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Sigourney Weaver was brought to tears at the suggestion that her body of work – specifically her Alien character Ellen Ripley – has empowered women.
During a recent press conference at the Venice Film Festival, the Avatar star, 74, was asked by a female journalist about whether she thinks her roles as strong characters had any influence in “mak[ing] it possible that a woman like Kamala Harris could become President of the United States.”
Noting that she “loved” the question, Weaver said: “We’re all so excited about Kamala, and to think for one moment that my work would have anything to do with her makes me very happy.”
Audibly choking up, she added: “It’s true, I have so many women who come and thank me.”
She quickly apologized before reaching for her water, quipping: “Sorry, I need my vodka.”
Bringing her point back to Vice President Harris’s historical presidential nomination, Weaver said: “It’s been difficult since 2016, and we’re all very grateful about her.”
She then addressed her character of Ripley in the horror sci fi franchise, saying: “You don’t see her having to be girly or womanly, or any of these other ideas – which are also great, because women can be everything – but I got to play what I realized was simply a person.”
She explained she takes “inspiration from what I see as actual women.”
“I just play women – and women are strong,” she said. “And women don’t give up. You know why? Because we can’t. We have to do it.”
Weaver was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival’s opening ceremony on Wednesday (August 28).
She is well known for her breakout role as Lieutenant First Class Ripley in the first 1979 Alien movie, directed by Ridley Scott. She went on to reprise her role in its 1986, 1992 and 1997 sequels, the first of which landed her a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
She later voiced the character in the 2014 video game Aliens: Isolation, based on the hit movie series.
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The newest Aliens sequel, Alien: Romulus, helmed by Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez, was released in theaters last week.
Starring Cailee Spaeny, Industry’s David Jonsson, Isabela Merced and Aileen Wu, the movie follows a group of space colonizers as they come face to face with a terrifying life-form in the universe while searching the deep ends of a dilapidated space station.
Alien: Romulus has faced middling reviews from critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey calling it “a semi-great sequel that becomes absurd and ethically problematic” in her three-star review.
