‘Aliens’ Star Ricco Ross Reflects on the Film’s Success: 'Like Catching Lightning in a Bottle' (Exclusive)

Nearly 40 years after Aliens was released, actor Ricco Ross says he was surprised by the film's massive success. The veteran actor told Men's Journal behind-the-scenes facts about the iconic movie and shared that its cast couldn't predict how beloved the sci-fi classic would become. “It’s like catching lightning in a bottle,” Ross said.

During the same interview, Ross also discussed his role in the cult classic horror movie Wishmaster and what it was like working with Whitney Houston.

Ricco Ross Reflects on Making ‘Aliens’

Men’s Journal: You got to star in a movie that had one of the most legendary film sets of all time, Aliens. There are even documentaries about the production of Aliens that show how grandiose the project was. All these years later, do you look back on the production of that epic movie with amazement at the sheer magnitude of the project?

Ricco Ross: I don't look at that experience with nostalgia very much, simply because fans still love it, and we have sci-fi conventions where the cast reunites. So, I see my former co-stars regularly. Over the 40 years since that movie came out, I’ve watched those actors grow up together, and I've even watched their kids grow up as they've watched my kids grow up. We've become a family. So, I don’t feel nostalgia for that experience so much because it feels very present in my life.

The experience of working on Aliens is also very present in my mind because the fans often ask questions that bring those memories to the present. So, it doesn't live in the past for me. It lives in the present. As a matter of fact, I just received a Saturn Award last Sunday, which was amazing, and to have James Cameron there, and Gale Anne Hurd, and the Aliens cast members together with the director and the producer was just a beautiful experience. But, yeah, that experience was special.

The producers and the director were wise enough to have the Marines in particular meet two weeks before the camera ever started rolling to put us through basic boot camp so that we would have this kind of synergy as a group, as a unit. It paid off because I think we were able to know each other well. And then when it came to being in front of the camera, we were able to throw ad-libs at each other because we knew each other so well.

The breakfast scene, when we get out of the hyper chambers in particular, is one of my favorites because James would let us work on the lines of the script, but also, if we were so inspired, we would just go off script and start riffing. And we had the okay to go back and forth. So, some of what you saw in that breakfast scene was just us ad-libbing and having fun with the scene.

Men’s Journal: Did you cherish getting to watch a master like James Cameron work?

Ricco Ross: I have to admit, I am so preoccupied with my task at hand that I am just trying to figure it all out. I know that the director is thinking about a bunch of different things, but as an actor, you also have to multitask. You have to hit your mark. You have to know that you're not in the other character's camera light or angle. You have to know your lines. You have to know you're blocking where you're supposed to be. So there's a certain amount of multitasking that I have to do as an actor, too. Then, you're trying to be as authentic as you can, which means you're trying to put yourself in your personal space. So, I don’t have the bandwidth to really focus too much on being nervous or what the director is doing, amazingly or poorly. I'm really preoccupied with doing my job.

Men’s Journal: When you were making that movie, did you recognize that you were making something that could be amazing? Or, since it was such a big swing, were you worried at all that this movie could be terrible and flop?

Ricco Ross: I was going to be cheeky and say, “Of course I knew it was going to be a hit.” The honest answer is I didn’t know. I did a movie that I was the lead in with Vanessa Redgrave's daughter, Joely Richardson, called Body Contact. It was a dark comedy, and I thought it was going to do great. But the movie came out, and it did nothing.

We were about to go on a press tour to France to promote it. There was a scene in the movie where the bad guys are chasing us, and we hide in a club. The bad guys follow us in, and they just spray the nightclub with bullets. It was a dark comedy, and it was a funny scene. But just before the movie was going to come out, there was a massacre in England at the time. I was living in England. They put the movie off for a few months, but when they finally released it. And all the talking heads the next day were just talking about that scene. So, the movie really flopped. The English have a saying, “Once bitten, forever smitten.” So from that point on, I haven’t had those expectations.

I just treat every movie the same way. I go in there, and I'm as authentic as I can be. I create a character that is interesting. I try to take chances with my choices to make that character as interesting as I can make that character.

The other thing is it's such a team effort. You know, it's your cast members, it's the director's vision, it's the editor's vision, it's the soundtrack that can really elevate a performance. It's the crew, how well the crew works together. It's all of these things, and it's such a team effort. So you can have all the right elements, and it still might not work. So when you get a hit, it's like catching lightning in a bottle.

