Aliens: Jenette Goldstein plays Vasquez: Bearer of the smart gun on steadycam mount

leading from  

Aliens: Jenette Goldstein plays Vasquez

 

Drawing of Vazquez by James Cameron

 

 

a) Drawing a picture of Private Vasquez

Jim Cameron came to draw Private Vasquez holding what came to be known as a Smartgun. 

 

When he came back to recall all he could about the picture decades later, he wasn't entirely sure but

it might have been done once Jenette Goldstein had been cast so it was based on her.

 

It was to be the equivalent of the Rambo kind of weapon - the big M60 machine gunshot soldiers used for heavy suppressing fire during the Vietnam War. 

 

Because of its size, it came equipped with a bipod that could be displayed for stabilisation and it could also be mounted as a door gun on a helicopter. 

 

But Cameron thought that it would be cool if these future marines had body harness technology that allowed a single operator to easily manipulate a weapon of this size. 

 

1. James Cameron: Not only was I designing the Smartgun, I was also designing the Vasquez character's look. I wanted her to be this super tough bodybuilder, a Latin girl with cropped hair. She's not more than five foot four, but she's got this huge fucking gun. I think at the point we had already cast Jenette Goldstein in the role, because the illustration looks a lot like Jenette as the character. When Jenette came in she had reddish-brown curly hair down to her waist, a super pale peaches-and-cream complexion, and red freckles. She was an Irish-looking Jewish girl from L.A. playing a dark-complected Latin girl, and, quite rightly, we'd get crucified for doing that today. If we had shot the movie in L.A. I would have absolutely cast a Latin girl, but we were in England, and the American contingent of the British Equity acting union didn't have many options for Latin actresses. So we went with Jenette. She had to wear brown contact lenses because her eyes were greyish blue. Plus we had to crop her long curly dark hair shot and dye it black. She was heartbroken, but as I told her at the time "Your hair will grow back. Vazquez will live forever" (Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron)

 

 

Cover of a 1972 edition of the book

 

b) Origin of the steadycam mount for a smartgun idea

He recalled that he gt the idea back in twelfth grade at school when he read a book called The Palace of Eternity by Bob Shaw. 

 

It was about a guy called Mack Tavernor who gets killer in battle trying to save his mother from alien attackers, the Pythsyccans. 

 

This character was running and shooting, trying to save her, but because his gun is bouncing around as he runs, he was not a good enough shot and his mother is killed. 

 

Then he is reincarnated and becomes fixated on the idea of making a gun that can be fired while running. 

 

So the character builds a stabilisation system for his gun, and the idea always stuck with Cameron

 

He wanted to do something similar on Aliens, and he thought , "well, waiting a minute, we have a stabilisation system, it's a Steadicam." 

 

Steadicams of course were invented back in 1975 and it's basically a camera counterbalance system that is strapped onto the user and kept the camera steady no matter how much the operator bounces around. 

 

So Cameron wanted to take a Steadicam, dress it up to look futuristic, and put a .30-caliber gun on it. 

 

We enventually wound up with an MG 42, a German World War II weapon that had these nice ventilated ribs around the front.

 

 

1. James Cameron: This is Private Vazquez holding what came to be known as a Smartgun. It was the equivalent of the Rambo kind of weapon - the big M60 machine gunshot soldiers used for heavy suppressing fire during the Vietnam War. Because of its size, it came equipped with a bipod that could be displayed for stabilisation. It could also be mounted as a door gun on a helicopter. But I thought that it would be cool if these future marines had body harness technology that allowed a single operator to easily manipulate a weapon of this size. I know exactly where I got the idea. Back in twelfth grade I read a book called The Palace of Eternity by Bob Shaw. It's about a guy called Mack Tavernor who gets killer in battle trying to save his mother from alien attackers, the Pythsyccans. He's running and shooting, trying to save her, but because his gun is bouncing around as he runs, he's not a good enough shot and his mother is killed. Mack is reincarnated and becomes fixated on the idea of making a gun that you can fire while running. So he builds a stabilisation system for his gun, and the idea always stuck with me. I wanted to do something similar on Aliens, and I thought , "well, waiting a minute, we have a stabilisation system, it's a Steadicam." Steadicams were invented back in 1975 - it's basically a camera counterbalance system that is strapped onto the user and keeps the camera steady no matter how much the operator bounces around. So I wanted to take a Steadicam, dress it up to look futuristic, and put a .30-caliber gun on it. We enventually wound up with an MG 42, a German World War II weapon that had these nice ventilated ribs around the front. (Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron)

 

 

 

 

 

 

c) Jenette bears the smart gun

 

c.i) Carrying the gun as if it were her reason to be

Jenette as Vasquez has to carry a heavy smart gun on a steadycam mount that was difficult to use, and the would have to maneuvre around corners and tight spaces with this machine. 

 

She wanted to make Vazquez seem as if she only really lived when she was carrying a gun, and it became part of her and so with that, everything clicked into being. 

c.ii) Like a flamenco dancer

The actress' grace wielding the massive weapon led to people telling her that she had a stance like a flamenco dancer, but she had to lean back otherwise she would be thrown forwards with the weight of this thing, as if the rig told her how she had to be. 

