PROFILE
She’s one of the most groundbreaking actors of all time, having revolutionised what it means to be a female on screen. But, as Sigourney Weaver tells Charlotte Oliver, it’s vulnerability, not strength, that matters most
Some stars need no introduction: their name alone sparks fandom and fanfare across the planet. Or across the galaxy, in the case of Sigourney Weaver, who changed the scope of cinema for ever when she starred as the weapon-wielding, space-travelling Ellen Ripley in Alien 44 years ago. Before then, damsels in distress were a dime a dozen, but in one groundbreaking sci-fi film – and its three sequels – Weaver proved that women were just as capable as men of leading their own action movie. Sarah Connor, Lara Croft and Katniss Everdeen are just some of the formidable female film characters that came after, as other actors followed in her footsteps, but Weaver didn’t stop striding ahead, stepping into the shoes of a plethora of commanding women and leaving the sceptics eating their words in the process. I, meanwhile, am scrambling for mine today, as I wait for the actor to answer her phone.
Having grown up with Weaver, 73, as the benchmark for so-called ‘strong women’ – not to mention the fact that she’s regularly cited alongside the likes of Meryl Streep and Glenn Close as one of the leading female actors of the past century – I’m expecting a dominant and perhaps intimidating voice to meet me on the other end. Except Weaver’s is anything but. She greets me warmly and modestly, thanking me for taking the time to watch her latest TV series, The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart, and showing genuine relief when I tell her – truthfully – just how much I loved it.
‘That’s so great to hear!’ she says, adding that I’m the first journalist she’s spoken to about the project. ‘I’m actually right in the middle of watching it, so you’re ahead of me! I couldn’t do all seven hours in one go.’
It’s no great surprise that Weaver is taking her time with it. The series is an emotive watch, exploring themes of domestic abuse and cycles of trauma and violence against women with unapologetic explicitness. Based on the bestselling novel by Holly Ringland, it tells the story of Alice Hart, a young Australian girl whose life changes when her parents die in a mysterious fire and she’s sent to live with her hardened grandmother, June, played by Weaver, on a native flower farm in the outback. Running the farm as a co-operative and refuge for abused women, June employs flowers to communicate things that are too hard to say.
I ask Weaver how she herself communicates when words won’t do; is it something she transmits through her work? ‘Yes, I do think that’s a response I have to many situations in the world – that perhaps stories ca
