leading from
a) Letting go of Jon Finch
John Hurt had been asked if he'd like to do Alien, but he had already committed to the South African film, so that was dropped.
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| Jon Finch in Roman Polanski's Macbeth |
So Ridley approached Jon Finch to play the role as he had been impressed by his work for Roman Polanski's Macbeth. Ridley was impressed both by the work of Polanski and Job Finch.
So Finch had been cast as Kane, and on the very first day on the bridge, Ridley noticed that Jon started to look extremely pail that day.
He went over to him and said "Do you feel alright?"
Jon said "No, I feel terrible, in face, I feel really bad. How do l look?'"
Ridley replied ''Terrible.''
And so he revealed to Ridley "I'm a diabetic"
However Brian Johnson remembered that Jon Finch when into the sculptors place to have his life mask done and of course he hadn't told anyone he was diabetic but while he was having it done, he passed out, perhaps he had gone into a diabetic coma and there he was with two straws sticking out of his nostrils, they said to him "Okay Jon?" and there was no response. So one way or another, they got the medic there, they had to lift him out of the seat and carry him to a dressing room where he was checked up and taken to hospital to findout out that it was an extreme case of diabetes and that was the last they saw of Jon Finch for Alien.
As far as Ridley could make out, Jon had been drinking too much coca-cola and had not been taking his insulin. Brian understood that because he hadn’t declared his diabetes on his insurance, the company couldn’t go on using him. Jon Finch would reveal years later, he actually was suffering from a case of pneumonia
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| Jon Finch as Kane |
b) Casting John Hurt
That day Ridley had to reconvene at lunchtime in the office thinking about who they could get and he knew that John Hurt was in London at the time. What happened with John Hurt and his intended film shoot in South Africa, he discovered that he was not allowed to go to South Africa, and when they had to try and find out the reason, it seemed that he had been confused with the actor John Herd who was a political activist who had gone down on the South African books as an undesirable because he didn't believe in Apartheid, and so he then came back to England. And so Ridley drove to John Hurt's home in Hampstead village to see him . They sat down with a drink, they talked until after midnight and Ridley gave a long and interesting pitch and John wouldn't have time to mull over it or decide this that or the other.
It came to a point where Ridley said to him "Do you want this?"
John replied, "Yeah, I trust you, when do I start"
Ridley said ''Tomorrow morning."
John's response was "You'd better send the car round to take me down to the studio."
Ridley's replied "A car will come for you"
John was in the studio the next morning at 7.30
As Brian Johnson, the special effects supervisor recalled, it two weeks before John Hurt actually come on board and in that time Brian got to work on lowering the ceiling of the Nostromo cockpit to bring the ceiling details into the shot and the result would make it more claustrophobic
Source Quotes
- John Hurt: What I understand was that I was intended to be in the film originally, but I was at that time not available and I was going to be doing a film in South Africa but I wasn't allowed to go to South Africa and then of course we had to try and find out what the reason was. It turned out in the end that I was probably confused with that very wonderful actor John Herd who is a political activist, and had gone down on the South African books as an undesirable because he didn't believe in Apartheid, well, none of us agree with Apartheid, (15:00) but fortunately some of us were not on the books at that particular time. Er, so I came back, I didn't do that , and then Jon Finch who was going to do , be playing Kane in Alien became sick and so therefore the inquiry came in again, I was available this time. I remember coming around to talk to me, and we were talking until twelve o'clock at night, and er he was pitching for me and er, at seven o'clock that morning I was on the set. So erm it all happened very quickly. (Alien Blu-ray commentary)
- (11:21 / 00:11:40) Ridley: John Finch had been cast as Kane, and on the very first day on the bridge which we're about to come to, the scene that we're about to come to is the first time on the bridge, apart from the tracking shot, I did the tracking shot first and I noticed that he started to look extremely... he didn't look well, I didn't ask him, (00:12:00) I thought he was just naturally pale that day, we got into, I think the first slate, and I did er action and then cut when I went over to him and said "do you feel alright?" and he said "No, I feel terrible", he said" in fact, I really feel bad", and so we got the medic there. They had to lift him out of the seat, and carry him to a dressing room where he was checked up and taken to the hospital to (00:12:00) finding out that it's an extreme case of diabetes and er, that's in fact was the last of Jon Finch for the Alien and er I had to literally reconvene at lunchtime thinking about who we could get and I knew that John Hurt was in London, so I pitched to John and er, went and saw John Hurt that night and cast him that night. He was there at the studio the next morning. (Alien commentary from Alien Quadrilogy DVD and Alien Anthology Blu-Ray combined)
- Ridley Scott: I had cast Jon Finch, who was Polanski's Macbeth, as Kane. First day, first shot, Jon Collapsed. I talked to him, he said, "I'm a diabetic..." He had gone yellow and couldn't get up - we had to lift him out of the scene. He was fine, but he had to recuperate. He hadn't taken his insulin and was drinking too much Coca-Cola. That night we looked at the book and came across John Hurt who I have always liked. (Empire November 2009 p109)
- Ridley Scott: I think it is known that there was another actor originally playing that part, Jon Finch, who became ill, and we had to recast. Probably identified at that moment very strongly by playing Macbeth for Polanski. I'd been impressed by Polanski's work anyway, and also by Finch.
