{"id":362074,"date":"2025-11-07T11:32:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T11:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/362074\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T11:32:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T11:32:18","slug":"sigourney-weaver-the-empire-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/362074\/","title":{"rendered":"Sigourney Weaver: The Empire Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sigourney Weaver set cinema screens alight 46 years ago as Alien<\/a>\u2019s warrant officer Ripley: Jonesy the (\u201clittle shithead\u201d) cat in one hand, a flamethrower in the other. An exquisite visual summation of this new, radical female sci-fi action character, and the soon-to-be-star playing her. A six-foot, New York born-and- bred, Off-Broadway actor who, it was opined, would never make it in Hollywood. And, well, if you measure her career against some traditional models for 1970s actresses \u2014 roles as the plain, platonic pal, or the hankie-holding girlfriend \u2014 Sigourney Weaver didn\u2019t. Instead, she remade it.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

Already known in theatre circles pre-Alien for her bold and bonkers characters, she had started as she meant to go on. And while a taste for the anti-clich\u00e9d may have been at least partly borne of necessity, it stuck on the tongue through choice. Today, then, at the age of 75, it should be deeply unsurprising that she\u2019s mostly preoccupied with playing a teenage sapient humanoid who lives on an extraterrestrial moon. But Avatar is far more than just a flex of those \u2018you didn\u2019t expect that\u2019 muscles. It\u2019s the continuation of a collaboration with writer- director (\u201cnow friend\u201d) James Cameron. One that began in the heat of her early career, producing the highlight of her first franchise (Aliens<\/a>), and still sees her tearing up new ground in her third (after Ghostbusters<\/a>).<\/p>\n

And if you think, deep into her septuagenarian era \u2014 with more Avatar movies and a fourth blockbuster franchise incoming \u2014 that Sigourney Weaver is even remotely done torching our screens, then, well, you clearly haven\u2019t been paying attention.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

\u00a9Robert Ascroft \/ Empire<\/p>\n

EMPIRE:<\/strong> At the Toronto International Film Festival, you called Fire And Ash \u201ctimely\u201d. There\u2019s a definite tonal shift \u2014 what\u2019s changed since The Way Of Water?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SIGOURNEY WEAVER:<\/strong> It\u2019s a very different moment for the family, having lost the eldest son, Neteyam, and still not having a real home, and fighting for their country. There\u2019s a lot more upheaval and unexpected new elements, like the Ash People, who are so completely opposite to the Na\u2019vi. There\u2019s much more darkness because these are our own people fighting us, and all we have is each other, more than ever. For my character<\/a> [Kiri], there\u2019s a lot of realisations and discoveries. She still has trouble connecting with the ancestors; the one thing the Na\u2019vi people can count on is closed off to her and that\u2019s confusing and upsetting. And because she\u2019s half human, it makes her feel like she\u2019s not part of them. I remember when I first read two and three [The Way Of Water and Fire And Ash], three seemed, by contrast, very dark \u2014 and yet here we are in a very dark period on the planet. There\u2019s something eerie about how Jim [Cameron] can anticipate these revolutions in our world.<\/p>\n

\n

The parkour was intense, the free-diving really was very intense.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Only James Cameron would cast you in<\/strong> Avatar<\/strong> as Dr Grace Augustine, kill you off and then say, \u201cOh, we\u2019re bringing you back as a teenage girl\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I remember having lunch with him and we talked about this forest girl, but I had no idea he\u2019d create something that made so much sense, and was so playable. I mean, of course, he has kids this age so he\u2019s living with that reality all the time. But she\u2019s a joy to play \u2014 and also, it\u2019s a chance for me. I was such a miserable 14-, 15-year-old. I was so insecure \u2014 and funny, so I managed to survive high school \u2014 but I didn\u2019t have any real confidence. And it\u2019s given me an opportunity to go back and re-enter that state of mind, be in it and trust myself in a different way [with] that character; find the little crumbs of me there in the character. I felt a lot of despair when I was 14 and 15, and Kiri and all of them feel despair because of what\u2019s happening to their world. But she has more support, perhaps, than I did as a kid, and so I find it very healing, in a way, to play her.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

