire, that starred Al Pacino and it was a horrible flop. I met with Gail Ann Hurd, who was the producer of Aliens and James Cameron's first wife, she asked me what I had been doing and so I made up this complete lie about Revolution - I made it sound like I had a supporting role to Al Pacino - that got me to the next process, where I met Jim Cameron. I read for Jim and it lead to them saying I had the role nut only if I agreed to getting in the gym pumping up and to put on some weight. I ended up putting on 35lbs.
aftermoviediner: What was the experience for you working with James Cameron and working with the British crew on Aliens?
Mark Rolston: There was some tension. It was mainly between Jim and the famous Assistant Director Derek Cracknell. It was really two big egos that clashed, it wasn't American against British, it wasn't anything like that. I think Jim Cameron wasn't really up to speed on the daily schedule and in England people stop for tea where as in America they just go go go. Jim Cameron is a great guy, he's a genius and Derek Cracknell, he's passed away now, I worked with him a number of times and he was great too. They ended up ironing things out after the movie was done.
(https://aftermoviediner.com/feed/interviews/mark-rolston) - Heyuguys: The Marines in Aliens have been a fan favourite even after all these years – how did it come about that you were cast as Drake?
Mark Rolston: I was called in for an audition and met with Gale Anne Hurd who was then James Cameron’s wife and the producer. She asked what I’d been up to and at the time I’d just finished the Hugh Hudson movie, Revolution, with Al Pacino and I made it sound as though I had the next best part to Al Pacino but that was a complete fabrication! Next I knew I hauled in before Jim and Gale then brought in again where they told me I would get the role if I got in the gym.
Heyuguys: And we read that you guys trained with marines as part of your prep?
Mark Rolston: I had to put on about 35lbs for the role. First I was training with a stuntman who was actually the engine who moved the powerloader that Ripley was operating – a massive man from Lincolnshire. He put me through my paces, really pumped me up. Just before shooting we ended up being trained by marines, well it was the S.A.S.
Heyuguys: Any stories from the set you can share?
Mark Rolston: You there on set all day so you couldn’t really help but play jokes on each other. The scene where Bill Paxton did the knife thing, when we grabbed him he was totally shocked. He had no idea as he thought it would be just him and Lance doing the knife thing.
Heyuguys: With the success of Alien, did you get a sense at all from the shoot it was going to be as massive as it was?
Mark Rolston: We didn’t really have that big a sense it would be until after shooting when Bill Paxton would phone me once a week – he would pester me. He’d be saying: “Dude, man. You gotta come over Mark, this is going to be a huge. It’s going to be a big fucking movie man.” Bill actually offered me to stay in his apartment so after months and months of pestering me I bought my ticket and went over.
Heyuguys: It’s clear there was a bond with you and your fellow marines so was it quite a fun set to work on?Mark Rolston: It was the classic set up for any young man – dress up and play a soldier all day. What could be better? We became a very tight knit group – a big group of Americans living in England and because of all the training we had that comradery that soldiers have and became good friends.
Heyuguys: Of all the merchandise from the film how surreal is it to have your own action figure?