You do cherish those successes. But when I'm making a film, whether I'm working on a $100 million film or if I'm working on a film that costs $100,000, my job is the same. I go in there, create a character that's as authentic as it can be, I make interesting choices, take some chances. But, once I leave, I've done my job, and now it's up to you guys to do what you can do, whether it be the editor, the camera person, etc.

Ricco Ross Discusses the Cult Following of ‘Wishmaster’

Men’s Journal: I also wanted to talk to you about another movie of yours that I love. It's very close to my heart. I think the movie is wildly underrated, yet somehow still also absolutely beloved by its niche audience.

Ricco Ross: Ooh, I can't wait to hear the name of this movie. I wonder if I have it in mind already.

Men’s Journal: I'm talking about Wishmaster.

Ricco Ross: Yes! That was what I thought you were talking about.

Men’s Journal: I think that movie was such a fantastic story and concept even though some of the special effects don’t hold up. As somebody who was in it, is it wild to you to see that movie be underrated and beloved at the same time?

Ricco Ross: That was the project I thought you were describing. When I read the Wishmaster script, I remember thinking, “Wow, this is a good script. If we can implement it…” Most projects start off with the script, and that is everything. That's the one thing you want to get right. Because you can get a great script. You can get an average script and get great actors, and produce a project that isn’t great. But you can get a good script and get good actors and all of a sudden, things can just take off.

When I read the Wishmaster script, I remember thinking, “How good is this script? Wow.” That script and the one for Babylon 5. I remember reading the scripts and thinking, “These writers have done their job and made it easy for us. Now the question is, can we implement it? Do we have the budget to implement it? Do we have the talent to implement it? But the script is right. We've got the basis of a success.” That's what I felt about Wishmaster.

I don't think that there was a big budget. There was a small budget for Wishmaster. If you look at Aliens today, it looks like a movie that could have been made this year because we didn't use the 1980s special effects that would have dated the movie. But, we had the budget for that. It takes time when you're doing things practically.

There was a scene in Aliens where we were in the hyper chambers. And they wanted it to look like we had a lot of hyper chambers, but we didn't have that many. So they set up a huge mirror to create twice as many. They hung the mirror from a chain so that you couldn't see that it was a mirror. And it looked perfect. But it took a lot of time to arrange that.

Instead, they could have added hyper chambers with special effects, and it would have worked, but not as well. But I remember I'm lying in the hyper chamber while they're trying to set up the scene to make it look perfect. They had to get it perfect so that it wouldn't look like a mirror. I remember lying in there for so long in this small hyper chamber. And I'm thinking, “I hate this job.” When I got out of the hyper chamber, the first line I said was, “I hate this job.” After the take was over, James said, “Keep it in.” So, for the next three or four takes that we would do, I would use that line and that's why that line's in the movie. When you're working with practical crew that does work that way, it is time-consuming. And you have to have the budget to take that time.

With Wishmaster, we didn't have the budget. So they used digital special effects that dated the movie. But the script and the cast that the director brought together really made the movie the success that it became in the eyes of fans. It was great to work on such a crazy concept, and it worked. Sometimes, a movie can be really crazy, and it doesn't work. But this was just such an ideal and unique concept. Also, the tagline, “Be careful what you wish for.” Sticks with you and is as relevant today as it ever was.

Men’s Journal: I love that movie. I think it absolutely works.

Ricco Ross: I think Wishmaster started a lot of things, because if you look at some of these other horror movies that have come out since then, like Final Destination, it's kind of the same kind of concept.

Ricco Ross Says He Nearly Passed on ‘Aliens’

Men’s Journal: As a huge horror fan, I have to ask you, do you wish you had visually interesting death scenes in Aliens and Wishmaster?

Ricco Ross: With Aliens in particular, yes. When I got offered Aliens, I had also been offered Full Metal Jacket. At that time, most actors didn't know who James Cameron was because he had only done Piranha II: The Spawning and The Terminator. But, every actor knew who Stanley Kubrick was and I wanted to work with him.

When Stanley Kubrick offered me the role, he offered me the chance to work on that movie for 8 weeks. I was going to accept that and turn down Aliens. But James had asked me when we met. He said, “I want you to read this character.” I think the character that I was reading for was Hudson or Hicks, and I got emotionally attached to the character. Then he told me, “I want you in the film, but I can't offer you that role. I'm just starting casting, I haven't seen anyone else, but I would like to have you in the film.” Then I told him, Well if it's not for this role, I'm not interested and I was going to pass on it.”

