Film star had to taste-test lube and ‘sit in hole for 8 hours’ for gory new horror movie-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

Filming with the facehuggers in Alien: Romulus was apparently quite the experience (Picture: 20th Century Studios)

The Alien franchise is back with Alien: Romulus, and its star Aileen Wu has opened up about the slimy filming process, in which she had to taste-test lube.

The actor – who plays Navarro in the film – explained that while filming with the facehuggers (the creatures with finger-like legs which attach themselves to a human host’s face) the first job in what she described as the ‘Hugger Depot’ studio was to ‘taste a bunch of lube’.

Chatting to Variety, Wu said: ‘The first thing they had me do was taste-test a bunch of lube: This one’s strawberry, this one’s mango, this one’s pineapple, this one has no taste.

‘For the practical, they would rub lube all over the hugger to have that glistening effect. When we got to shooting that bit, I think we shot that scene over three to four days.’

She described the longer takes with the facehuggers as being ‘challenging’ because they were heavy, weighing ‘around three pounds.’

The middle part around the nose and mouth is apparently ‘hollowed out’ but still made of silicone, so it’s ‘not very easy to breathe’, she recalled.

Wu is starring as Navarro in the film (Picture: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

The star also explained how co-writer and director Fede Álvarez made it clear the filming process was going to be challenging, as during a call Wu felt like he was trying to ‘psyche [her] out’ of it warning that she would be ‘covered in blood’ and ‘sitting in this hole for eight hours’.

‘”You can’t get out,”‘ Wu said Fede added, before: ‘”You’re going to have this creature sitting on your face for a long time. You can’t get claustrophobic, are you claustrophobic?”’

While Wu replied that she was not, the star admitted in the interview with the US publication that she did suffer from claustrophobia in high school.

The Evil Dead (2013) filmmaker is in charge of the new installment after the likes of Sir Ridley Scott and James Cameron directed previous Alien films.

It’s out now in cinemas (Picture: AP)

Alien: Romulus is a sequel that takes place between the first two films, 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens (so in the 2100s), following up immediately on original survivor Ellen Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) terrifying experience aboard the spaceship Nostromo.

This time the female protagonist is Cailee Spaeny’s Rain, an orphan who, together with a group of scavengers including her ex, Tyler (Archie Renaux), heads to the decommissioned Renaissance space station for a chance to flee their mining colony for a new life.

Metro.co.uk gave the new film 3.5 stars, explaining: ‘Romulus stands up as a solid sci-fi with a body horror twist that is sure to attract new fans. The old-school fans might be a slightly trickier audience to win over though.’

Alien: Romulus releases in cinemas on Friday, August 16.

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