Mark Rolston: I don’t quite have it yet – there are figures out there though. There was an unofficial one out years and years ago. I am just about to hopefully make a deal with NECA Toys but I do need the fan base to pester them. Let’s just say we are negotiating right now.(https://www.heyuguys.com/interview-mark-rolston-aliens-saw/) - Mark Rolston: Um, I think the most amazing I saw was when the Queen alien was introduced, I was on set that day and there were literally eighteen guys with pulleys, I mean lit... it was puppetry, she was a puppet, massive puppet, hut imagine they were manipulating her as if they were like puppeteers and to see that being created with a guy, you know the oooh, the goo used to come out of her mouth, it was actually a guy in the helmet, the head, pushing, the goo, the goo guy. Exactly.so that was amazing to me to see how they translated just simple puppetry into a monster (Red Carpet news https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGfy8ZgjN5Y)
- Mark Rolston: The Acid bath was great because that was the first shot in the film and it was my introduction to action film making, I mean talk about being thrown in at the deep end, four hour makeup and then being, having chemicals put all over you that bubbled and fizzed it was pretty amazing. (Red Carpet news https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGfy8ZgjN5Y)
- Interviewer: ...huge part of just my love and fascination with that film, I loved Drake and Vazquez's relationship together, and Jenette was awesome, she was talking about building the backstory between the two characters and everything and her audition process with the movie with James Cameron and whatnot and I was hoping that you could also fill in a little back story of drake and how you know, you sort of came up with the character, what you brought to the table with the character
Mark Rolston: Yeah, well it was interesting, you know, I was living in England at the time as Jenette was, and er, but I wasn't a competitive body builder, but erm, no, I I trained in England and I was you know I was working, I got a call one day they said Hey, There's this script that we need you to read, and you're going to go meet erm, Gale Anne Hurd down at Pinewood studios and so you know, erm, the sides I got, I actually seen the whole script you know, and it was kind of fascinating sci-fi, I knew nothing about it, erm, but went into see Gale and you know, she started off the interview with the proverbial "And So, what have you been up to?" and I'd just come off a movie called Revolution with Al Pacino
Heyuguys: I love that movie by the way
Mark Rolston: And, and erm erm
Heyuguys: Even if you don't, I do
Mark Rolston: Well, it was a grand scale, I just don't, I just thought Pacino was awful
Heyuguys: Yeah, I know, I agree it's it's (laughter)
Mark Rolston: But the scale of the movie, and the production values were just absolutely incredible
Heyuguys: Totally
Mark Rolston: Yuh, but the funny was, so I, she said "what have you been up to", I said well, you know I just finished this movie Revolution and I went on to tell a tale, a tall tale that lasted about twenty minutes, said it rolled off the tip of my tongue and I made it sound as if I had the next best roll in the film to Al Pacino, and er, it was one of those stream of consciousness things and she obviously bought it because a week later, erm you know, she oh your'e going to go and meet Jim Cameron, and I didn't really know, I'd seen Terminator, but it wasn't really like Jim Cameron was in my brain, I mean Schwarzenegger was in my brain and terminator was in my brain, erm and so I meet Jim, and at that time we had, any guys I think the girls too. If you auditioned, you all were reading Hudson's part,
Heyuguys:Uh,
Mark Rolston: And so we all read Hudson and then Jim says to me, okay, er, just take this, takes these sides, I want you to read this part, and just go outside for five minutes and come back in and I was like "Okay". Came back in, read, he said thanks a lot, and I thought, oh well and then about a week or so later, I get a call saying Oh your going into Pinewood to remeet Jim cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, and I walk into their office, er, on a soundstage in Pinewood and was completely, oh, but the night before, I finally got the whole script, and I can tell you, it, being a page turner, it doesn't even do it justice. This, this film, I mean, just reading it, it just flew by. I mean, you couldn't stop, I mean, just flipping pages. And then, erm, when I entered the office, the most amazing thing was, was that Jim had plastered the walls of his office with, with a complete storyboard, you know that Jim's a very fine artist by the way
Heyuguys: Yuh, yuh
Mark Rolston: He had the storyboards plastered in sequence around the four walls of his office, the entire film and it was just, I was completely overwhelmed, they sat me down and they said listen we want you to play the role of Drake, and I was like "Wow okay" and they said but there is one caveat, erm you've got to get into the gymn and we need to beef you up, and I , I was in shape, but I was only like a hundred and eighty five, eighty seven pounds, and so three months prior to filming, I was the lone representative actor working out five days a week erm with one of the trainers, and actually the man who was as, a stunt man who was the muscle behind the power loader when when when Sigourney was in that big yellow machine
