JENETTE GOLDSTEIN

Sunday, October 5, 2003

Warning: An overwhelming amount of gratitude and joy is about to be unleashed. I met Jenette Goldstein at the Hollywood Collector's Show. She's instantly recognizable as Vasquez from Aliens, Diamondback from Near Dark, or the foster mother of Jon Connor in Terminator 2, just to name a few. I've looked up to her since I was a little sprite, and was giddy with glee when I discovered how nice she is. And I had to fight back the urge to both twist and shout when she agreed to do an interview with me. Without further ado, here is my interview with Jenette, a real bad-ass woman of the horror/sci-fi world.

-Aine

So what made you run off to England?

Jenette Goldstein: I got married. I ran off and got married to an Englishman, and I went to drama school in London, and my plan was to be in the Royal Shakespeare Company, which didn't work out. (Jokingly) Instead I had to become a movie star.

You won a Saturn award for your portrayel of Vasquez in Aliens, which was pretty much your first role. How awesome was it to win an award right of the bat like that?

JG: Wow, I never thought of it that way. Just being in a movie was great, that was the huge thing, to be in a film. That was wonderful.

How weird was it the first time you saw yourself as Vasquez when you came out of the makeup chair?

JG: It was great! I had kind of imagined it in my head, and I was just really amazed that Jim could see it. With the contacts, and getting rid of the freckles, crew cut. It was great, I loved it. I love to become somebody else, and she was so kick ass! It was sad when I had to go back to being me. But it was a great excuse to be able to get a haircut. It's one of those things where if you have really long hair you kind of fantasize about getting a crew cut and you think, oh, can I do it? But if somebody's going to pay you and you get to be in a great movie then sure.

With Aliens, I first saw it when I was six years old, and as a tomboy, I would always play "Aliens." I would be Vasquez, and make my friend be Bill Paxton's character. We would run around the yard shooting invisible aliens with our water guns, and I wore a red bandana that I had my grandmother sew for me. Vasquez kicked so much ass, even more so than Sigourney Weaver's Ripley, and she was one of the first female characters to do so at the time. Do you think that she encouraged a lot of young girls to go kick some ass?

JG: You know, I think so. It was one of the first really tough women characters that wasn't like a comic book character. It was a real person, and it was one of the first Latinas to be seen also. I have fans across the board: little girls, little boys, men, women, it's really interesting how it appealed to a huge range of people. And actually, we [Jim Cameron and I]  thought that people wouldn't like her at all. Nobody really knew. But we liked her, and that's all that mattered really. I get letters from little girls all the time, with a little snapshot of them with their red bandanas and their little fake guns.

I don't have a specific question about Near Dark, but I just know a lot of people adore this film, and for a long time it was very hard to come by.

JG: Actually, I'd just thank all the fans who kept it alive so that the company that was able to untangle the rights for it, they realized how huge the fan base for it was and they were able to put out the DVD. 'Cause it's one of my favorite movies, I love it too. The DVD is beautiful. It's got a gorgeous book to it; each page is one of us [the actors]. It's a got a great documentary.

Alright, you were in Aliens and Near Dark with Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton, and then they both showed up in the first Terminator, and then you showed up in Terminator 2, and then you and Bill Paxton again in Titanic, so what's going on?

JG: There's a contract, we have a contract with the devil that we must appear in at least one of each other's movies. I know, we're like a traveling carnival.

I think it's a conspiracy, and somehow James Cameron is involved.

JG: Exactly; that's who the contract's with. He's just a very loyal director. If you look at the crew member list, and there was a woman who was in Titanic who was in Piranha 2, who he knew.

And Lance Henriksen was in that as well.

JG: Oh absolutely. You can go through and find people who worked in the shop that he's used in a film. He's just that kind of person. It's great.

Hmmm…get in good with him and you've got a job for life.

JG: As long as he likes you and you do your work. (Laughter) If you don't…believe me, you're not going to last long.

So how are Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton to work with?

JG: They're great, they're crazy. Lance is crazy, but everybody knows that; he's scary. He gets deep into character though, deep into character.

Do people mess up the spelling of your first name a lot?

JG: Yes. Even if I write it correctly, printers will change it because they think somebody spelled it wrong. My parents did not speak French, and they just thought, oh what a cool name, we'll just get rid of all the unnecessary letters. I'm lucky I ended up with two Ts and not just one. It doesn't bother me now though.

So you used to be a gymnast, is that true?

JG: Yeah, I know someone said that. When I was a little girl I was on a gymnastics team, and I stopped that when I was twelve. I was always a tomboy, I had a brother, and I always worked out in the gym, before women did it I guess. So I like going to the gym and working out.

I know you did two episodes of ER, think you'll do it again?

JG: You know what?...I can't. I wasn't supposed to do the second one, it's a policy. Once you've worked on it, you're not supposed to do another one unless you're playing the same character. You can't come back again as another character. But they forgot that they had used me, so I went in and I looked so different, they said oh fine, she fooled us, no one will recognize her.

But we did. And Xander Berkeley, who played your husband in Terminator 2 showed up in an episode as well.

JG: Yes, in the episode I was in! I was also in a movie called Donato and Daughter with Xander.

It's the James Cameron conspiracy again!

JG: Ha ha, I know. He's great; Xander's such a great actor.

He's cute too.

JG: He is. You know who he's married to now? Well, you've seen him in 24; he's married to Sarah Clarke, who plays Nina Myers in the show.

What's up next?

JG: I am writing a one woman show. So after this interview, you'll get to hear more about me. Stay tuned.

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