James Cameron Had Toxic Experience With The British Crew On The Set Of "Aliens"
- Dan Lalonde
- Dec 27, 2025
- 3 min read
What is the craziest on-set fight you experienced? On a Keurig war commercial that Ridley Scott's son was directing in Vancouver, I had a front row seat as two background extras in World War 2 uniforms almost came to physical blows as one of them went full Patrick Bateman and tried to fight the other, and almost went after a Lamp OP (lighting technician). I don't think anyone was sad when he was kicked off the set.
James Cameron was on Michael Biehn’s podcast 'Just Foolin’ Around With…' where he talked about his experience with the English crews on 'Aliens' in 1986, which was a toxic experience for the director of 'Titanic' and 'Terminator'. Here is the transcript:
Michael Biehn: Oh, by the way, did you write that f_ _king letter that's always on the internet saying, "I just want to let you crew members know here in Pinewood Studios that the only way I could make it through this movie was knowing the fact that at some point I'm going to get the hell out of here and you sorry son of a bitch are still going to be here"?
James Cameron: It sounded like me. It wasn't a letter that was written. It was something I said. Which has been quoted since. I'm not sure I said it exactly that way, but it did keep me going every day. Every day I drove out the gate at Pinewood and I realized—I actually started it. I was talking to a bunch of the crew, right? The crew that had mutinied on us—downed tools and walked off the set in the middle of a shooting day because they didn't like the fact that I fired that fu_ _ing Derek Cracken, who had been undercutting me at every opportunity as my first AD, my so-called assistant director, who was chummy with all the crew, couldn't stand me, undercut me at every possible opportunity, and finally halfway through the shoot I fired him. And then the crew mutinied, downed tools, walked off the set, and then we had to hire them back.
Michael Biehn: That crew, the crew that would all go out and get pissed at lunch.
James Cameron: Yeah, of course. And come back and stumble around, like these ineffective lifer wallies that they were. Look, I'm making the assumption that English crews are much better now. This was 38 years ago.
Michael Biehn: Right.
James Cameron: But anyway, yeah, I got a bunch of the crew together and I said, "I'm probably going to get in trouble for this, but this is true." And I said, "You know, every day as I drive out of the studio, I pass underneath that Pinewood gate, the big sign, Pinewood Studios, and I think, someday I'm going to be done with this film—because we did post there too, so it went on for another couple months. Someday I'm going to drive out that gate and I'm not going to be coming back. And it's going to strike me. It's going to be an emotional moment because I will know that I'm gone, but you sorry fu_ _s are going to spend the rest of your lives here." And I walked away like mic drop. And you know, I don't even really feel that bad about it.
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Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox
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