Sean Young opens up in a new interview with The Daily Beast about how her career was derailed by top directors such as Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, Warren Beatty, and more. Speaking of Scott, who cast Young in a career-defining role as the replicant love interest Rachael in “Blade Runner,” the actress alleged the film’s aggressive love scene between her and Harrison Ford was the result of Scott’s interest in dating Young and Young turning him down.
“Well, honestly, Ridley [Scott] wanted me to date him. He tried very hard in the beginning of the show to date him, and I never would,” Young said. “I was like, nah. And then he started dating the actress who played Zhora, Joanna Cassidy, and I felt relieved. And then we do this scene, and I think it was Ridley. I think Ridley was like, ‘Fuck you.’ I was thinking, ‘Why did this have to be like that? What was the point of that?’ and I think it was Ridley’s none-too-subtle message that he was getting even with me.”
Young noted that after she turned down Scott during “Blade Runner” the director never worked with her again. “That was weird. What the fuck?” Young said. “You hire Russell Crowe a gazillion times and you’re not gonna hire me again? And I was very nice to Ridley over the years. I never badmouthed him. It didn’t occur to me until later that I guess I’d offended him.”
When asked if Rachael’s 30-second hologram cameo in “Blade Runner 2049” was “a final insult,” Young answered, “Wasn’t that so full of shit?” The plot of “Blade Runner 2049” finds Rachael dead and many of the characters searching for the daughter she had with Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). Young’s physical likeness was recreated using VFX in a scene where Rachael appears to Deckard as a ploy created by the villainous Niander Wallace (Jared Leto).
“And there was nothing I could do about it,” Young said about the VFX cameo. “It was very clear that they knew that the audience would be upset that I wasn’t in it, but they didn’t want me to bitch about that publicly. So, they paid me some money, made me sign a non-disclosure agreement and gave me 30 seconds. And I was like, fine. They did give my son Quinn a job on ‘[Blade Runner] 2049’ in visual arts, and I said all was forgiven. He’s got great skills.”
Head over to The Daily Beast’s website to read the entirety of Young’s latest interview.
