Sigourney Weaver is “so glad” her ‘Alien’ alter ego Ellen Ripley is still popular because she is a positive female role model.
Sigourney Weaver is “so glad” her ‘Alien’ alter ego is still popular.
The 71-year-old actress first played Ellen Ripley in Sir Ridley Scott's 1979 movie and she’s proud of the character’s legacy because she was so much more strong and heroic than other females in films of the time.
She said: “I’m so glad Ripley’s had that staying power.
“In those days, films would always have a scene where the girl in the skirt is doing something heroic and then she’ll break down. Well, Walter Hill and David Giler never wrote Ripley like that.
“These were guys, like Ridley, who loved women and were with strong women so it was natural to them to create a character like her.
“Ripley has to go from being a by-the-book young lieutenant to throwing the book out the window and just improvising her way through things, which is life, and it sends the message that you can do it, no matter what it is.
Sigourney never went into the film imagining it would lead to sequels.
Speaking to Reader's Digest magazine, she said: “In those days, if you could imagine, there weren’t sequels.
"So, we did this little movie in England that we thought was going to be terrific and scary and groundbreaking, in terms of the cinematography and what Ripley was doing, but we never expected to do another one until James Cameron wrote it.”
And the ‘Avatar’ star - who played Ripley in four movies - is grateful for the doors the series opened for her.
She said: “When I went into casting meetings after ‘Alien’, it was a wonderful thing.
“It was almost like I was expected to have a flamethrower in my purse or something!”
Despite the popularity of the franchise, Sigourney has never feared being typecast because she’s always sought out “variety” in her work.
She said: “I wanted to do theatre but I wasn’t very encouraged at Yale Drama School.
“My dream was to find a repertory company – an ensemble where you could play the maid one week and the queen the other. I loved the variety of that work.
“I try to construct that in my career.
“I love doing small parts, I love doing big parts.
“I love jumping from one genre to the next. I’ve just been able to somehow do that - was never worried about being typecast.
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
Ahead of the imminent release of his second solo album - Dekker, aka Brookln Dekker, took time out to let us know about the musical project he...
Harold Meyerowitz (Dustin Hoffman) is a celebrated New York artist, whose quick-temper and filter-less conversation...
A difficult movie to market, this isn't actually the BFG-style fantasy adventure it looks like....
Conor's life has never been easy, his mother is loving but any other family members...
A-list director Ron Howard worked with the surviving Beatles to assemble this engaging documentary, which...
It's been 13 years since the release of the Disney/Pixar hit Finding Nemo, and filmmaker...
It's been more than 30 years since the Ghostbusters first hit the big screen with...
Ghostbusters is a new film for 2016 and is based on the 1984 film of...
Erin Gilbert is a brilliant quantum physicist and holds a high ranking lecturing position at...
This is a terrific small film about artificial intelligence wrapped within a much bigger, less...
Mankind has the potential to build wondrous things, yet it also truly fears what it...
Aside from impressive 21st century digital effects, this new take on the Moses story pales...
Director Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven) talks about world of his new film,...