'After winning a Bafta for Aliens we met Princess Anne then got half-sozzled'

• John Richardson is a veteran special effects supervisor best known for work on a number of James Bond movies, the Harry Potter franchise and A Bridge Too Far

• He won the Best Visual Effects BAFTA and Academy Award in 1987 for Aliens

• His other Oscar nominations were for Cliffhanger, Starship Troopers, and for three Harry Potter films

I've only won one Academy Award [for Aliens], but I've been nominated six times. Baftas, I think I’ve won twice out of nine [for Aliens and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2]. But quite honestly, a lot of the time they all will sort of blend into one and it's difficult to remember what happened on which night.

The most exciting was the first one for Aliens. I’d had meetings for Alien with the original director Walter Hill and that went into turnaround so I went off and did another terrible film called Escape to Athena and missed Alien.

For Aliens, we'd done the Baftas back [in the UK]. In those days, you had to drive up to Bafta on the afternoon of the ceremony and park your car around the back. Then you’d get a coach up to Manchester Studios where they held the ceremony. It was up there and back!

I mean, we're all fast asleep in the back of the coach coming back at three o'clock in the morning, half-sozzled. I suppose the overriding memory for that was walking up Coronation Street while we were waiting for the show to set up and meeting Princess Anne afterwards.

But the Academy Awards were a much bigger affair. There was a little bit of concern amongst our nominated team because one of the visual effects companies had been replaced on the film right towards the end, and they had in their contract that if the film was nominated for an Academy Award, they would be one of the nominees.

There was a little bit of uncomfortable feeling from some of the people about that, which made it for me rather difficult, because I just felt, you know, we're all there, it's a good night for all of us, I should make the best of it.

What was interesting for me was that I'd done a number of films prior that had been in consideration for an Academy Award, like The Omen and A Bridge Too Far. So when I got to our nomination for Aliens, I was still very nervous that we were going to get considered. Or would they prefer Poltergeist?

You have to write a sort of statement [about] the special effects. We had to sit down and go through our breakdown for the script and write out with diagrams and sketches how we did everything. They want befores and afters of the visual effects and demonstrations or clips of how you built or prepared the special effects rigs. It does ensure the nominated films are generally more worthy.

I think I did Aliens with probably a crew of 20 people. There just isn't the capacity [for all those] people [to be] allowed to be included in the nomination. It's four people for the Academy and that's it. With Aliens, I managed to talk Bafta into allowing us a fifth person.

Back in those days, there always used to be a party at Spago [afterwards] and we were invited to that, but the lady I was with back in those days was too tired to go, which rather upset me on the night.

The last few ones I've been to have been at the Kodak Theater, but I remember when it used to be at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, [the party] was in a tent around the corner,

But, you know, it's a good night. I remember a few years ago, we were in the auditorium for the show and sitting about four seats along from us was Donald Trump. Plus you're bumping into actors and friends that you've worked with over the years, whether it's Sigourney [Weaver] or Gregory Peck.

I can remember my wife nipping out to have a cigarette at one of the shows. I went out to see her and there she is, standing on the corner with Goldie Hawn and her husband having a chat and a puff together.

John Richardson told his story to Ben Falk.

The EE Bafta Film Awards 2025 will take place on Sunday, 16 February, 2025, and the ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One from the iconic Royal Festival Hall.

Aliens is streaming on Disney+.

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