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Interview: Sigourney WeaverBy Katey Rich: 2008-02-23 17:21:31
When it comes to playing women who are cool and calm under pressure, no one does it better than Sigourney Weaver. Ever since she kicked extra-terrestrial butt in Alien, Weaver has specialized at playing women in a world of men who can keep up just fine. She maintains that attitude in Vantage Point, playing a TV producer whose news van is literally rocked by the Presidential assassination and explosion at a square in Spain. Though she and her crew never leave their van, they play a key role in helping solve the mystery behind those acts of violence.Weaver, graceful and cool and total role model/girl crush material, sat down with a group of journalists and answered even our silliest questions with intelligence. Yes, she gave the details about Avatar and even her opinions on the Alien vs. Predator series, but she also talked about keeping up a long career in Hollywood, and participating in Michel Gondry's madness. Check it out. So you're keeping your tough lady image left over from Alien. Well, I don't think you get to be the person in that job without being tough and tenacious. I did several days of research at NBC, and I had them read the script. The part was written for a man, who seemed slightly hysterical to me. I just tried to do what they advised. They keep very cool. They try to direct the news being about emotion, but they stay very emotionless. I watched all the 9/11 tapes from the Today show, and those guys did such a good job. Katie Couric especially. It's so informative, they never say too much. They only say what they absolutely know. It was one of the most useful things that I did. To be in that position, with that responsibility live, and have this kind of crisis happen. The truth is it's what every new director dreams of, as horrible as it is, because it's such a huge event. How long of a shoot was this for you? It was a week for me. It was actually quite difficult to shoot, because you would be actually looking at 20 screens with all these different things on them. In fact we didn't have the screens, we had these little tiny screens that we weren't allowed to look at. Technologically it was one of the most difficult things, to try and look where they would theoretically have that footage, and react to something you didn't see. Did you go out in the production vans doing research, or talk to the anchors? No, they didn't trust me that much. I sat in on the Today show, I sat in on Nightly News. I was there for the whole saga of the British finding the accused terrorists with the liquids. I watched how the producers played it out. There was nothing breaking with the news van that I could go to. But I would have liked to see that. I'm invited back. Did you gain some perspective being on the other side of the camera, having been covered by the media as an actor? I have to say what they're doing is really important, and useful. I thought NBC chose enormous tact in what they chose not to show, for instance with the terrorists. I guess I never thought of it from my actor point of view, because it was so much more important. it was just about real life. The things I sat and pretended to cover, they were big deals. My little life didn't really come up in comparison. Do you look at the job of the media differently? Yeah, it's a cool job. I really admire those people a lot. When I was in college I did sort of want to be a journalist. Being an actor you kind of have the same interest. You go into a story and you tell it from your point of view for people who aren't there. That's what an actor does with a character. But the real life is more more interesting. This movie is to a certain extent about how the government manipulates media. Do you think there are any stories underreported by the media because of government manipulation? It was a question I asked over at NBC, and the answer was no. There's some kind of code which is about not alarming people, and not terrifying people, which his actually something the government has gotten very good at. They don't go that route. It's really to present the news, the facts, and not put a spin on them. That's for the viewer to decide what to make of all of them. I was very impressed with the integrity of what I watched. So that's a good thing. Can you talk about your process working with the director, Pete Travis? Well, I was there at the end. We only had a few days to shoot what was a very technically demanding scene. We didn't get the rehearsal we thought we would get. We just had to kind of make ourselves slow down. I had two young actors with me. Unlike most scenes, I think this one, because of how unique it was, we had to really slow down, take our time and grow into the set. he was very excited, very committed. My character was kind of a jerk, and he really wanted her to be admirable at the same time. It was a real process. We worked together quite feverishly for that week. You didn't get to do any scenes directly with Zoe here, but I know you're both in Avatar. Did you have any scenes together there? Yes, we have. We spent last summer doing scenes together. Motion-capture. What's it like working with James Cameron again? It's absolutely great. He's doing the most extraordinary job. He invented the cameras. That's going to be quite an experience for people. I think it's going to transforms the industry, frankly. To see a serious film done in 3D is really powerful. Have you seen any of the footage? They forced me to see my scenes, which I didn't want to see. I got to see quite a bit of it. Quite a bit of where they are with the performance capture in that world. It's pretty awesome. It was a great thrill to be in something that was so-- it felt like science fiction half the time, because no one else is doing it. How does your acting style change for something like Avatar, with all the motion capture work? Because I come from the theatre I