\u00a9Robert Ascroft \/ Empire<\/p>\n

You\u2019re working and training with the young cast \u2014 and have done since The Way Of Water.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was very important to Jim that we do everything. And I wanted to do all the things with the kids. The parkour was intense, the free-diving really was very intense. But I think, for me, as someone who\u2019s about to turn 76, I can\u2019t afford to do nothing, you know? I mean, I\u2019m not a crazy person, but I do try to do something for an hour every day. I\u2019ve always been like that, but now I have this extra motivation, because I don\u2019t want to be an old crone by the time I get to [films] four and five. I still have to be able to do all these things \u2014 a little less free-diving, but that was so<\/p>\n

exciting, the luxury of six months with the guy who trains Navy SEALs. And the fact that we are all in it together with our varying degrees of anxiety about swimming and going deep. I always had to get to the set, get in the water maybe 20 minutes before everybody else. It took me that long to get set up, warm up and calm down, because your body has to make a transition to being a water creature, from being a mammal. And that was never easy for me, [but] it\u2019s fascinating. It\u2019s really kind of a magic thing. I wish I could show it to you because it\u2019s like a little bridge to this other world that was very necessary for us to be able to do these long days underwater.<\/p>\n

I saw the water tanks on set of<\/strong> The Way Of Water<\/strong> and couldn\u2019t get over the scale. I know they say you have to master your fear, but oh my God\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not like you get used to doing it! I think all of us had to cross that bridge every time, every day, or even after lunch too, you know? Just have to make that conversion against all the things in your body that say, \u201cThis is it, you\u2019re going to die.\u201d Yeah, it\u2019s fascinating to find out what you\u2019re capable of. Often [with] films I\u2019m not the bravest creature in the world. Often I\u2019m up against it and yet, because I really want to do it, I push myself and I go, \u201cWow. Never would I have thought I could do that.\u201d But it doesn\u2019t make it any easier the next time.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

\u00a9Robert Ascroft \/ Empire<\/p>\n

And with Kiri, you added those less perfect, more \u2018teenage\u2019 elements to the character James created?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He comes up with these big moments, but leaves it up to you to do the work to get there \u2014 and not give up and go, \u201cOh, God!\u201d No-one wants to let Jim down. You know, every time we come back to an Avatar movie, the world has moved on. And so I\u2019m grateful for a filmmaker like Jim putting years into these stories, reminding us of who we really are, where we are. Like our democracy right now, we believed there were checks and balances. In fact, that isn\u2019t happening, and you realise how much you\u2019ve taken for granted \u2014 and now you have to fight. And that\u2019s where we are with the planet, too. It\u2019s an important lesson for us in America, and it\u2019s an important lesson for us on Earth. You can\u2019t just hope everything will be alright. You\u2019ve got to actually take a stand.<\/p>\n

People talk about the future of cinema, but there\u2019s an urgency around large-scale, impactful cinema at a time when, as you say, the world is on fire.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to hear you say that. You know, films are, to me, sustenance, nourishment. And there\u2019s a lot of stuff that\u2019s not that nourishing, it passes the time. But every now and then \u2014 like I just had a movie open at TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival], Dust Bunny<\/a>, a glorious small film by Bryan Fuller, and that night [it premiered] at Midnight Madness, people were just gobbling it up. Because it\u2019s so special, it\u2019s so personal. I feel the same way but on a much bigger scale with Avatar: you bring your whole self to it as a spectator.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

\u00a9Robert Ascroft \/ Empire<\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t have imagined a film like Avatar back on your first major movie, Alien, but your physicality is key to both. When you were younger, there was cynicism about a woman so tall \u2014 at six feet \u2014 making it. How did you make it so core to you as an actor?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I came from the theatre where that\u2019s all you have when you present yourself on stage \u2014 the last thing you want to do is hide as you come on; you have to embrace whatever you are. I had a very short mother, she was 5\u2019 2, 3\u201d \u2014 English, too! \u2014 and she used to say, \u201cYou\u2019re going to be so happy you\u2019re tall.\u201d And, of course, it was one of the many things I couldn\u2019t imagine when I was a teenager. But I did grow into it, and [as] my mother was very much an athlete, I have always found that strength in women is so attractive. I feel very lucky that I was able to go, \u201cAlright, well, listen, I\u2019m six feet tall, and I [have] big shoulders,\u201d and just pray that there\u2019d be some crazy director there like Peter (Weir, who directed Weaver in 1982\u2019s The Year Of Living Dangerously). I always thought it took an unconventional director to think of casting me, and I was able to find a lot of those \u2014 it could easily have not worked out like that.<\/p>\n

