Ridley Scott explained how Sigourney Weaver landed her legendary role in 1979's Alien and why he settled of having a female lead for the sci-fi horror.
Speaking to The L.A. Times, Scott explained how Ripley was originally written as a man. Discussing the gender flip, Scott said, "I think the idea actually came from Alan Ladd Jr. I think it was Alan Ladd [then president of 20th Century Fox] who said, 'Why can’t Ripley be a woman?' And there was a long pause, that at that moment I never thought about it. I thought, why not, it's a fresh direction, the ways I thought about that. And away we went."
The rest is history, as Ripley emerged as the central character of Alien and had a main role in the next four movies. While Alien had no real lead, the death of Tom Skerritt's Dallas was a turning point that put Ripley in charge of the Nostromo. Her status as the sole survivor of the movie and Weaver's return also set the precedent for Scott's next generation of Alien movies.