Sigourney Weaver, On Eve Of Her Venice Lifetime Achievement Award, Lifts Lid On Remarkable Career From ‘Alien’ To ‘Avatar’, ‘Working Girl’ To ‘Ghostbusters’ And ‘Star Wars’ Role To Come
EXCLUSIVE: Two years ago, Sigourney Weaver handed the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to the filmmaker Paul Schrader. As she explains to us in a rare sit-down, she didn’t imagine that two years later she would be receiving the same accolade.
Looking over her career is to be quickly reminded that there are few actresses working today who are more deserving. Between Alien, Ghostbusters and Avatar, Weaver has left an indelible mark on some of cinema’s most iconic sci-fi franchises. As Ellen Ripley, she represented a heroine unprecedented in the action and sci-fi genre up to that point.
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But the three-time Oscar nominee is perhaps most worthy of the Venice award she will receive at the festival Wednesday for her remarkable range, and her ability in the words of Venice festival director Alberto Barbera to “side-step labels that sought to restrict her”: “She constantly challenged her persona through choices that ranged from genre movies to comedies, art-house films to children’s movies…”
The New Yorker becomes only the third American actress ever to receive Venice’s career award after Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Despite coming from a family with showbiz connections — her mother was an actress and her father was American TV exec and former NBC President Pat Weaver — Sigourney’s ascent wasn’t a given. Her teachers at Yale described her as “talentless” and advised that she stick to comedy.
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However, as we discuss below, few actors can boast as potent a run of films as Weaver clocked up over a decade between 1979-89, when Alien, Ghostbusters, Aliens, Working Girl, Gorillas in the Mist and Ghostbusters II all hit home. She has worked with directors including Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Schrader, Peter Weir, Michael Apted, Roman Polanski, Ivan Reitman, Mike Nichols, Ang Lee, Woody Allen and many others, and is well known for her theater and conservation work as well as her big-screen roles.
In this wide-ranging discussion, we talk to Weaver about the past and present of the Alien franchise (and what the future may hold for Ellen Ripley), her experiences in high-profile hits and misses, and what’s to come, including a first West End theater gig and her first role in a Star Wars movie.
DEADLINE: Congratulations on this accolade, Sigourney. What does the Venice Film Festival mean to you?
SIGOURNEY WEAVER: Thank you very much. It’s very exciting. From the first time I went to Venice, it has been a very meaningful festival to me. It is my favorite festival. I think it’s the festival that champions the art of making film, perhaps more so than the business of making film. When I first went there in ‘86 with Aliens and with Jim Cameron and [writer] David Gila, the film was so wonderfully received. That was my first real introduction to the international film world. I remember all the paparazzi pushing forward to get pictures of us and we were taking pictures of them and the Caribinieri on their horses who were in the middle. We were all laughing. It made me feel like Gina Lollobrigida! It’s always been a very unique event and it’s great to follow the journeys of the films that play there.
I want to say how grateful I am to the festival for this wonderful award because for me it represents an embrace of actors who aren’t willing to be put in a box. It’s a recognition of being able to adventure all over the place in the odd way I have done in my career. I was initially told that I had no talent when I studied drama at Yale, which I’m grateful for, because it meant I’ve charged into all these different areas.
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The other reason I’m so grateful for this award is because of what it says about actors, who in many ways are the engines of these stories. The recognition of what actors can bring to the table has changed over the years. Over the course of my career, it has been wonderful to see the influx of women into so many departments, which has brought a lot of oxygen into the business. And certainly, actors are listened to more today; we’re not only considered as commodities, and I think that’s very exciting.
DEADLINE: Aliens wasn’t in Competition, was it?
WEAVER: No, maybe that’s why we had so much fun! I have to say, having given this same award to Paul Schrader two years ago, I feel very honored, because I always thought of it this as an award for filmmakers, wonderful filmmakers, so I couldn’t be happier. And to receive the prize in the same year as Peter Weir is also special [the two worked together on 1982 film The Year of Living Dangerously]. To be tapped on the shoulder by these guys is really like jet fuel for the next 20 years, or whatever it will be, of my career.