But, James said to me, “Well, just do me a favor. Before you accept anything else, just come back and talk to me.” And I said ‘Okay.” So, when I got offered Full Metal Jacket, I was extremely happy about it. But as a man of my word, I said I'm going to go to James before I accept anything. I talked to James, and he told me he would rewrite the script. He offered me the character of Frost and rewrote the script to take 3 characters and combine them into one character that would be my character. He said he would also allow you to do another movie that I had been offered. “I'll schedule around that so you can do that movie as well.” So I ended up doing Aliens and the rest was history.

I remember when I first read the rewritten script for Aliens, I realized that my character was almost the first one to die. And I was like, “James, man, come on, man.” This was in the ‘80s, when it was so, so typical of the black guy to die first. James said, “Listen, Rico, you're 6’3. You're 200 lbs. I can't have you living because if you're alive when the aliens attack, you're going to go to work, and this is a vehicle for Ripley. She's the hero, not because she wants to be. She's the hero because she has to be. There's nobody else left.” He said, “I have to get rid of you. I gotta get rid of everybody just so that she's forced to go to work on these aliens by herself. That is the movie.” That made sense to me. So I, I kind of took one for the team and said, “Okay, alright, that makes sense. I'm still with it. I did the movie, and the rest is history.

Ricco Ross Reveals His Death Scene in ‘Wishmaster’ Was Going to Be Much More Intense

Men’s Journal: In Wishmaster, the only part of your character’s death that gets shown is a brief shot of him shaking. Do you wish that the character had a cool horror movie death or were you satisfied with what was shown?

Ricco Ross: I have to tell you, when we shot that death scene, they had me strapped in with my being hung from hooks in my skin. It looked crazy amazing and I thought, “Oh, wow, when this comes out, my death scene is going to be amazing.” But, in the movie, it happens in a flash, so you don't really get to see it. When we were making it, I thought my death scene was going to be awesome.

Men’s Journal: Could we see a situation in which you were in another Wishmaster movie? Because technically, your character was brought back to life at the end of that movie.

Ricco Ross: I don't know. There have been Wishmaster sequels since then. I think if it was going to happen, it probably would have happened by now. Although I did bump into the director a few years ago, it was so nice reuniting with him. I didn't even recognize him, but he recognized me. And then it all came back and it was so nice. I never say never.

Ricco Ross Recalls Working With Whitney Houston on ‘Saving All My Love for You’

Men’s Journal: On a completely different subject, there is something I have to ask you about that I find really fascinating. It's well known that you were in the Whitney Houston music video for "Saving All My Love For You." Then, many years later, you were in the movie Bobbi Kristina in which you portrayed a member of Whitney’s family. Since you had worked with Whitney herself, did that feel like a surreal moment to star in that movie after that earlier experience?

Ricco Ross: Look at you, doing your homework. It was surreal and it was heartfelt as well because I got along really well with Whitney. We had a great time together. She was just this beautiful young woman who, when she sang it was like the heavens opened up.

I remember we were doing a scene, and, for those who haven't seen the video, I was playing the producer, and she was playing the singer. I'm behind the glass, and she's in front of the glass, and she's at the mic, and she's singing, but she was lip-syncing. The director was doing take after take, and it wasn't working. So, he said, “Whitney, listen, can you actually sing? I need to see something happening in your throat.” She started singing, and I fell in love with this woman. Oh my God, when she started singing for real, it was so beautiful that you can't imagine it. The fact that God has given a person that much beauty and talent. We got along great. She was living in New York, and I was living in London. We exchanged numbers. We wanted to keep in contact, but that never really happened due to distance. But we got along amazingly.

Her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, ended up passing away the same way Whitney did, drowning in a tub. Years later, when I was cast in Bobbi Kristina, I came back to play the uncle of Whitney’s daughter, who was also her bodyguard. It was a little disturbing for me because it brought up the tragedy of Whitney's life and her daughter's life.

Interestingly enough, the young actress who played Bobbi Kristina in that movie as portrayed a character in Beauty in Black, and I worked with her on the show. She was in the first season of Beauty in Black. She played Mallory's assistant.