 

It was about seventy five to ninety pounds in weight and she was strapped into the rig,  

 

c.iii) Device made for a previous but taller actress and cut down

 

However hers had been pre-made for the previous actress who was going to play her role and she was five foot eight or nine and Jenette was barely five foot two, so they had to cut it down to fit her and it wasn't the greatest fit

 

 

1. Designers created the smart -gun by connecting an anti-aircraft gun—the kind that usually sits on a tripod—to a camera- man's steadicam unit.
   
   The actress' grace wielding the massive weapon led one critic to describe her as mov-ing around like a "flamenco dancer." "I wanted Vasquez to seem like she only really lived when she was carrying a gun," she explains. "It became part of her, and everything clicked into being.
   "Then again, that gun was so heavy, there was only a certain way you could walk with it," she laughs. "As every steadicam operator knows, you have to walk like that, or you'll fall over."
   When Vasquez's luck runs out in the film, however, she hardly falls over; rather, she claws, crawls and grimaces, blasting Aliens and grappling with one creature mano a mano before a grenade saves her from a serious case of indigestion. ( Viva Vasquez: Starlog Jenette Goldstein Interview 1987  Copied from https://archive.org/details/starlog_magazine-115)
2. BirthMoviesDeath:  April 26^th is all about celebrating the legacy of the first two Alien pictures – what does the legacy of Aliens mean to you personally?
   Jenette Goldstein: It really proves that great writing, strong characters, laughs and action are what last – it’s really a testament to James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd that Aliens has held up so well.
   BirthMoviesDeath:  The last time I got to watch the movie was on a 70mm print at the Alamo Ritz and it was really one of the greatest cinema-going experiences of my life. The one thing that occurred to me is that it’s a big action movie that came out at a time when these brawny, muscled Schwarzenegger types were rising in popularity. Did you ever envision Vasquez as being a woman’s answer to that?
   Jenette Goldstein: My concept of how I understood Vasquez was three dimensional. I wanted to create a real human being. In the script, she was recently released from juvenile prison while serving a life sentence for murder, as was Drake (Mark Rolston). There was no way out for them. They were lifers. I didn’t want Vasquez to be a cartoon and I talked to Jim about this. All I saw at the time in other movies was faux bravery. Why she did these things was because she had nothing to lose. That’s why, when she realizes that she’s going to die, it’s her choice at the end. So I focused on what was important to her as a person in this situation – because there is no such thing as a superhero.  
   BirthMoviesDeath:  Don’t tell modern audiences that. They might not show up.
   Jenette Goldstein: The fact that Aliens takes place in space is irrelevant. This was a war movie, in the most classic sense. This was a film about the working class grunts, and I wanted this woman to represent the future. As we know, women are now in the infantry, and the representation proved to be rather groundbreaking.  
   BirthMoviesDeath:  You bring up Vasquez’s sacrifice, which is interesting. Because without her death, the final segment of Ripley’s character arc can’t exist. Was that also one of the beats you were drawn to?
   Jenette Goldstein: It’s a really amazing arc that Vasquez goes through, and it stays so consistent. She was a gang member before juvenile prison. In these gangs, they’re even referred to as “soldiers”. And once she was tasked with a mission, she was going to see it through to the bitter end. [Laughs] You know I wish I could’ve made it to another sequel, but I always seem to die in the end no matter what movie I’m in.
   But there’s a respect she earns for Ripley that she wouldn’t otherwise have, and also for her commander – Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope).
   BirthMoviesDeath:  And that’s one of the best moments in the entire movie! “You were always an asshole, Gorman!” But it’s also – to your point – incredibly touching and human even in that intense moment.
   Jenette Goldstein: [Laughs] Well thanks.  
   BirthMoviesDeath: You’ve had a really great working relationship with James Cameron. What kept you coming back and working with him time and again?
   Jenette Goldstein: Well, Aliens was my first movie. I was trained as a stage actress. Movies just sort of happened because he took a chance on me, stood behind me and gave me this great opportunity. He’s a really, really loyal guy and he calls when he needs me. If I’m right for the role, we do it. If not – we don’t. He’s so honest and hardworking and loves his tech. But he also casts actors and then steps back and says “I trust you”.  
   BirthMoviesDeath:  It’s gotta be pretty cool to be on the King of the World’s speed dial.
   Jenette Goldstein: Can’t complain. He’s been so good to me.  
   BirthMoviesDeath:  Now you watch the behind the scenes documentaries about Aliens and it's always been described as something of a difficult shoot. What are some of your most distinct memories about working on the picture?
   Jenette Goldstein: We were on a set the whole time, so it wasn’t that difficult. Those stories seem overblown by this point. But we were in England and they don’t heat the sets very well, and I was dealing with explosions. I had nothing to compare it to at the time, but all of the conditions and hard work filtered into the character and the situation. It was hard being Vasquez on that planet! Probably the hardest thing was lugging around that smart gun, it was so heavy.  
   BirthMoviesDeath:  Yeah, that thing’s gigantic.
   Jenette Goldstein: You know, the most difficult moment was being in that tube at the end. All of the pallets came out and smacked me in the face and I had to try not to wince. I had to act like getting hit in the face didn’t hurt.  
   BirthMoviesDeath: You can’t break Vasquez’s appearance of constant toughness.
   Jenette Goldstein: : Right. Jim would tell me “hey I can’t use that take because you’re just going ‘ow, ow, ow, ow, ow’.”
     (http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/04/18/alien-day-jenette-goldstein-talks-playing-private-vasquez-and-lv-426)