Sigourney Weaver

Feb 17, 2005

After 30 years in Hollywood Sigourney Weaver has created a filmography that would be the envy of any young ingénue. From Alien to Ghostbusters to three Academy nominations, this beautiful actor has created some of the compelling characters ever.

Her latest is Sandy Travis in Imaginary Heroes written and directed by 25 year old Dan Harris. Imaginary Heroes follows one year in the lives of the Travis family. After a terrible tragedy, the family pretty much falls to pieces. Teenage son Tim [Emile Hirsch] sleepwalks through life, mother Sandy [Sigourney Weaver] finds escape in smoking pot, and father Ben [Jeff Daniels] goes into shut-down mode, disconnecting from his family.

Check out the official site for Imaginary Heroes

Daniel Robert Epstein: Is Sandy Travis the kind of hip mom that people think they want until they get her?

Sigourney Weaver: I felt like when all this happened for Sandy the old rock and roller in her started to bust out. I think it’s been a weird life for her which I think is true for a lot of people in the suburbs. They live in these houses that all look alike and you don’t know what’s happening inside. This family has that weird phenomenon where the mother is very close with one child and the father is very close with the other child and there isn’t much crossover. That has good points and bad. I was very aware she was getting too much emotional sustenance from Tim which was a burden on him.

DRE:

You seemed to play this character as though you really loved her. What qualities do you share with her?

SW:

I think she’s quite funny, dry and ironic. For a lot of people that’s a way of coping so I related to that. I thought she was good company. When her husband talks about the appeal of cosmetic surgery and she tells him that he doesn’t need it then he says that he meant for her. I think that’s something that happens a lot.

I know that when I was a teenager I used to crack jokes about myself before someone else could. That was how I got through a lot of situations. Things have been difficult for this family for a long time then when these horrible things happen all bets are off.

I liked her innocence as well. Once she decides she wants pot she thinks you could just go around the corner and buy it. I read a lot of scripts and there are so many humorless sex crazed bad mothers who take drugs and here was a person who was not just a 54 year old woman but you could see her as a good wife and mother at one point. I think that’s real writing.

DRE:

What do you think made her want to go get pot?

SW:

I think the reason she smokes pot is because she is in pain. She’s reaching for whatever will give her solace and unfortunately it’s against the law. I don’t think you can condemn people who want comfort when they are suffering.

DRE:

As a mother, if you were to find some pot in your child’s things, what would you do?

SW:

You try to resist doing things like looking through their room. But if I found some while my daughter was in college I wouldn’t do anything but if she was in high school I would talk about it with her. I wouldn’t feel like I have to police them but I would want to know what’s going on. Kids are going to experiment no matter what. The people that I’ve known in my life that smoke pot everyday are not my favorite people. The people who I know that have vices now are like M & M’s.

DRE:

This film really seems to polarize people; they either love it or hate it. Why is there no middle ground with this movie?

SW:

I think it’s a young person’s movie. It’s been compared to Ordinary People but I don’t think Dan Harris was even born when that movie came out and he’s never seen it. I guess people should judge the film on what it is and not compare it to anything else. I feel like Dan is a very big talent and as a first film I think it’s as good as Garden State or some of these other films that are getting so much attention.

DRE:

Do you think there is much of a difference between raising a son and a daughter?

SW:

I’ve only raised a daughter and I’m not even through with that. It may depend on the child but my impression is that it is very different. There are things parents of girls worry about that son’s parents don’t worry about at all.

DRE:

The first Alien film was your coming out as a sex symbol. Nowadays young women have a tendency to take their clothes off much more easily in movies, the internet and television. Have you seen a lot of changes in your position in the business?

SW:

The only place I’ve seen a real difference is in reality shows. People don’t seem to know when they are behaving really badly. I don’t think it has anything to do with taking your clothes off. But people on those shows are mean, selfish and small and they don’t seem to have any problem with doing this in front of the world. I try to limit my daughter to watching those shows because I think it’s important to have a sense of yourself and have certain standards of behavior. These reality shows seem to encourage people to behave very badly in front of the camera.

DRE:

The Village wasn’t very well received here but it got a very different reception in Europe.

SW:

Well that’s part of what I’ve been thinking lately. I think we are all in crisis because it’s very hard to find money to do interesting films here and in Europe. The Village was treated different in Europe because they respected [writer/director M.] Night [Shyamalan] for trying to do something different while in America everyone wants the next Sixth Sense.

DRE:

Dan Harris works on a lot of genre films like X2 and now Superman so he is a fan. I’m wondering what kind of conversations he might have with the star of the Alien films and Ghostbusters?

SW:

I don’t think we ever talked about it. One of the things I admired about Dan was that his approach to genre films is the same as his approach to a film like Imaginary Heroes. Just because it’s a big genre picture you should still put a lot of layers to those characters.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

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