Aileen Wu had to get used to filming with those ‘Alien: Romulus’ monsters ‘covered in lube’

Up-and-coming actor Aileen Wu feels it’s “a bit unreal” that her feature film debut comes in this weekend’s “Alien: Romulus.”

Up-and-coming actor Aileen Wu feels it’s “a bit unreal” that her feature film debut comes in this weekend’s “Alien: Romulus.” “I’ve been trying to keep a good head on my shoulders and not let it get to me too much,” Wu said in a recent chat with CNN about stepping into the “Alien” franchise, one of Hollywood’s most historic sci-fi/horror properties. “It’s just been learning as I go of how rich this world is, and the impact it’s had on people for the last 45 years.” “Romulus” is being billed as the seventh official film in the “Alien” franchise, made famous by Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking haunted-house-in-space story from 1979, starring Sigourney Weaver. That film, along with James Cameron’s 1986 hit sequel, laid the groundwork for the series, which in spite of many ups and downs has shared one major thing in common – the grotesque, gooey and very dangerous xenomorph aliens, who have acid for blood and are birthed via facehuggers and chestbursters. “We were all really lucky that Fede (Álvarez, director of ‘Romulus’) went all practical with this one. I didn’t see any green screens, didn’t see any tennis balls. It was just all creatures and monsters, in your face, covered in lube, because they’re all glistening,” Wu shared. “It’s really right there, and it’s quite disturbing.” Those realistic methods are in close keeping with the franchise as a whole, which has a long history of using practical effects ever since the now-legendary death scene of Kane (John Hurt) in the first film, the first victim of a chestburster. The cast did not know that Scott and his crew used real-life animal entrails from a butcher’s shop to achieve the gory effects, thereby eliciting iconic, realistic reactions. And while Wu “would not dare” put herself in the same grouping as Hurt or others from the previous films (“Sigourney Weaver is a god,” she shared), her character’s run-in with the creatures – as seen in the final trailer for “Romulus” – meant that she had to spend a fair share of time with them on set.