\n

That would have really been the death of me, if I had to play girlfriend or best-friend roles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Years ago, Ridley Scott said of you when you came in for your audition for Ripley, \u201cI knew this was her.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, really? That\u2019s interesting. I really hadn\u2019t done anything \u2014 a couple of little scenes in an Israeli movie [Madman], which I\u2019ve still never seen \u2014 but I had no idea what I was doing. And I remember I wore these very high \u2018hooker boots\u2019 because I thought, \u201cOh, science-fiction. I can have some fun,\u201d which meant that I absolutely towered over Ridley Scott. And more power to him that he didn\u2019t go, \u201cOh my God, this woman is grotesque.\u201d<\/p>\n

I feel I was given jobs of playing women like Ripley who are in these extreme situations but [that] allowed me, as Kiri does, to use all the parts of me that are self-doubting. You know, you don\u2019t play a character like Ripley thinking, \u201cI have the answers,\u201d and I decided that the first week of filming. I remember saying to [Alien co-star] Ian Holm, \u201cDo you think Ripley really thinks what she\u2019s doing is right?\u201d And he said, \u201cYes.\u201d And I said, \u201cYou know, I don\u2019t think she ever has that certainty. It\u2019s complete improvisation from beginning to end. She never feels like she\u2019s doing the right thing, or that there is a right thing, or a great path to some logical ending. It\u2019s all chaos. It\u2019s overwhelming, and all you can do is put one foot in front of another.\u201d And on Alien, I was literally doing that. I look back and feel very lucky, in a way, that I was fighting for my life, day to day \u2014 each day was so new to me. I tried not to think about the responsibility and pretended I was doing a play. I had a lot of confidence in a certain kind of theatre, and so just thought, \u201cOh, this is such a strange movie. It\u2019s the Off-Off Broadway of movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

\u00a9Robert Ascroft \/ Empire<\/p>\n

You had \u2018character\u2019 roles in theatre: a schizophrenic, a woman with a hedgehog in her vagina\u2026 And in film, you didn\u2019t start out with supporting \u2018girlfriend\u2019 roles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that would have really been the death of me, if I had to play girlfriend or best-friend roles. Some of those more conventional movies, if I\u2019d had to pretend to be more normal \u2014 which I\u2019m not really \u2014 I would have had a much harder time, because I would have been acting. Trying to act as someone who acts normal. I\u2019m much better at playing a girl who keeps a hedgehog in her vagina than I am at playing someone who\u2019s going shopping with a friend. Although, I am playing Meryl Streep\u2019s best friend in a movie that\u2019s going to shoot at the beginning of 2026 [Joseph Cedar\u2019s Useful Idiots]. And that\u2019ll be fun! I mean, how rare is it to have two older women who are best friends, and have a history together? I\u2019m delighted they\u2019re even having that in a movie, that\u2019s a shock. And so now, yeah, I\u2019m ready finally to play the best-friend part.<\/p>\n

\n

Ripley endures as someone who even can inspire me if I need a little encouragement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But I\u2019m curious about the argument still raging: how important is it that Ripley\u2019s a woman? For me, it\u2019s the least relevant thing. She\u2019s a complex human being \u2014 strong, good at her job and, sometimes, scared and vulnerable. Where do you come down?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel that one of the reasons Ripley endures as someone who even can inspire me if I need a little encouragement, is that she is an \u2018everyperson\u2019. She is a human character. And you\u2019re right, [but] I think it was more significant when the movie came out \u2014 there had never been a survivor who was a woman. It was just unheard of. But as the years have gone on, I feel like the reason she\u2019s interesting to people is because, as you say, she\u2019s a human being, she\u2019s not all powerful. I always felt I was so in touch with my own vulnerability when I was playing Ripley. She didn\u2019t pretend it doesn\u2019t exist, she just had to keep going. And I feel like women certainly were looking to see that in films, but I also think people were just looking for a character who can navigate situations and come out of them and do it not in a super-human, Marvel way. I think we all see ourselves in characters like that [where] it\u2019s not easy. You have to survive this scene in order to get to the next thing. And I feel that that\u2019s the story of Avatar, too.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