DEADLINE: There are so many films we could talk about today. …To go back to the beginning, it’s always remarkable to be reminded that Alien was virtually your first film role. You had done quite a bit of theater and a little TV, but this was virtually your first movie. Did you have any inkling at the time just how big of an impact the film, and Ellen Ripley, would have?
WEAVER: I had come from off of Broadway. So to me, this was an “off of Broadway” project. It was dark, unique, very original, very physically arresting. As soon as I saw the designs, when I met Ridley Scott and he showed me these [H.R.] Giger and Carlo Rambaldi designs, I realized I’d never seen anything like it before, so that really intrigued me. But I don’t think any of us could have anticipated that it would continue to entertain people in the way it has. It was made for around $11 million-$14 million and had an ensemble cast…
What I remember most is Ridley and [director of photography] Derek Vanlint being very innovative in how they linked us all up in these tiny spaces. But I felt like a member of the crew the entire time — I’m glad I didn’t see it as a huge breakthrough opportunity. I always just looked for great stories and wanted to be a part of them, and that’s been my compass, rather than thinking about all the other aspects of the business.
It’s true that Ripley kept living, which I’m happy about. It’s been a great ride all those different directors and different stories and different evolutions of Ripley. But I was absolutely planning to run back to the theater as fast as I could once it was done!
DEADLINE: For many, myself included, Alien is probably the greatest sci-fi film ever made…
WEAVER: What I love about it, which I think endures, is that the character of Ripley is almost an everyman character [most of the characters were written as unisex so they could be played by male or female actors]. That freed me up from ever having to act like a girl, or dress like a girl. That was very astute of the writers. At a certain point you even forget that it’s a woman. You just know it’s Ripley and you’re hoping she survives.
DEADLINE: By the time Aliens came out seven years later you were described as “perhaps the only woman who could open a major action film.” Did you feel a weight or burden on you around that time?
WEAVER: I didn’t. I suppose I don’t think of Alien as an action film. I always saw it as a film about survival. I’ve always thought about characters, rather than a specific genre. I don’t really recognize genres. Perhaps that’s why I’ve skipped between them so readily during my career.
On Alien, I felt that Ripley was improvising her way through this situation. And I think the most important decision I probably made was becoming good buddies with [co-star] Ian Holm. I remember saying to him very early on, “Gosh, do you think Ripley thinks what she’s doing is the right thing?” And he said, “Oh, I do absolutely.” I said, “I don’t. I don’t think she knows.” So the whole time, I’m hoping I’m doing the right thing. I have no certainty about it, which puts your character into kind of a free fall that I think was very helpful for me.
DEADLINE: It’s amazing how careers begin and mould and the role that chance can play in determining careers. I was reading about how you were supposed to have a much bigger role in Annie Hall but couldn’t due to theater commitments and also how Veronica Cartwright had thought she was going to be playing Ripley in Alien up until late in the day… What can you tell me about those circumstances?
WEAVER: I know that for Walter, David and Gordon [Alien producers Walter Hill, David Giler and Gordon Carroll), Veronica was cast in her part and I was cast in mine. I’m sorry for whatever might have happened that gave Veronica that idea. I actually loved her role because in the script Lambert was always cracking jokes and that’s how I would get through a crisis. I think Ridley and Veronica changed it. But for me, the process was very direct and immediate. I met Ridley, I met Walter, I met Alan Ladd Jr and did a screen test with Ridley and boom, I got the part. I was especially grateful for the audition, because Ridley built me a whole set, and I got to do about six or seven scenes that, unfortunately, are on the DVDs somewhere…
On Annie Hall, yes, it’s true, I was originally meant to have a much bigger part but I had a theater commitment on Christopher Durang’s Titanic [a typically surreal Durang play in which Weaver played a woman who hides a hedgehog in her vagina] that meant I couldn’t make it work. I was very grateful even to get a couple of days on a Woody Allen film even if he didn’t seem very impressed during the audition — he more or less just shrugged.
