‘I WAS VERY COMFORTABLE WITH A STRONG FEMALE ROLE’

Sigourney Weaver looks back at her life on screen

Sigourney Weaver is a pioneer in film history. Her breakout role as Ellen Ripley, the intrepid warrant officer in Alien, was a game changer for women in science fiction, paving the way for many more strong female leads. It made Sigourney an international star, and the film’s sequel, Aliens, earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, as did her performance as primatologist Dian Fossey in Gorillas In The Mist.

Now 71, Sigourney is busier than ever. She’s shooting four Avatar sequels back to back, reprising her role as Dr Grace Augustine, and has completed work on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, in which she returns as Dana Barrett, the cellist from the original Ghostbusters. ‘I’ve never been so busy in my life, with so many different challenges that are being sent to me,’ she says. ‘I think Covid has, in a way, reaffirmed for the industry how much people need entertainment.’

Her latest film, My New York Year, is due to be released in cinemas soon. Based on Joanna Rakoff’s memoir My Salinger Year, it stars Sigourney as a top literary agent who represents reclusive author JD Salinger, while Margaret Qualley plays Joanna, her young assistant.

Sigourney lives in Manhattan with her theatre director husband of 36 years, Jim Simpson. The couple have a grown-up daughter, Charlotte.

ALIEN (1979) ‘I was very comfortable with a strong female role; that’s my time – it was all about women’s lib. Ripley is not a sexy space babe and I never worried how I looked; I worried about getting down corridors fast enough to escape the explosions!’

THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1983) ‘Even though he’s shorter than I am, Mel Gibson encouraged me to wear the highest heels I could when we went to the premiere in Los Angeles. That was very cool of him.’

GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) ‘Bill Murray was so much fun to be with. He would tickle me on set and make it so enjoyable. I was preparing for the scene where I open up the refrigerator and I’m supposed to be terrified by these dogs inside it. Bill asked me, “What are you doing?” And I said, “I’m preparing.” And he started to tickle me and told me, “You can’t do comedy if you’re gonna prepare, it’s ridiculous.”’

ALIENS (1986) ‘The whole set-up for Ripley in Aliens, what she ends up doing, finding this new family by the end – it was such a great, supportive arc for her. In that sense, the second [journey] for Ripley is probably the most satisfying.’

WORKING GIRL

(1988) ‘Mike [Nichols, the director] thought we could have a lot of fun with my character Katharine; she is such a special sort of person. She’s a faux aristocrat.’

GORILLAS IN THE MIST (1988) ‘It was the closest thing to absolute joy that I’ve ever felt on the planet – just to be with the gorillas. They’re so grounded, compared to us. They have such smart priorities: eating, sleeping, copulating. I had gorillas all over me, jumping up and down, urinating on me. Even when I was charged and hit by a silverback, I knew it wasn’t personal. He was just in a bad mood.’

My only goal was to be someone people wanted to work with again

DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (1995) ‘This was a huge dramatic role and represented a shift in my career because I began studying with a new teacher, Jack Waltzer. He gave me a new confidence.’

THE ICE STORM

(1997) ‘Ang [Lee, the director] was careful to let me know that he did not want the ending to punish my character for not being a great mother. He didn’t see it as a moralistic tale.’ A MAP OF THE WORLD (1999) ‘This film is about resilience and rebirth. I was so proud of it. It’s a very stirring movie and an amazing one because it tells the truth.’

HEARTBREAKERS

(2001) ‘I love comedy, and this really was a dream come true. I’d been trying to get a role like this in Hollywood all my life. I was also thrilled to work with Gene Hackman; he’s just one of the greatest actors, he is like my idol. We had a great time.’ HOLES (2003) ‘Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson and I play the three bad guys, and I’d never really played a bad guy before. It was hard, actually. As a mother, I found it difficult to be that beastly.’ JUNE 2021 AVATAR (2009) ‘Avatar is a great adventure film about so many things, including the health of the environment. There’s a message not to sacrifice everything for greed and conquest.’ MY NEW YORK YEAR (2021) ‘This movie is a love letter to the old literary world of New York. I could relate to it as someone who used to be a writer when I was young, and as someone who loved books. I was a real bookworm.’ A MONSTER CALLS (2016) ‘It reminds me of great books, such as those by Dickens, where terrible things happen and the hero carries on. I’d recommend it to any family. Such a rich story.’