Ridley Scott is a grump. My favorite moment in the voluminous archives of Scott grumpiness is when he defended the role of director as essentially a dictator, saying in a “Blade Runner” featurette:
“I don’t like discussion. I know exactly what I want […] that’s the director’s job. The director’s not meant to stand there and consult with half a dozen people in the room. The term director means ‘Direct, mate. Do the job.'”
Perhaps Scott was right about not being asked back for “Aliens” due to his temperament. There’s also the fact he was forced to shoot scenes he knew wouldn’t make the cut, which must have irritated the infamous grouch further. Either way, the director was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a bit cross about the whole thing. Asked about not coming back for “Aliens” by Deadline, Scott revealed that he discovered he wouldn’t be directing when James Cameron called him, explaining:
“When Jim called me up and said, listen … he was very nice but he said, this is tough, your beast is so unique. It’s hard to make him as frightening again, now familiar ground. So he said, I’m going in a more action, army kind of way. I said, okay. And that’s the first time I actually thought, welcome to Hollywood.”
According to Scott, he and Cameron “talk often,” with the director adding, “We’re not exactly friends, but we do talk and he’s a great guy.” Don’t sugarcoat it, Ridley. Still, despite the apparent lack of animosity between the two, Scott wasn’t too pleased to have been replaced. He added:
“I was pissed. I wouldn’t tell that to Jim, but I think I was hurt. I knew I’d done something very special, a one-off really. I was hurt, deeply hurt, actually because at that moment.”