Heyuguys: Mmhmm, yeah
Mark Rolston: That was actually powered by this, I can't remember his name either, it really befuddled me, but he was this massive northern England guy who lived who lived on a farm and he had biceps the size of both my thighs
Heyuguys: Wow
Mark Rolston: So he, he beefed me up and they had me drinking amino acid elixir and god I was eating at Pinewood, because you could go go go crazy, if they said you could work out for five hours and okay time for lunch, I'd go eat two steaks, erm, so by the end of it all, I beefed up to about 235
Heyuguys: Oh wow
Mark Rolston: And it was, you can see from the film, it wasn't fat, it was like, I was just,
Heyuguys: Oh yeah, lean
Heyuguys: Muscle, oh boy
Mark Rolston: So er,, erm, yeah, that was the start of it all and then it wasn't until a few weeks before filming that the American actors from LA came over and I finally met Jenette and er yeah, Jenette and I sat down and we worked out, you know the entire back story and it served , I mean, aside from the fact our relationship was really cemented by the fact that while in between takes, everybody else was like fucking off and having a good time and listening to Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser tell jokes, Jenette and I were stuck on the stools with the erm, smart gun you know, firmly attached to our bodies. It was like in between takes, Jim, we couldn't like de-rig and rig and derig and rig, so Jenette and I became very close friends because we were stuck with each other and erm, and then yeah, the work that we just did filling in we had our back story really cemented what I created for Drake, which was that you know, I was just a conscript, I took on the mission just because it was a chance to get out of like you know, you know, prison and and er because my friend Vasquez was going to go, I was going to go and have her back, and so the only person that I really answered to, I mean I I do the military thing but the only person that I would follow and look up to was Vasquez, and erm, for myself, I really had not a lot of time for any body else on the crew. Erm, I was doing my job and just taking the opportunity to get out of prison and so something different, so
Interviewer: The cool thing is, did you also decorate er your, you know, your slash Drake's locker as well like
Mark Rolston: Yeah
Interviewer: With your own personal coutraments and everything
Mark Rolston: Absolutely yes. We had a great time, it was like one afternoon when we were rehearsing, Jim goes "Okay everybody, pack up your stuff, come follow me," and we traipse across Pinewood studios, we go to this, where the art department was, we go up these rickety old stairs and there's this big room with paint brushes and buckets of things and leather straps and feathers, and bones and whatnot, and Jim was like "Okay, you guys decorate all your shit, see you later" He'd takes off. it was crazy. It was, there goes, I started off making my bone necklace and the bones hanging off my hat and er . You know, it was amazingly like when we finished the film, I , I got all that stuff, I had all of it.
Interviewer: Oh, you kept it
Mark Rolston:And I, yeah,
Interviewer: Wow
Mark Rolston: And sadly, after a divorce, my ex, who is a lovely woman, she's a great woman, but she er, I was once offered like a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for Drake's stuff and and I decided I'd give her a call to see if she still had it in her garage, and she went "No, I threw that away
Interviewer: Oh no!
Mark Rolston: And I was like "Oh. spite by name is a woman"
Interviewer: yeah,
Interviewer: Ooh!
Interviewer: Sad to say, I've been down that road once before but not to the tune of that number
Mark Rolston: Yeah, i was going to say so have I, not to, not to that extreme ah, I will, you know, i.. in the Drake saga on on on a positive note, and say that, even as eight year old me, that was not at all lost on me, like immediately I, I could tell that Drake and Vazquez were just you know as thick as thieves, at eight you don't know if they are lovers or whatever it is, but you can tell that they're thick, and and that was just, just so awesome and, and er, I would be remiss (Source: Interviews After Dark with Mark Rolston, 30th, November 2020) - Interviewer: So Aliens was a huge success, quite a get for you as an actor, and , and I believe James Cameron coming off the hugely successful Terminator when he started getting Aliens together. How did you score that role?As Private Mark Drake, what was it like to work with, with the great James Cameron?
Mark Rolston: Yeah, right off the back, the guys a friggin genius,
Interviewer: Yeah
Mark Rolston: The bottom line, the guy's a genius, ah, ah, a dynamo, you know he's he's so dynamic in so many ways, he is not necessarily really favourite director, only because, in as much as he is a great technician, he's not really an actor's director, I mean, I mean, he knows how to cast well I think, but he's not, he doesn't really know how to get inside an actor and get them to move around a bit, so but to say like I scored, it was amazing, I had just come off er a movie called Revolution, starred Al Pacino and Nastassja Kinski, and er, I get, you know, I get called in for this science fiction script, of course I wasn't able to see a script
Interviewer: Right
Mark Rolston: But I went in and I met with Gale Anne Hurd and I got the proverbial "so what have you been up to lately?"
