Cailee Spaeny freaked out shooting scenes opposite a puppet of the Xenomorph for Alien: Romulus.

Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, the latest edition in the horror franchise follows a group of young space colonists who come face-to-face with a terrifying lifeform while scavenging a derelict space station.

Rather than adding the alien into the film digitally in post-production, director Fede Álvarez used a real puppet of the Xenomorph so the cast had the creature to act with.

Priscilla star Spaeny admitted her scenes with the alien were “terrifying” to shoot, even though she knew it wasn’t real.

“The puppeteers were absolutely brilliant,” Spaeny told Empire magazine. “I mean, they were really puppeteering these creatures. I just don’t think we see that anymore; we turned a corner where everything became green screens and acting to tennis balls. So it’s so nice to bring it back. I think you can feel it on screen.

“The second you see that creature, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. And it’s still shocking. I’ve seen that creature so many times, and when it’s right there in your face, and we’re doing scenes where I’m acting against it – it’s still terrifying.”

In Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien, the creature makes its first appearance in its ‘face-hugging’ form. It then evolves inside the body of John Hurt’s character Kane before bursting out of his chest and growing into the fully-grown Xenomorph.

Spaeny, 26, admitted she ran away during the infamous chest-bursting scene when she watched Alien with her dad as a youngster.

“Once the chest- bursting scene came up – I went… (sharp intake of breath), ‘Oooh, no, I can’t,’ and then ran down to my room. But I was still very curious, so I would come up and peek and then get scared again, run back down the stairs,” she recalled.

Alien: Romulus, the seventh instalment in the Alien franchise, will be released in cinemas from Friday 16 August.

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