The world of Avatar, with its giant blue cat people, talking whales and dragon-like public transport may not immediately strike you as a mirror image for our world. But with the third entry in the series, Avatar: Fire and Ash, hitting cinemas this week, that’s exactly what it’s come to feel like for one of its mega-stars, Sigourney Weaver.
“Fire and Ash does somehow anticipate what's going on in our world now, even though [director] James Cameron wrote these 12 years ago,” says Weaver as she sits down with Shortlist for a chat ahead of the movie’s release — a film that has surprising parallels with the many conflicts currently playing out across the real world.
“It anticipates the fact that the world is at war, and that people are processing grief, and families are dealing with all kinds of issues, and have to get on with it no matter what.”
The third film in what’s planned as a giant five part (at least) epic story, Avatar: Fire and Ash takes viewers back to the alien planet of Pandora, where the ongoing conflict between the native Na'vi people and interloping humans has boiled over into civil war. The interspecies Sully family, which Weaver’s Kiri is part of, no longer just has to contend with the mechanised menace of humans looking to strip the planet for parts, but a fierce Na'vi tribe called the Mangkwan Clan hailing from a volcanic region of the planet, working in cahoots with the off-world invaders.
“It does feel like one huge story for us,” says Weaver.
“It's very exciting to be at the midpoint, and I know this movie has to do well, of course, but I'm not really worried about that.
“It's exciting to be at this point in the story where so many people are grappling with things. In the case of Kiri, coming into her own, I think she's given up asking, ‘Why? Why is this happening to me?’ And just has to surrender, in a sense, to what she's there for.”
Weaver’s been part of the franchise since day one. But the veteran screen legend is aging in reverse for the Avatar movies, taking on the part of 14 year old Na'vi child Kiri. It’s a deeply spiritual role, and one that’s becoming ever more central to the ecological preservation message at the heart of Avatar.
“She's really in flux,” says Weaver. “I think if we do get to do movies four and five, it's going to be a very different time for her.
“But this movie is dear to me, because you see her and all the kids in the Sully family go from kind of squabbling to all hell breaking loose. They're going to be on their own, and they're going to have to rely on each other, trust each other, and, frankly, trust themselves. There are things that Kiri certainly doesn't want to do that she ends up doing in this movie.”
A reluctant action hero
While the nature of filming the Avatar films (seeing many of its stars, including Weaver, hooked up to performance capture rigs before being remade wholesale in CGI) makes Weaver almost unrecognisable onscreen, the star is perhaps the face of action cinema. Her portrayal of the pragmatic survivor Ripley in the Alien films has had her marked out as the self-sufficient heroine of our times, throwing the damsel-in-distress tropes into outer space with a wave of a flamethrower. But it’s an accolade that Weaver plays down.
“I don't really consider myself an action hero!” she laughs.
“I think Ripley is one of the greatest characters, and I'm very lucky to have been able to go on that journey.”
Who is coming to step into those ass-kicking shoes then?
“I think that the mantle has been picked up so many times by so many people,” Weaver says.
“And I'm actually going to be in Phoebe Waller Bridge's Tomb Raider. And so that will be Sophie Turner [Game of Thrones star, set to play the lead Lara Croft role ] picking up that mantle!”
I don't really consider myself an action hero!
Sigourney Weaver
Now 76 and a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement winner, Weaver has seen everything the industry can throw at an actress. It’s come a long way from her breakout role in 1979’s Alien.
“I think that things have improved for women. I still think we have the same problems of… you know, even when you're in an action movie, they will often try to make you wear something that is not exactly practical,” she sighs.
“I was so lucky because when I had put on the little Alien costume that was designed for me as Ripley, Ridley Scott… can I swear? Ridley Scott said, ‘You look like fucking Jackie Onassis in space!’
“So we literally went into a room that was filled with different NASA flight suits, and we pulled this one out, and I don't think we did anything to it. It fit perfectly. So I was a real person in real clothes in a beat up ship that was sort of truckers in space. And so I think that's one of the reasons Ripley endures. It's almost like the sex isn't important. It's the character and the fact that no one else is going to save her.”
Family before fame
Cameron, who directed Weaver first in the sequel Aliens, shares some of that forward-thinking DNA — you need only look at Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgement Day or indeed Zoe Saldaña in the Avatar films to see that spirit alive and literally kicking. Cameron understands what motivates these otherwise normal individuals to do incredible things, says Weaver.
“It’s very much the feeling you get in Avatar: Fire and Ash — people are in these impossible situations, and no one's going to come to the rescue.”
And Fire and Ash may have resulted in one of Weaver’s personal favourite films from a repertoire that counts several classics among it.
“It's very involving. I've seen it, I think, three times, and I actually want to see it again”, she says, somewhat incredulously. Unlike her adoring fans, Weaver rarely revisits her films once the director calls cut.
“I can’t believe I'm saying those words, because I've never seen one of my movies four times!” she laughs.
“My work is something I'm so grateful for, but I don't want it to be that present. Like, if Ghostbusters comes on, I'll watch a couple of scenes. But I don't have a shelf of my work. I kind of want my family to think of me as the mother, the wife, the crazy person they live with!”
For the rest of us, she’ll just have to make do with being one of the most beloved and thrilling stars of all time.
Avatar: Fire and Ash hits cinemas worldwide on Friday 19th December
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