Interviewer: Was that his wife then?
Mark Rolston: She, they were married, yuh. And you know, so I get that proverbial question and I launched, this is gods honest truth
(Chuckle)
Mark Rolston: I launched into a diatribe about my involvement in this movie, that I made it sound like I had the next best part to Al Pacino.
(Chuckle)
Mark Rolston: and she said "Wow! Wow! I can't wait to see that. it sounds fantastic" and then it got reinforced by the fact that after, of course I had that meeting and then I had to go do another meeting with Jim and Gale and another actor and I read, I guess I read Hudson's line and then I had another meeting where I came in and read er er Drake, and then I had another meeting , they called me out to Pinewood studios and this was the most, one of the most amazing memories in my life. I walked into Jim's now Aliens office set at Pinewood, I go into his office and on the wall was, 'cause Jim's a very fine artist right,
Interviewer: Yeah
Mark Rolston: He could paint like classical if he wanted to
Interviewer: Oh nice
Mark Rolston: But he has storyboards, the entire storyboard of the movie in sequence, in these amazing hand drawings
Interviewer: What?
Mark Rolston: That was last, oh yeah, that was plastered in sequence all the way around his office Oh my god, and I walked in, you know I was like a kid in the candy shop, I was just awestruck, and then when they said to me, listen we want to let you know, you got the role as Drake, but there was a condition to it, the one condition is is we need you to bulk up
Interviewer: Yeah
Mark Rolston: And at, and at the time maybe, uh, 180-ish, you know
Interviewer: Not huge, but not tiny either
Mark Rolston: Yeah, and and they put like forty odd pounds onto me. I was working on the location at Pinewood long before Paxton and Remarr and everybody else came out, to join, because I was working out with this from, he was from northern England, and oh my god, he just had me drinking this amino acid shit
(Chuckle)
Mark Rolston: Eating like a fucking horse, and that's one thing so
Interviewer: How fucking nasty was that amino acid
Mark Rolston: I-i-it made you crazy man because you you you just couldn't stop eating and you would, you know it's like, they they they they take me to lunch at the Pinewood cafeteria. Here's the linkup, I'm in line at the er er, at the Pinewood cafeteria and I'm talking to Cameron and then from behind me I hear, "Hey Mark, how are you" and then it's Hugh Hudson the director of Revolution
Interviewer: Oh nice,
Mark Rolston: And he had directed Chariots of Fire
Interviewer: Wow
Mark Rolston: and then the two of them met and then Hugh he said "oh, Mark's going to work with you now" and then he said "oh yeah, he's he's doing this movie Aliens that I'm going to do" and so, it totally validated the long yarn that I gave to Gale Ann Hurd"
Interviewer: The tall tale was validated good I was thirteen I think when it came out, and so I had to er, not the the date, date myself, but erm, I had it like convince my mother, because my dad was like "you can go, I don't care," you know, but my mom was like, no no no, you're not seeing below PG or above PG 13
Mark Rolston: Got it
Interviewer: And I was like, okay come on, but my sister took me
(Chuckle)
Interviewer: And so I got to go and see it and I just remember, that was like the first real rate R movie that I saw in the theatre and I saw Newt coming out of the water and then the alien coming out of the water behind her and erm, oh my god I'm going to be scared out of my gorg watching this movie but it was so action packed and I'm wondering what, you know, what was it like on that set going through 'cause, I imagine you guys did some military training to get ready for that and the Bill Paxton with the classic line "Game over man!"
