Veronica Cartwright

She originally auditioned for the role of Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's horror classic Alien (1979), but had instead been cast as Joan Lambert. She disliked the character's emotional weakness, but nevertheless accepted the role.

[speaking in 2011] I recently met Q [Quentin Tarantino] coming back from England and we had a long talk and I told him I'd love to work with him. I heard that he made it mandatory for the cast and crew on Grindhouse (2007) to watch Vivere pericolosamente (1974) and my husband [Richard Compton] directed that... I thought, 'This is my intro into Tarantino'. I mean, this guy knew every movie that Richard had done. We were on this flight and he was on his knees talking to me. It was so cool... I introduced myself and he said, 'Oh, I loved The Invasion of the Body Snatchers!' He didn't know that I had been married to Richard.