Aliens: Jenette Goldstein plays Vasquez: Bonding on the set

 leading from  

Aliens: Jenette Goldstein plays Vasquez

 

 

a) Near enough ten days of practic before principal photography

 

They had perhaps ten days (that seemed more like two weeks as the years went on according to Jenette's memory) before principal photography where they got to hang out together and train and master the weaponry that they were working with, working with methods of tactical urban warfare with the help of Tip Tipping who played had been a Royal Marine Commando and SAS soldier. 

 

b) Time to bond 

 

The time they had to bond then allowed them to become like a unit and so when Sigourney Weaver came aboard, she was an outsider to their group and it worked perfectly for their roles, and it was the same with Burke and Gorman who were outsiders coming in.
 

c) A crash course in film making 

 

Her research soon gave way to a crash course in film making, as she tried to find her way around her first movie set as a novice screen actress. 

 

She didn't realise what an affect it would have having to do the scenes out of order which did come to her as a shock.  

 

d) The introduction to the marines scene was filmed

The introduction to the marines, for example, as they awoke from hyper space and gnawed on breakfast, was filmed at the production's end. That way, the cast had several months to get acquainted. 

1. Interviewer:  And speaking of that, you guys had two weeks before shooting to kind of bond as a unit  
   Jenette Goldstein :That was great, yuh, that was, that was an incredible luxury, I mean, I was already in that kind of shape when they found me, like I said I'd been training for a year incredibly, almost two years, but a year I was like really wanting to do this the body building and the you know, the dieting and the lifting and so they, just the coincidence I was in the best shape I had ever been in my entire life, I had never ever been like that before, erm, and you know that, so people say, oh, you know, how did you get in that kind of shape, that was really hard, so erm, but he gave us two weeks, which is an incredible luxury, to meet each other, um, small arms, and we also worked on like tactical urban warfare, because two of the erm, stunt men, erm, Trevor Sutton and Tip who who passed away in an accident, but they, these were stuntmens... stuntmen but they had also been in the, erm, SAS  
   Interviewer:  Oh wow!  
   Jenette Goldstein : And in Northern Ireland, so they would teach us how to do sort of approaching a building and, and and because that was what it was. It was like urban 
   Interviewer:  Yuh
   Jenette Goldstein: warfare  
   Interviewer:  Yuh, now speaking of tactical weapons, you had to use a gun that had never really been used before, and it's a heavy machine gun on a steadycam mount right  
   Jenette Goldstein: Right right  
   Interviewer:  Smart gun  
   Jenette Goldstein : Well, it was a real gun  
   Interviewer:  Yuh  
   Jenette Goldstein : But it was, it was put on a steadycam mount, so, yeah, it was a combination of the steadycam and the gun and it was yeah, it was really difficult  
   Interviewer:  Right, I mean, one thing just to hold that thing, I mean, carry it and support its weight but, you had to maneuvre around corners and through tight spaces with that thing, how was that  
   Jenette Goldstein : It was really cool, I mean, you could see it kind of float in a beautiful way and um, the stance, sometimes people say, oh my god the stance you had was like a flamenco dancer and you leaned, you leaned back, 
   Interviewer: It does, that's not a crazy illusion
   Jenette Goldstein : It was like.... I leaned back because I, because otherwise you'd been thrown foreward, I mean, the gun, the rig tells you how you have to be. But it's...
   Interviewer:  Do you remember how much it weighed?  
   Jenette Goldstein : You know, I think, I, it was very heavy, I think they said it was like seventy five to ninety pounds, it was, it was around there and then it attached to the rig which takes it off, but we were strapped in, and unfortunately my, you know, every steadycam operator, and there's not that many of them, shout out to my girls, my female steadycam operators, erm, you you know, they make your rig to fit you, your height and everything, and they erm, had one premade for the actress who they assumed would be at least five foot eight  
   Interviewer:  Yuh  
   Jenette Goldstein : Five foot nine, and I'm barely five foot two  
   Interviewer:  Oh wow,  
   Jenette Goldstein : So it had to be cut down so it wasn't the greatest fitting rig, so  
   Interviewer:  So on the external part of your character, you actually had some extensive makeup right  
   Jenette Goldstein : Oh yeah 
   ("I was there too" podcast, 17th March 2015)    
2. Jenette Goldstein: For the week we spent with each other, ten days, and we ate together and hung out and we worked again, we got to know everyone, joking around with people then did, we began to feel like we were together in a unit and now the films gone on, we definitely, I feel like I know, I know all of them. (Making of Aliens: Preparing for battle)
3. Jenette Goldstein: And so we ran around the sculpture gardens of Pinewood where we hung in congress with these lovely little hedges and things, we were going, "awooah awaoh" it was really kind of silly that er. You know, it was good, it was really good, and the assaulting stair wells (Making of Aliens: Preparing for battle)
4. Jenette Goldstein: We had a great camaraderie with all the guys, you know, the soldiers , the grunts, and it was fantastic, and we got together about two weeks before we started shooting which is unusual, to hang out and to train, to get to know each other. (Making of Aliens: Preparing for battle)
5. Jenette Goldstein: It was good that we were together first and Sigourney... and Ripley come in later and we are all a unit and she's the outsider, and it was... was perfect. And the same thing with erm, with Burke and Gorman, It just worked out that way so it, it was easy that way, they were outsiders coming in. (Making of Aliens: Preparing for battle)  
   
6. BirthMoviesDeath: What makes the movie really work is that the bond and comradery the Marines share feels so real. How do you think that was achieved on set? How did that unit come alive?
   Jenette Goldstein: We had the luxury of being given two weeks before principal photography, where we got to hang out and train and master the weaponry we were working with. We were working with a member of the Armed Forces in Britain who was overseeing it all. Most of the cast was from England, and those who were from Hollywood – Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen – we’d take them out and show them around and became really close friends. To this day, I’m still really close with a bunch of the cast. Mark Ralston and Ricco Ross – I see their families all the time. (http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/04/18/alien-day-jenette-goldstein-talks-playing-private-vasquez-and-lv-426)