\u00a9Robert Ascroft \/ Empire<\/p>\n

What James Cameron did with the script in Aliens is perhaps not dissimilar to Fire And Ash. Introducing grief and loss, these darker elements\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, and I would say that with Oona Chaplin\u2019s character [Varang, leader of the Ash People] \u2014 a scary, unnerving character, [who\u2019s] so damaged from what has happened to her as an Ash Person \u2014 once again, Jim has created this incredibly strong, mesmerising woman character.<\/p>\n

Do we learn the wrong lessons from these female characters? By trying to make them a model, a formula? We often hear in action that \u2018X\u2019 is the new Ripley?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s what you said earlier: when Walter [Hill] and Dan [O\u2019Bannon] wrote this character, they wrote her like a guy. And I think that\u2019s the secret to writing any character \u2014 you write the individual, and all these cultural requirements of what a woman should be sort of go. You know, it used to be the studio would say you have to be sympathetic. [And] sometimes they asked women to play characters of action, and then put them in some absurd costume. I was lucky because I was literally in a NASA suit Ridley and I found on the floor. And pretty much, Ripley gave me the freedom to say to directors, \u201cI feel that the arc should be this; is this really true to the character?\u201d I\u2019ve always shot my big mouth off because as an English major, it\u2019s all about the story. I have these alarms that go off when something is fudged, and always feel the script is better for asking questions. I wouldn\u2019t abuse that privilege but as actors, it\u2019s our job to feel it way down in here.<\/p>\n

\"Empire<\/p>\n

\u00a9Robert Ascroft \/ Empire<\/p>\n

There\u2019s such breadth to your work. There are franchises \u2014 you\u2019ve got<\/strong> Star Wars<\/strong> coming up \u2014 and indies, and we haven\u2019t even talked about your comedies. If there is a thread, is it the writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, that\u2019s my compass; it\u2019s always the script. So [with] The Mandalorian And Grogu<\/a>, it was not my intention to find a fourth franchise, I didn\u2019t ever imagine that I would enter the Star Wars<\/a> world. But what\u2019s interesting about Star Wars now is they\u2019re no longer trying to do the Star Wars to end all Star Wars. They\u2019re letting the universe exist, and tell[ing] really interesting stories within that. I think Jon Favreau thought, \u201cOkay, we want this very strong character. Let\u2019s make it a woman.\u201d I\u2019m not sure it was supposed to be a woman. I think again, these days, they often think, \u201cWhat do I need to do to make this seem more timely?\u201d, and now, because women are doing everything, hooray for us. [But] I just fell in love with the script and said, \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about this world.\u201d Jon said, \u201cWell, you can watch the series,\u201d and I said, \u201cOh, there\u2019s a series?!\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there a filmmaker you haven\u2019t worked with yet, something you<\/strong> have<\/strong> to make?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I might be doing a movie with this brilliant young director, Stephen Fingleton, whose first film, [2015 post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller] The Survivalist, was one of the most terrifying things I\u2019ve ever seen. I\u2019m always delighted when directors think of me, because, in a way, you have to have an imagination; the Alien thing is so strong, you know? I did The Tempest [on stage] last year in London and think that\u2019s a great place to be an actor. There\u2019s such a belief in the job \u2014 which is to take you out of your world and leave you changed. To light up some parts of you that are dormant.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published in the December 2025 issue of Empire. Sigourney Weaver was shot exclusively for Empire in Los Angeles on 21 September 2025. Avatar: Fire And Ash comes to UK cinemas from 19 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sigourney Weaver set cinema screens alight 46 years ago as Alien\u2019s warrant officer Ripley: Jonesy the (\u201clittle shithead\u201d)…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":362075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-362074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115508200045452501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}