(Chuckle)
Interviewer: You know, what, did you guys kind of have a feeling or know when you're shooting it like, this is going to, this gonna be a classic
Mark Rolston: You know, you know, like from my perspective, I I knew it was going to be a big movie, but it wasn't until say, and the set was intense, I mean, this this was a seriously big movie, and this movie was shot for only eighteen million bucks okay
Interviewer: It still holds up today
Mark Rolston: It still holds up today which is absolutely amazing, but when we were doing the shoot, you know, Gale and Jim were on the hook for any overages. I had a super early call like 4.30 in the morning
Interviewer: Yeah
Mark Rolston: And I'm walking through a sound stage, it's totally dark but I can see it, further in the sound stage, there was somebody standing with a flash light, and as I got closer, it was fucking Cameron at 4.30 in the morning
(chuckle)
Mark Rolston: he was looking at the APC set and he was taking notes and, I said, it was just he and I in the entire fucking sound stage
Interviewer: yeah
Mark Rolston: and i said, I was like good morning jim, and he didn't hear me, he was so intent on what he was studying or looking at
Interviewer: Just hyper focused
Mark Rolston: Yuh, and I just thought Wow, this dude is laser focused, intense, absolutely amazing, but you know, the the rest of the film we didn't really know until Paxton started calling me and every day I would be like Hell you know, my son was just born, I I don't know maybe I'm thinking about it, and finally I just gave in and alright, Paxton I'm coming, I'm coming, I booked my flight, and he, he kept saying "it's going to be huge" and he and I sat together at the Premiere, and you know, we're all dressed, but there's a whole bunch of you know, penguins in the audience and it's all the studio people Paxton and I were sitting together and at the opening moment, or early on in the film, you know when the first Alien pops out of the stomach of one of the crew that were like in the alien cemetery
Interviewer: Yeah
Mark Rolston: Man, all these suits leapt three feet out of their chairs
(chuckle)
Mark Rolston: and Paxton he turned to me, he said "This is going to be fucking awesome"
(chuckle)
Interviewer: aah that's awesome
Mark Rolston:Yeah, and then I, I remember, like I saw it at the premiere at then one day I was in Hollywood, I , I went to a bank
Interviewer: Yuh
Mark Rolston: And the bank guard, like I'm standing in the line , I'm like yoh, he comes over and he goes "you're fucking awesome man"
"what do you mean?"
"I've seen Aliens like twelve time"
I was like "Dude, it's only been out for three days"
He goes, "yuh, I payed for my ticket once and then I hide, and I just watch it over and over"
(Chuckle)
Mark Rolston: And I thought to myself, this is going to be a major crazy hit because yuh, and and and, it's stands to this day
Interviewer: Yep, I, You could put that movie up against any sci-fi movie, sci-fi adventure movie and the special effects hold up, the story holds up, the lines, the lighting, the camera work, it all, holds up
Mark Rolston: Yes, it did, it's extraordinary
Interviewer: yeah, I mean, I love the director's cut because it shows those giant guns that were sweeping down the hallway and I'm like, I wish they put that in the theatre
(chuckle)
Interviewer: because they really missed a step in my mind on Aliens 3, I was like "huh!you guys had something so special in Aliens, why did you do this? "
(chuckle)
Mark Rolston: Well you know, I always said to Jim, like, you know, are you going to do another and he went "no, never"
Interviewer: Oh
Mark Rolston: And then later on in life he had, he went onto Terminator 2 and all that
Interviewer: which was a giant success
Mark Rolston:Yuh, and err, yeah, he was pretty determined not to do another Aliens, but I remember too when Aliens opened up, that's when Jim signed his massive contract with Fox, so you know, five hundred million dollars it was
Interviewer: Do you think that the tactile work for the first time, because CGI looks amazing when you first see it but over time it starts to look dated because it just gets better
Mark Rolston: That's true that's true, and er I think there maybe a point in that and of course, you know, we have to give a shout out to the brilliant Stan Winston, god bless his soul, you know.
