Three-time Oscar-nominated actress Sigourney Weaver is this year’s recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 81st Venice Film Festival – and becomes only the third American actress to receive the accolade, after Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Best known for the Alien and Avatar franchises, as well as roles in Gorillas In The Mist, Working Girl and The Ice Storm, Weaver showed up to the Venice press conference in good spirits, and wearing an effortlessly stylish white shirt / black tie combo.
Not that emotions didn’t run high, mind you, as the actress teared up when meeting the press, especially when discussing the impact that she has had on women when taking on roles that have had an empowering effect.
When asked about the impact her roles have had, especially with regards to Kamala Harris and how she could become US President, Weaver said she was “so excited about Kamala.”
“To think for one moment that my work would have anything to do with her rise makes me very happy,” she said. “I have so many women who come and thank me.”
She added, referencing the state of politics in the US: “It’s been difficult since 2016, and we’re all very thankful for her.”
Weaver went on to discuss the impact that her character of Ripley in the Alien franchise has had, and her experience as a woman in Hollywood.
“My character (Ripley) was a person. You don’t see her as having to be girly or unmanly – which is all great, because women can be everything. But I got to play her as a person.”
With regards to Hollywood and the evolution of female roles, she added: “Suddenly, I think they had decided somehow that older women could actually play interesting characters and started writing a lot of older women characters.”
“Suddenly, we stopped being a joke and a mother-in-law, and we started to be real people because actually a lot of our audience are real people.”
When asked about her tendency to take on headstrong female characters, Weaver said: “I’m always asked why I play strong women and I always think that’s such a weird question because I just play women, and women are strong and women don’t give up.”
She concluded: “You know why? We can’t. We have to do it.”
Weaver also shared that there was a Plan B if acting didn’t pan out: “By the time I was so discouraged, I told the career person at Yale: I want to get a job at a florist or a bakery. Or a bank teller – at least I could touch money even if I didn’t have any!”
We’re sure she could have made a kick ass bouquet. We’re just thrilled that she ended up kicking Xenomorph ass instead.
The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival runs until 7 September.
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