He said ''Yes, l'd love to do this.''
He came on board.
The first day, the first shot, he starts to look as yellow as this pencil.
I thought ''God, what's wrong?''
We did a couple of takes and he seemed absolutely lacklustre, no energy.
We cut, and l got up and went over to him
and said ''What's up? Are you all right?''
He said ''No, l'm terrible. I feel terrible.''
He said ''How do l look?''
I said ''Terrible.''
We had to lift him out of his seat, and he was carried away, and it turns out that he was a diabetic. (Alien Quadrilogy Documentary) - John Hurt: I had been asked if l'd like to do Alien, but I had already committed to the South African film, so that was dropped. And the actor that was going to play Kane later, for one reason or another, dropped out. (Alien Quadrilogy Documentary)
- Ridley Scott: That night we had a quick regroup in the office, and that night l drove to Hampstead Village and met with John Hurt.Then they heard that I was then free, so Ridley Scott came to me and we talked till gone midnight, say on the Monday. Il prepared him, of course, for what it was, and he said ''So when do l start?''
I said ''Tomorrow morning.''(Alien Quadrilogy Documentary) - John Hurt: And on the Tuesday morning I was on the set at 7.30.(Alien Quadrilogy Documentary)
- John Hurt: So it was not a usual film for me - the script didn't arrive, I didn't mull it over, I didn't decide this, that and the other.l had a long pitch from Ridley - and a very interesting one, too.
By the end of it l said ''You'd better send
the car round to take me down to the studio.''
l think life and acting and everything is so full of those things.
''What if it hadn't happened?'' Nobody knows.(Alien Quadrilogy Documentary) - Ridley Scott: John lived in Hampstead, so we called and I drove up there. We sat down with a drink. I said "Do you want to do this?" He said, "Yeah.... I trust you, when do I start?" "Tomorrow morning, a car will come for you?" (Empire November 2009 p109)
- Brian Johnson: We started off, and we had – Jon Finch was the character that John Hurt took over. And Jon Finch went into the sculptors place to have his life mask done, and he hadn’t told anybody he was a diabetic, and he had to discover while he was inside his life mask. And he actually passed out. And they went, okay John, and there was no response. And they got the ambulance out there and dragged him out. Because he hadn’t declared that on his insurance, the company couldn’t go on using him. So we had a 2 week period – we’d been filming on the interior of the Nostromo, in the cabin. The set was probably 4 or 5 feet higher than how you see it on the film. Because Ridley was shooting, in 2.35 or whatever it was, I can’t remember the format now. It was letterbox, anamorphic. He couldn’t get the roof of the set, and the actors and everything else in. He was getting really frustrated. John Finch was out and they had to wait two weeks for John Hurt to come on board, and in that time they got a saw and cut four or five feet out of the set, to make it neat. (http://www.originalprop.com/)
- Brian Johnson (31:14) I don't know if you remember, but originally, erm, John Hurt's character was played by Jon Finch, did you know that, oh right, well Jon Finch was contracted to do the... to do the show and they took him down to the plasterers shop to do the life cast and he hadn't told anybody he was diabetic and he went into a diabetic coma in the cast just with two straws sticking out of his nostrils erm and they had... he had to be rushed off to hospital and as far as I remember, because they had to wait for John Hurt to start, that was the time when the set was changed, the dimensions of the Nostromo interior were cut down by three or four feet so Ridley could get all the ceiling bits that were hanging down in the shot because of using the format we were using, a lot of the stuff was out of the top of the frame so, um he used it to his advantage. No questions about that. And we got John Hurt who was superb (Alien Makers 2)
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