When it comes to film roles, Sigourney Weaver is a great believer in the mantra that if it’s meant to be, then it will happen. And working with Neill Blomkamp — a director she had long admired — on Chappie is a good example. A chat with the 65-year-old Alien-Avatar actress on playing Michelle in the sci-fi film currently showing at the plexes.

How was working with Hugh Jackman? You have quite a few scenes with him...

I do, I think probably he was my main scene partner, besides our robotic friend (played by Sharlto Copley). He was a joy. I’ve always wanted to work with him. I’m a huge fan. He plays Vincent so wonderfully. I just enjoyed our scenes so much. Our scenes were the sort of satirical part of the movie, but you need to play it with great passion of course, as these people would in real life. It was wonderful to be with an actor who could go wherever we wanted to go, do whatever we wanted to try — and we tried a lot of different things.

What about Dev Patel? His character Deon is another of your employees but he has ‘created’ Chappie...

From Michelle’s point of view, Deon is this well-meaning science genius that she has to curb. I think Dev played it with such sincerity and delicacy. Mostly Michelle was just trying to shut him down! (Laughs) It’s like he’s invented the Tootsie Roll (a chocolate-flavoured candy popular in the US) and she just wants him to keep making that.

Is it always the script that draws you to a project?

Well, I think the director is very important to me. The part… well, not so much. I sort of feel like whatever they hand me, I can improve it. I can make it better, I can zone in on what exactly they want to say with it. It was a great dream of mine to work with Neill Blomkamp, not that I ever got in touch with him — I’m sort of philosophical about these things (laughs). I feel like if it’s meant to be, then it will happen. He was definitely on my shortlist, but I come from the theatre and I was an English major.  So to me, it’s always about the script.  In this case it was the director and the script. I’ve done a lot of highly commercial movies, but, to me, they were always about something more than the superficial story. They were always about something. Even Ghostbusters is about a lot of things.

I was delighted to be sent a script like Chappie. It goes into the futuristic world in such a surprising and intimate way. I think it will delight a lot of people, and be a picture everyone wants to see. We have to look at these issues anyway because we’re humans and we’re parents and we’re teachers; we’re souls.

Throughout your career, you’ve worked in both theatre and in all kinds of movies. Is that a dream scenario?

I feel so fortunate. I mean, I get to work with such wonderful young directors, like Neill, and maybe part of it is that they do know my work from these movies I did however many years ago. I’m on their radar in a way that I wouldn’t be otherwise, and yet, now I get to work on their films, and I love all that. Juan Antonio Bayona is a huge movie nut, and he must have asked me a hundred questions about Alien, and yet he cast me as the grandmother in this very compelling drama he’s doing called A Monster Calls, with Liam Neeson and Felicity Jones. I’m so grateful that these young directors are willing to trust me with a completely different kind of character in a completely different kind of movie. I just feel like I really lucked out, and I’m still lucking out, and I’m very grateful, because I’m still having such a good time. I feel like this is the most fun you could have. It’s hard, hard work, and it certainly doesn’t get any easier, but I’m really excited about it all.

Was it hard to balance the work with family?

I think it’s very hard. I think it’s so hard for everybody. Now I would have to say my daughter (Charlotte) has left me! (Laughs) When they’re small, it’s very difficult to leave them. I tried very hard to find that balance and I think it’s harder these days. I have friends who are doing series television, and even if it’s on HBO, they work such long hours, and it’s very hard if you have a young family. 

You need a good partner for that…

You do... and I’ve had a great one. Because of The Flea, Jim (Simpson, Sigourney’s husband and founder of The Flea Theatre in New York) was able to be in New York all the time, so whether our daughter liked it or not, she always had some continuity. There was always someone right there, watching her (laughs).

You did some voice work for the Alien video game, too, last year. It had amazing reviews. Was it fun to return to that world?

Well, that’s great that it had such positive reviews. This had come around before, the video game thing, and I’ve never been a huge fan of turning a movie into a game, but in this case, these guys were so devoted. They really impressed me with their clarity and their imagination. They didn’t want to just make use of the movie; they wanted to take it into a new dimension. Emotionally they grabbed me by talking about Ripley’s (her character of a warrant officer in Alien) erstwhile daughter and everything, and I thought it was really cool! I didn’t do very much with them, but I’m delighted with it. If people are crazy enough to want to be on that ship, then I’m pleased they get to experience it in such a high-quality way.

You worked with Ridley Scott again on Exodus: Gods and Kings. How was that?

It was wonderful. People probably can’t appreciate how many more scenes there were in this movie — a whole other side of Ramses’s life. What I loved about it was that it was such a complex and intriguing script, all about power, and the nature of power, and the use of power, and what it is to be a leader. I loved the fact that Ridley was bringing his huge talent to such an interesting story, and you felt like you were very much in the hands of the master. He shoots so quickly, and with so many cameras, and he doesn’t waste time and energy on things that don’t, to him, seem that compelling. I can only imagine how many hours of film he actually has, because we shot many interesting scenes, but in the end, he delivered a movie that was a big spectacle, and very exciting. 

Which is your favourite Sigourney Weaver role? Tell t2@abp.in