DEADLINE: You would go on the most amazing run in the ’80s from Ghostbusters to Aliens, and Gorillas in the Mist to Working Girl. The run included working with Ridley Scott and James Cameron (for the first time). How were their approaches different as filmmakers?
WEAVER: I recall that I was filming in France when I received the script for Aliens. It was this almost operatic role for Ridley. I was stunned. It was such a different way of approaching the material, much more muscular and much more akin to an action picture. Alien is perfect. It’s so claustrophobic, frightening, and unsettling. And Aliens is this big kick-ass movie of scale, which actually has a more conventional story. But it’s hard to compare them as filmmakers. They are very different. I can say that all four of the Alien filmmakers I worked with [Scott, Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet] all made the material their own.
DEADLINE: When Ghostbusters came along, were you worried that the film’s levity may in any way hurt what you had achieved on Alien?
WEAVER: On the contrary, I was so relieved! Ripley was so serious, you may even say humorless in her circumstances. I had come from comedic theater and that’s where I felt most comfortable. When I read Ghostbusters, it knocked my socks off. It’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read and so delightful. It was a joyous love letter to New York and Ivan and the boys were so good in it. I learnt a lot from the experience. Alien was pretty much my first film, and Ridley had to keep telling me not to look into the camera. “I’d really love to,” I’d say to him, “but you keep putting it in my face!” So I loved zooming into a different genre after Alien.
DEADLINE: You soon zoomed to another genre with Gorillas in the Mist. What did you learn from that experience?
WEAVER: Dian [Fossey, the film’s subject] wanted the film made, and the producer was on his way to meet with her when, unfortunately, she was murdered. I felt her presence the whole time. For me, it was the beginning of my understanding that animals and other creatures in our world are equal citizens with us. I learned so much from Dian about how she saw the world and it certainly transformed the way I saw things. Dian found her family in the forest in Rwanda and for a time I did too. It was sheer bliss to have the babies jumping up and down on me and urinating on me [laughs]. It was very important, of course, to make the film without infringing on the animals’ way of life and I think we did that and I think it helped put gorillas at the forefront of conservation. I’m still working with those conservation organizations.
DEADLINE: In the same year, Working Girl was another big hit and another zoom back to comedy for you. What do you recall about working with Mike Nichols – who you had worked with previously in theater — and what was it you think made him so revered among actors?
WEAVER: I remember how Mike and his editor Sam O’Steen would come in every morning and Sam would tell him exactly what shots to get. Like, “You can shoot this scene in four shots,” and then we’d shoot those four shots, and were often finished by five o’clock. That really impressed me. I loved working with Mike, we had a lot of fun. He knew so much about the human condition, but also just how to tell a story. I still absolutely adore that film, for the hairstyles alone, and the clothes, and everything else. It was really a movie of its moment.
DEADLINE: So you had this incredible run in the ’80’s and the ’90s kicked off with the anticipated third Alien film by David Fincher. Personally, I really like the film. It’s my third favorite in the franchise. But I’m probably in the minority in that regard. It has been well-documented that the production faced a number of challenges, from the script taking years and many revisions, to the ill health of DoP Jordan Cronenweth, and Fincher clashing with Fox. You were now a co-producer on the franchise. To what extent could you feel those challenges during filming?
WEAVER: Well, I could feel that David had to get on the phone and fight every day for us to shoot what he wanted to the next day. And I’m sorry that he didn’t get a chance to make the script his own before we started. That makes filmmaking very difficult. I recall that Vincent Ward’s original script had been about monks in a monastery and Ripley was in a coma for half of it. So, I keenly felt the lack of studio support. That was a transition moment when studios stopped being about “let’s make great films” and started being about “let’s not lose money.” They had the great idea to put David Fincher aboard for his first film, but then not to support the guy was very idiotic. It helped shooting in England so we could get on with things to an extent. I heard recently that David has disowned the project and I’m sorry about that because I loved working with him, and I think we made a good film. I’m glad he got a chance to do his version. It was a great ensemble.
