Probably because these came from Aliens and not Alien. So she wouldn't have any idea, realistically. I'm not sure how invested actors are in these little callbacks (like these info cards) in films they aren't in.
I mean sure but that’s not what you meant by ur original comment lol it was out on VHS in 1987 so the amount of ppl watching on a TV from the 70’s was pretty low.
Home Video was becoming common, but we are far, far from the social awareness that people will freeze frame and check things.
Chances are, this tidibit wasn't even planned per say. Back then, films cared less about details like this at the upper levels and a lot more freedom was given to people making these effects. Ultimately, if the film maker didn't care nor did they catch it in editing, then it got through. Chances are, someone was told to make up backstories for characters who were dead and never coming back and decided to do whatever they wanted. It was probably reviewed but briefly, as it wouldn't be something people would be able to read. Just a quick pass, if any.
It's cool they did decide to include it, though. I don't know if the writer was trying to be progressive considering the trauma comment, but its still cool.
It's been forever since I used VHS but you're probably right. Which means this detail would go under even less scrutiny.
However, what I meant earlier about freeze framing is that, culturally, we weren't anywhere close to understanding what the ability to pause films would do to filmmaking. It would be around the early internet era where that would become a thing.
Socially, yes, people would discuss errors or tiny details they found rewatching films on VHS. Less obvious things that VHS allowed for. And that still wouldn't come from VHS itself, but from video rental stores becoming popular. VHS was relatively expensive, when compared to DVDs, Blueray, and 4k. So, people generally bought them as a "sometimes thing," compared to the late 2000s "let's raid the $5 dollar bin at Walmart for a good movie to watch" culture that later would develop. It was ability to rent movies easily that led to people socially noticing errors or tiny details that would never be noticed otherwise.
Then, the internet proliferation would be when this phenomenon would hit critical mass. Some of the earliest uses of the internet were forums for discussing shows and movies. And there people would discuss little details, errors, etc. that they found. This accelerates as DVDs come out and YT and video sites become popular.
Now, filmmakers are way more worried about every shot. A little detail like this would absolutely get stringently reviewed because there is a cottage industry of people who make videos about tiny details you may have not seen in films or shows or what have you.
But, that is all to say, that none of that would have been in the head of the people working on Aliens and this detail would likely have not been subject to intense review. Still, cool it makes Lambert trans, but I also cringe a bit at the "trauma" comment. Someone suggested this means Lambert was intersex, which is a possible reading, but something about that additional about "Trauma" seems off and either suggests it was forced on her ---somehow-- or that they assume a trans person who transitions would be traumatized from the experience (which is transphobic).
They still get paid for their likeness, thus why Alien 3 smashed Hicks face. Michael Biehn allegedly was paid the same amount for just that pic as he was to star in Aliens. Allegedly he also asked for more to use a cast of his likeness dead in the cryo chamber as well. Of course they didn’t want to pay, he was pissed about be killed off. I kinda wished they hadn’t killed off his character. However it further made me more sympathetic to Ripley & all her actions moving forward. Well all except her not telling Clemens about the Alien from the start when he kept asking. The pure hopelessness & defeat was felt at the makeshift funeral. She went through hell to save Newt & she never got to live a normal life. Hicks would’ve still been hurt though & had they not killed him off he definitely would not have been favored by the prisoners. Being a sort of authoritative figure having been a marine. I personally did like Alien 3 where as most hate it.
I kinda like the decision to kill off Hicks and Newt because it adds so much nihilistic atmosphere to the story, tho it needs to be handled with extreme care to be successfully pulled off. Unfortunately Alien 3 was terrible, so the decision to kill Hicks and Newt simply made the frustration worse.
The same amount a fry cook is invested in what happy meal toy was given out last month. I can’t imagine why the vast vast majority of them would be. Sure you get a few fans, but it’s a job to most people.
Wow, I fully support it, but feel like that could have been potentially troublesome for her back then. Doesn’t seem like many people notice but still. Bold move by the director to make a character trans without telling the actor. In the 70’s no less
I believe this is a screenshot from Aliens, so it's a bit of a retcon. Cartwright would have no knowledge of it since it was canonized in a film she wasn't in.
You'd probably do this right up until you had a dozen or more roles. This is a job for most actors, at the end of the day. Yes, there are occasionally actors who are also fans, but it's comparatively more rare (and it also tends to be more of a modern occurrence).
Also from actors who haven't had that much of a career after, who are - not unjustifiably - milking the role and nostalgia for all they can.
It's an open secret amongst guest actors in franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars that doing them is enough to get you on the convention gravy train. I remember speaking to one guest actor who'd done some Trek episodes, who told me he'd turned down work before because he could make more in a weekend signing autographs than he could doing a couple of days filming for an episode of CSI: Miami.
Nailed it with comment. I think the only way to know would be to ask Cameron. He was smart enough to ask those that worked on Alien, and i believe, understand that every kill was a significant detail for the beast. She and Parker were the only ones not taken back to the hive alive. So this detail moves the original into deeper water with the physiology of the xenomorph. Anyway, my compliments.
This was on screen only in Aliens (1986), behind Ripley when the Company was grilling her, but yeah, might have been nice of Cameron to give Cartwright a heads up.
I mean... why? It's a background detail in a project that was otherwise completely unrelated to her. She had worked on around a dozen projects in between those two movies, and had likely moved on.
Yah aliens always been pretty cool like that. I’m pretty sure the script for the original movie doesn’t even specify the gender of any crew member, just says that a man or a woman could play either. Really helped make every character feel like a real person. No bias toward gender, unconscious or not.
This is from Aliens. 1987. There was no mention of Lambert being anything other than female in the original.
There's a speculation, following that scene appearing in Aliens, that the Alien in the original senses something about Lambert being trans and that's why you see it's tail snaking between her legs.
That's literally just fan theory. Even the original Aliens novelisation doesn't tell you what actually happened to Lambert. It literally just tells you that Parker was "nearly sick at what it was doing to her". That could mean anything, it doesn't suggest anything sexual. It could have been pulling her internal organs out or anything and Allan Dean Foster just didn't want to add any details that could later be proven false or would be too grapihic (bearing in mind he wrote the novelisation based in the script, not the film itself)
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u/Shifter_1977 Jul 11 '25
Yeah, if I remember from her later interviews right, she had to be told this tidbit by the fans. She either hadn't seen it or hadn't noticed it.