Sigourney Weaver Tears Up Pondering Legacy of ‘Alien’s’ Ripley and the Rise of Kamala Harris

She’s fought xenomorphs, caught ghosts, lived with the gorillas and starred in the biggest box office hit ever — before she’ll get her very own Golden Lion. This year’s Venice Film Festival’s 81st opening ceremony is going to more glamorous than ever as the screen icon Sigourney Weaver, who has been breathtaking the fans for nearly a half a century with her grace and steely determination will be presented with the lifetime achievement award at the ceremony. But first, the three-time Oscar nominee held a press conference to discuss her career and the art of cinema with the international press in Venice on Wednesday afternoon. 
 
Even before the formal interview begins, Weaver was touched to a tears by one of the female journalists who expressed her gratitude for making powerful roles, such as the role of Ripley in Ridley Scott’ s sci-fi horror movie Alien, that opened many doors to many female actresses and influenced many female viewers. 
 
Quizzed if she believes her work may even have contributed to making it possible that a woman like Kamala Harris could one day become President of the United States, Weaver responded, “I loved the question because we are all now so hopeful about Kamala and to think for one moment that my work would have anything to do with, has made me very happy. ” 
 
“Because it is true,” Weaver continued, “I have so many women who approach me and are grateful. ” She stopped for a second and, unscrewing a water bottle, said she needed her ‘vodka’. 
 
Weaver went on to say that what she enjoyed the most about the character of Ripley which was created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett was the fact that she “was a person, not a woman. ” 
 
“You don’t see her having to be girly or womanly, or any of these other ideas — which are also great, because women can be everything — but I got to play what I realized was simply a person,” she continued. 
 
“I draw from real women,” she continued, explaining how women are usually at the forefront of addressing emerging adversaries such as the climate change war as well as being involved in child tendering. She further said that it is silly for people to ask why she ‘always plays strong women. ’ 
 
“I just play women — and women are strong,” Weaver said. “And women don’t give up. You know why? Because we can’t. We have to do it. ” 
 
Certainly, one of the most praised and garlanded leading ladies of the period, Weaver first appeared on screen in a minor role in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall in 1977 but arrived to stardom in the most exceptional way as the central character in Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). Her first Oscar nomination came for the sequel of the franchise, the asymmetrically acclaimed Aliens (1986) followed by two more within the next couple of years for her portrayals of a primatologist in Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and a young female associate in Mike Nichols’ comedy Working Girl (1988). She has consistently pushed down the barriers over the years and gone beyond the partitions of budget and of genre in her films which include the Alien and Avatar over the large expenditure activity trilogies such as ‘The Year of Living Dangerously,’ ‘The Ice Storm,’ ‘Copycat,’ ‘Ghostbusters, ‘Galaxy Quest,’ the biography like ‘Gorillas in the Mist,’ the comedy ‘Rampart,’ ‘Master Gardner’ as well as 
 
Her next projects consist of Bryan Fuller horror comedy Dust Bunny, Scott Derrickson sci-fi actioner The Gorge as well as the highly anticipated sequels to James Cameron’s Avatar. 
 
This evening, Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera will award Weaver with the Golden Lion statue: before the festival begins proper with the screening of a new picture by Tim Burton: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Catherine O’Hara, Willem Dafoe and Justin Theroux. 
 
In the days to come in Venice festival will feature more of the public sittings of the master classes and discussions with the Australian director Peter Weir, the actor director Ethan Hawke, the Italian filmmaker Pupi Avati, Hollywood star Richard Gere, the Oscar winner composer Nicola Piovani who scored the music for Life Is Beautiful and the French film maker Claude Lelouch who made the movie A Man and a Woman.