INTERVIEW: Jenette Goldstein – Beyond The Tough Exterior

From the formidable Vasquez in Aliens to the unforgettable Diamondback in Near Dark, Supa-Star Jenette Goldstein has built a career playing characters you wouldn’t want to mess with. But behind those hardened characters lies a lifelong fascination with people, their histories, and what makes them tick.

We spoke with Goldstein ahead of her appearances at Supanova Comic Con & Gaming in Brisbane (6-8 November 2026).

If you’ve ever watched Goldstein on screen, chances are you’ve seen her take charge of a room, stare down a threat or make an otherwise intimidating character think twice.

But is that toughness all an act?

Photo by Sarah Langley

“According to my husband I AM that way in real life,” she says. “I’m a total sweetheart! They just shoot me with the rugged filter.”

Her response suggests Goldstein might have more in common with her screen counterparts than she’d like to admit, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

Goldstein’s performances often suggest characters with entire lives unfolding beyond the edges of the screen. Her portrayal of Private Vasquez in Aliens, for example, feels like a glimpse into a person with a history, relationships and experiences that extend far beyond the film’s immediate action.

“My interest in acting grew out of my interest in people,” she explains. “As a girl I was always trying to work out people’s stories, figure out what makes them tick.”

Her own family provided plenty of material for that curiosity. She reveals, “I grew up with tales of gangsters, orphanages, and tiny Jewish colonies in the South American rainforest.” Those influences are a fitting foundation for an actor drawn to characters who seem to have lived a life before the audience meets them.

“I figured out that the strongest people are the people that know who they are and where they came from,” she says.

One person likely fitting that description is James Cameron, who Goldstein collaborated with on Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Titanic. They’re very different films, but working with him across all three gave her a revealing perspective on his approach.

“Fanatical micro-management. No apparent time off taken. No detail too small to worry about. No quarter given to incompetence.” Yet Goldstein adds an important qualification: “But he does trust his actors. Maybe because that’s the only job on set he can’t do himself.”

Cameron’s reputation for control might suggest a filmmaker who wants to dictate every aspect of a production, but Goldstein’s experience points to a distinction between his meticulous attention to detail and his willingness to let actors do what they do best. For an actor whose performances depend so heavily on creating a believable inner life for a character, that trust matters.

Jenette Goldstein in ‘Titanic’ (1997)

That same trust between collaborators helped make Near Dark such a memorable experience. Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 vampire film took the familiar ingredients of horror and transplanted them into something closer to a supernatural Western than your usual vampire movie. Goldstein played Diamondback, part of a roaming vampire family alongside legends Bill Paxton (RIP) and Lance Henriksen.

Goldstein recalls that she, Paxton and Henriksen were each intrigued by the script but unsure what the others would make of such an unusual project. “We would talk, you know, like, ‘Are you up for anything, getting any nibbles?’” she remembers. Eventually, one of them admitted to considering what Goldstein describes as a “weird white trash vampire thing”. The response was immediate recognition. Paxton had read it too and thought it was surprisingly good. Then they discovered Henriksen had the same script.

“I started to get a little tingle about the project,” Goldstein says.

Bigelow put the trio through a boot camp that included timed blackout drills, with the actors practising how to seal a room against sunlight in under two minutes. The eight weeks of night shoots that followed meant long hours working in darkness, but the unusual premise and strength of the script had already won Goldstein over.

‘Near Dark’ (1987)

Decades later, Near Dark appears to be reaching a new audience. Goldstein points to a screening at New York’s Museum of Modern Art a couple of years earlier, as well as news of a planned television series from A24 as signs that the film’s reputation is growing. “I think its time of cult obscurity is coming to an end,” she says.

Ask Goldstein which of her films deserves more attention, and Near Dark might seem like the obvious answer. But with that film finally receiving renewed recognition, she has another title in mind. She says, “Miracle Mile, which is well respected by those in the know. My part’s not large but it was a joy to be involved,” she says.

Her pride seems to sit more in being a part of something special. That instinct is consistent with her broader approach to acting. She is interested in people, in the stories that shape them, and in the work itself. For an actor whose most famous characters are often remembered for their toughness, there’s something fitting about that. The strongest performances aren’t necessarily the loudest or the biggest. Sometimes, they come from understanding the person beneath the armour.

Beyond the screen, Goldstein has built another career as an entrepreneur with Jenette Bras, the specialist lingerie business she founded with her husband. The idea grew out of a visit to a shop in the UK that catered to women often overlooked by mainstream bra retailers. Seeing an opportunity to offer that same kind of service back home in Los Angeles, the couple took the plunge despite having no retail experience, learning the business as they went. It’s a very different world from those with aliens and vampires (or is it?), but reflects the same instinct that runs through her acting: understanding people, recognising what they need, and giving them something the mainstream has overlooked.

Meet Supa-Star Jenette Goldstein at Supanova Comic Con & Gaming in Brisbane (6-8 November 2026).

Lead image: Jenette Goldstein at Supanova 2026 – Adelaide (photo by Sarah Langley), and Private Vasquez in Aliens (1986).