Interviewer: Yeah
Mark Rolston: You know, he was a phenomenal, phenomenal technician and master of special effects and practical effects and, you know there were miniatures that they shot but the most fascinating thing to me was, I been wrapped, but I went back when they were shooting the reveal of the queen alien
Interviewer: Yeah
Mark Rolston: Dude it was the most amazing set ever, uh because
Interviewer: I believe it
Mark Rolston: Well, they had, imagine like a massive puppet with wires that went over pulleys that were manned by like sometimes one sometimes two guys, these two guys were er making the legs move and the other two guys were making the arms move and they had another little guy who was actually tucked into the skull of the queen alien and his only job , he was all in black, and his only job was to push the alien goo out through the teeth, so it would drip down her teeth, and I watch it
Interviewer: there was so much detail
Mark Rolston: but, but but, it was all puppetry
Interviewer: Yuh it's amazing,
Mark Rolston: and when you watch the scene in the movie, I mean, wow like that was seeing King Kong for the first time
Interviewer: Yeah
Mark Rolston: You know the reveal of the queen alien was just incredible and it was all practical effects (Spoiler Country podcast, Friday, 10th April 2020) Is it often a misconception that getting a role such as Private Drake in Aliens automatically opened doors for you?
Mark: No, you know, it was crazy. I knew it was a big movie, but I was living in London and my son was young at the time, and Bill Paxton, he just kept hounding me, he’d literally call me once a week, he’d be like ‘Mark, man, you’ve got to come, dude, this movie is going to be incredible, it’s going to be huge’, and I was like yeah, yeah, I know, Bill. He was like ‘come and stay at my apartment’, and I took him up on it and within five days I was staring in a movie with Lance Henriksen, I got an agent within a week, every door was open to me because Aliens was this big, hit movie. Consequently, I got so busy that I never returned to England, which was good in some ways, sad in others. I lost my first family, I didn’t lose them, but my first wife, she tried her luck in L.A. and she was the quintessential English rose, she wasn’t Hollywood, so she couldn’t get arrested, she became despondent so she returned to the UK. (http://www.geekchicelite.com/interview-mark-rolston/)
How did “Aliens,” which was directed by James Cameron and stars Sigourney Weaver, change your life?
Mark Rolston: Bill Paxton would always tell me how huge this movie was going to be. I knew it was a fantastic script. With most projects, you never know if it’ll be a hit or become iconic in film history. “Aliens” certainly did. I always had it in the back of my mind that in order to get to Hollywood, I most likely had to do it on the back of a huge project. “Aliens” was it. I took the opportunity to come to the premiere — all at the behest of (Paxton) who’d call me once a week saying, “Mark, you’ve got to come, man! It’s going to be huge!” I finally relented and bought a ticket. It changed my life.
Looking back, how was working with James “Jim” Cameron?
He was on-set hours before anybody else because of his vision. There are rumors he’s mega-maniacal. He’s not. He was on the hook for a lot of money if he fucked something up and ran a day behind. He also knows what he wants onscreen. The main thing about Cameron is when he spent time at Roger Corman’s studios, he learned every single job. He knows when a crew member's slacking, he doesn’t have time for fools. He’s quite an innovator.
How was the auditioning for him?
When we all auditioned, we all read the same pages. I thought I was reading for Hudson, to be honest. I met (producer) Gale Anne Herd. She interviewed me but didn’t read me. Then they called me back to read for her and Jim. After reading, I went to Jim’s office. ‘We want you to play Drake.’ It wasn’t that I was attracted to it, they just saw me in the part. Truthfully, I’ve been very lucky to audition for so many classic films and fit the director’s picture.
And Weaver?
She’s the epitome of class. She’s a tremendous professional, very fine actress. She’s stunning, statuesque, serious about her work, committed and determined. What an iconic role for her to play. And for Jim and Gale to have that vision of a female action hero, Sigourney pulls it off in spades and then some. She’s the backbone of the movie. It’s such a great portrayal of mothers and what they’ll do to protect their young.
How did “Aliens” challenge gender stereotypes in science fiction?
It’s something often forgotten. It’s a shame. More buzz was made about Gal Gadot in “Wonder Woman.” I remember seeing it with my daughters and they’re like, “Wow, this is awesome, Dad! There’s finally a female action hero!”
Studios wanted to talk Jim out of this idea. Imagine that. It’s way ahead of its time – way ahead. Jim stood by Sigourney, so she’d become the first woman to make $1 million. It’s amazing. Historic. (https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/alien-encounter-mark-rolston-reflects-on-his-dynamic-career-before-c4-appearance,21684)
"Aliens: Mark Rolston plays Drake" was posted on 15th July 2021
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