Sigourney Weaver: Ripley's Game

Q: You sometimes miss out on projects for which I think you'd be a natural.

A: Here's my theory: producers are short. I'm not the average producer's sexual fantasy. I am tall. When I come into a room wearing platforms, they go, "She's not my type of woman," because what they're looking for is the petite blonde who looks up to them. With me, directors either sit up in the middle of the night and go, "Sigourney Weaver!" or they don't. It hasn't been a problem with leading men, although I remember on _Scarface _coming in to meet [5'7" tall] Al Pacino, and he didn't get up to shake my hand. The only leading man I ever worked with who was psychotic about my height was Chevy Chase, and he's 6'4". It's ended up that I've played lots of women who are very isolated. Those are interesting parts, but they're not as easy for me as a love story. My West Coast agent says, "Sigourney, nobody knows how sweet you are."

Q: The Ice Storm isn't going to do that PR for you. How would you say that film worked out?

A: What I loved about it was that I play the bad girl, a character [director] Ang [Lee] loved and whom he never judged. The movie's set in 1973, in WASP-y, rich New Canaan, Connecticut, with people who smoke pot and have sex, but Ang, who is from Taiwan, seemed to find a part of himself in each of these people. He could see these characters in mid-life, panicking about not being able to squeeze out all of life's juices. If the same movie had been made by an American, it could have seemed moralistic. The world press I met at Cannes had the same reaction: this is mankind, not just New Canaan.

Q: Your character in the movie is pretty depressed.

A: When I told Ang, "I didn't mean to play her so sad," he said, "You didn't. She just is so sad." It was like playing someone whose head is separated from her body. The only time she can be in her body is the brief moments when she's having sex.

Q: I think you should get nuts on-screen, and soon, with Jim Carrey.

A: Will you tell him that, please? I'm such a sucker for that kind of talent. At the Oscars, he was wearing a Richard Tyler shirt the same color as my gown. I went over and totally fawned over him, telling his wife, "I'm sorry, but he's got to be with me the rest of the night because we match." I told him that he was my daughter's and my favorite actor and it's true. We watch all of his films. I would love to work with him. Given the choice, I run to see Jim Carrey's movies as opposed to sitting through a four-hour Hamlet.

Q: Still, you do have something of a rep for turning down things. Such as Body Heat and 9 1/2 Weeks years ago, and Marvin's Room and the Barbara Hershey role in The Portrait of a Lady more recently.

A: Funny, because I was talking with [agent] Sam [Cohn] earlier about the post-Alien years when I turned down everything. I think I was so afraid of making a mistake. Or, because I was an English major, no script seemed good.

Q: But you must have had specific reasons for turning down specific jobs.

A: I didn't really have confidence in Adrian Lyne [for 9 1/2 Weeks]. I feel like I've never unleashed my real sexuality on the screen, maybe because of my own reticence or my lack of trust in what I thought might happen or the lack of the right story. I turned down Body Heat because I was going out at the time with a very conservative guy from the South and he was put off by the script, which was much more risque than the movie.

With The Portrait of a Lady, I was one of the people Jane Campion considered when Susan Sarandon dropped out. But a 17-week shoot playing a supporting character? I said to her, "You have a child, too. Can't you make this a little shorter?" They sent me Marvin's Room with [Meryl Streep's] part in mind when one of the producers was going to direct it. It was one of those things where I could tell they didn't have their money together and I didn't want to get involved. The movie is flawed, but I thought Diane Keaton was amazing. And Leonardo [DiCaprio] is wonderful. Actually, I'd love to play an older woman opposite Johnny Depp. I think he's extraordinary. I loved Donnie Brasco. And those lips!

Q: Are you going to direct a film?

A: Now that my daughter is older, I feel I have more options. My husband is the most supportive man in the world, always encouraging me, "Get out there and work. Direct, do the things you want to do. The time is right now." It has also taken me many years to rid myself of the horrible training at Yale, which was all intellectual.

Q: You're going to direct an Alien movie at some point, aren't you? I can feel it.

A: [Laughing] I am in a better position to know what's needed and hopefully, someday, I will direct. I want to direct the one where they go back to the original planet. But I have to direct a couple of other things first. The prospect would be really too scary, otherwise.

Q: Still, you know Ripley so well.

A: I am used to her company, even though I'm so unlike her. I don't know where she comes from, yet she's like an old friend. How many actors have been able to do the same role over and over for so many years? It's like getting to do James Bond every few years.

Q: Given your icon status as Ripley, how do fans respond to you?

A: After seeing me feel like a hunted raccoon, I'm pretty sure my daughter will never do anything that will make her famous. What I usually get is people's incredible exhilaration when they see me on the street, especially kids. In New York, I always wonder, "If I'm about to be mugged, do I mention Ripley?" And if I did mention her, would the mugger's response be, "Uh-unh, we couldn't mug Ripley"?

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