I’m not that tough in real life.. I scream at a spider
SIGOURNEY Weaver plays a grandmother for the first time in her latest movie, A Monster Calls.
The 67-year-old mum of one joked: “I think people will say, ‘It’s about time!’”
But the actress, who has a 26-year-old daughter, Charlotte, with her husband of 32 years, stage director Jim Simpson, was anything but insulted.
She revealed: “My daughter tells me I’m not even allowed to think about being a grandmother in my real life, so I was, in a way, very grateful to be asked.”
The film is based on the award-winning novel by Patrick Ness, who also wrote the screenplay, from an original idea by the late Siobhan Dowd.
The beautiful, heart-wrenching story tells the tale of Conor, a bullied 12-year-old. He is looking for guidance while coming to terms with his mother’s (Felicity Jones) illness and being forced to spend time with his emotionally distant grandmother (Weaver).
One evening, he unexpectedly summons a monster (Liam Neeson) made from an ancient tree. The monster shares tales with him over a number of nights and, in return, asks Conor to tell his own story and admit the truth he’s hiding from.
Weaver said she wanted to work with Spanish director J.A. Bayona after seeing his previous films The Orphanage and The Impossible.
She added: “I felt his world was so unusual and enticing.
“I guess the only thing that was scary to me was the grandmother. People have very mixed feelings about her at the start. I just wanted to make sure we went for that and didn’t sentimentalise it.
“I certainly didn’t want to be ‘the grandmother you hate but who is actually OK’. I had to earn that in the story, I had to win Conor and his mother back just by coming towards them in the story.
“It was a very challenging role, and that was part of the appeal for me.”
The three-time Oscar nominee admitted she’s bemused by her tough on-screen persona, stating: “I’m such a pushover and scream at a spider, so I think whatever it is people imagine, it comes from them.”
As for motherly instinct, she added: “Once you’re a parent, I think it’s very hard not to carry that with you in every part. And even though I hadn’t had children when I did Aliens, to me, I always found it more interesting to play a mother than to play a vice-president.
“To me, these family stories are the heart of what we do, so when I’m offered one, which is rare because people think of me playing career women, I’m so grateful.”
Weaver said she could “completely relate to” the script for A Monster Calls, which she called a “lovely, small, intimate, dear story”.
She explained: “I’ve lost both my parents, and I spent a number of years looking after them. It was some of the most precious time I’ve ever spent, because I had to take care of them and you have to learn how to do that.
“Loving people and losing people, that’s happened to all of us.”
She’s watched the completed movie a couple of times now and revealed: “Even though I know the script so well, I completely lose touch with the reality… I can never predict what the monster’s going to say, or what’s going to happen next.
“I go on the journey, which I’m sure, and hope, every audience member goes on.” ● A Monster Calls is released on New Year’s Day.