actually think the motion capture is-- to me motion capture is what we all do when we're kids. OK, I'm going to put a blanket over this table, and now it's going to be a castle. Tomorrow it's going to be a cave. The next day it's going to be something else. you pretend that something that represents something gives you the whole world. We're basically in an empty room with these little outfits on. You have the camera here [she gestures to the front of her face], you have eight photographers shooting you, Jim has this other camera he invented that shows us in the world. It was fascinating. But I never felt 'Oh, I've never done this before.' I felt that's where you are in rehearsal, before the set comes in, before the props come in. I felt incredibly at home in that world, actually. How was it participating in Be Kind Rewind? [Weaver plays the lawyer trying to shut down the video store] They sent me the script like two days before, and I had all this lawyerese, which is hard to learn. We get there, and I said 'I'm just going to stagger through.' and Michel said 'Oh no, we don't rehearse.' There was no rehearsal. The set is very loose. I haven't seen it, I hope it's fine. I just love the whole idea. It was so charming. The fact that they kind of did this for Ghostbusters. The guy who plays me is this big guy. The whole thing I thought was incredibly charming, so it was a pleasure. Are there any films that you have on VHS that you'd hate to lose, like in Be Kind Rewind? I do so many independent movies that people sometimes say 'So you're not making movies anymore, Ms. Weaver?' So maybe a box set of my independent films. You've done a lot of great indie work and a lot of big-budget films over the years. Where do you see the future of movies as an actress? Will it be a lot of big CGI stuff, or will people hang on to the indie spirit? I actually know for a fact-- Jim cameron was thinking that we would shoot the live action of Avatar as an indie movie. Of course, the sets themselves are so expensive you can't shoot the same way. You have to have coverage, because you want to get that much bang for your buck. I think that all the aspects of the industry are good for each other. I think indie films are really important, because they show the studios and the audiences when they see them, great stories. Really interesting, small stories. The big stuff-- I don't think it changes the process. You have to really work to have your inner process going, so you're not thrown off by the amount of time it takes to do something that's CGI It's always more time-consuming I think. I'm an optimist about the business. As long as people want to see great things, great things will be made. What movies have you enjoyed recently? I really enjoyed No Country for Old Men. I really enjoyed Juno. It was a really interesting group of movies. I haven't, frankly, seen all of them. I'm hoping to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly this week. How about Aliens vs. Predator 2? You know, that whole thing makes me heartsick. That's Fox's decision, to throw that legacy into the...whatever. What would you think about more Alien movies, or a new alien? It wouldn't surprise me if they 3D-ed the Alien movies, which is a process that can be done. It's a little pricey, but you can do it. Some of those shots in the first and second one would be very powerful, and you could find a whole new audience. When you have a creature, especially one that's been done to death now, it would be difficult. there are other things that interest me about it, where they came from and the character of Ripley. But I don't see anywhere to go with it really. Dennis Quaid mentioned in our earlier interview that it's harder for women to get older in the business than it is for men. Do you find that? Also, do you see any actresses now taking your mantle as the action star? I don't think he has to worry about us. I think we're doing fine. Every time there's a really good story there's women in it. We may not get as many roles, but the roles we get are really good, I think for the most part. As far as the action, I thin the biggest difference for me was that Ripley was allowed to be a real person, and a real woman. She wasn't wearing tiny little clothes. She was just a regular individual. A big thing wasn't made of her womanhood. She as just in this situation, and it was her character that was interesting. I haven't seen many of these [action movies] where you have to look absolutely beautiful all the time. They may be fantastic. I think the one that I've seen is the Angelina Jolie-- I've watched a couple of those. I thought she was fabulous. >I really think it depends on who the person is. What I perceive in science fiction is that it's more about how everything looks than what's going on, which I think it just difficult if you're an action character. I think they are about character, not about what it looks like. Can you talk about being able to consistently find great roles over the years? I actually feel my best roles have come recently. No one has seen them, but... I've always really tried to do movies that I'd want to see, that really had a beginning, middle and end, that were about more than the people in them. If a movie can fulfill a lot of these requirements, it ends up being something that's worth doing and worth seeing. I think that's why most of my movies made money. I'm also lucky, because I don't feel forced to do things I really don't want to do. I can work in the theatre, I can do other things. I'd rather not work than do something I don't believe in. Maybe the secret is I'm not disciplined enough to kill myself the way I usually do unless there's something I really think is worth the public seeing. RELATED: interview, sigourney weaver, vantage point
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February 24th, 2008 at 14:03
Excellent interview. Sigourney is still captivating in everything she does. Even the abysmally bad The Village.