DEADLINE: Can I take you to The Ice Storm by Ang Lee. Despite not being a big commercial hit, the film is highly thought of by many critics. It was an impressive collection of actors and an ambitious and smart film. What was that set like?
WEAVER: It was all New York actors. We all knew each other, and it was a lot of fun. It was always a chaotic set, because I think the producers thought that that was the way to make things more creative. It was one of Ang Lee’s early films in English and I don’t think he was fully comfortable. Despite that, he was able to communicate effectively with all of us in very few words. We did have a lot of rehearsal. I have a lot of affection for the character of Janey. She was a lost soul kind of hanging on. I was looking into the history of Venice’s Golden Lion [for best film] before our chat and it doesn’t surprise me that Ang has won it twice.
DEADLINE: A decade after that you returned to work with Jim Cameron on Avatar. Despite his track record, and your own, you must have been slightly taken aback by the unprecedented level of success for that film?
WEAVER: I remember reading the script of the first Avatar and reading about these blue people with pointed ears and tails riding on these creatures through floating mountains … I couldn’t imagine any of it being shot. I honestly couldn’t imagine how he would ever make a film that looked like this and had these elements. But I’m so glad for Jim, and for the success of these films, which has meant we’re able to keep making them. I just finished working on Avatar 3 earlier this month, actually, and I think the series will continue to grow and be more and more hard-hitting…
DEADLINE: So you haven’t started working on four and five yet?
WEAVER: They’re written. We know what they are. They’re really good. But Jim is still finishing three. It’s nice to look forward to them.
DEADLINE: And you’ll be present in Avatar four and five, we assume?
WEAVER: Yes, I think I’m allowed to say that.
DEADLINE: Cameron said recently “no one ever dies in science fiction.” Is there a future for Ellen Ripley on screen?
WEAVER: I feel like she’s never far away from me, but on the other hand I have yet to read a script that said “you have got to do this.” So for me, she is in this other dimension, safe from the Alien for the time being. I don’t really think about it, but you know, it’s not completely impossible, and certainly a lot of good filmmakers are inspired by the material.
How much does the public really need or want another Ripley movie? I don’t really sit around and think about it, but if it came up, I would consider it. It has come up a bunch of times, but I’m also busy doing other things. Ripley has earned her rest.
DEADLINE: What do you make of Alien: Romulus? Did you see it and was there ever a discussion that Ripley may appear in it (I’m aware Fede álvarez has said the timeline wouldn’t work for Ripley to be in it)?
WEAVER: There wasn’t a discussion about Ripley being in it. I haven’t seen the new film. I might end up seeing it … I wish them all the best for it…
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DEADLINE: What’s next for you? You have movies Dust Bunny and The Gorge in post-production…
WEAVER: Yes, I’m very excited about Dust Bunny. Bryan Fuller is very talented and working with Mads Mikkelsen was wonderful. I’m also coming to London to play Prospero in The Tempest next year. It’s such a great play. It was remarkable to me that [director] Jamie Lloyd called me about it because that was John Gielgud’s last play at the Drury Lane theater. John gave me my first job in theater. Andrew Lloyd Webber saw the play in the theater as a child and many years later went on to buy it and says how he had always wanted to bring back dramatic plays to the venue after years of musicals. So for all those reasons I felt a strong connection and urge to be involved. The play has a lot to say to today’s audiences about nature, the environment and the psychological space that the play’s island represents.
DEADLINE: We don’t know the rest of the cast yet, do we?
WEAVER: Selina Cadell is also in it. That’s the only other name I’m aware of.
DEADLINE: And the next movie you’re going to film?
WEAVER: I’m playing a role in The Mandalorian & Grogu [which will be directed by Jon Favreau]. I got to meet Grogu for the first time the other day. I’m filming that before I go to London for The Tempest at the end of the year.
DEADLINE: And then your work conquering all the major sci-fi franchises will be complete! Is it a fun part?
WEAVER: Very. I’m looking forward to it. I can’t say much about it right now but it’s fun to bounce between all these different universes.
DEADLINE: Is there a Ghostbusters return on the horizon?
WEAVER: Not that I’m aware of.
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