Sigourney Weaver makes us believe that someone under threat can still think clearly. We value her directness and her comic timing; a part that simply gives her orders to issue asks too little of her.
Fi1m perspective
In Alien (1979), Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley concentrates on the danger as though paying proper attention might be enough to keep it manageable. This is the performance we would start with: direct, alert and free of any demand that we admire her. Ridley Scott lets that concentration sit alongside the other crew members’ unpolished ease, so she belongs among them rather than standing apart. The crew could have been more fully written, but Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto give her people we recognise, and their ease together makes us care about what happens aboard the ship. We were frightened for her because her practical responses made the danger feel like something happening to a person we could recognise.
Ripley was her breakthrough, but treating Weaver solely as the person to call in an emergency misses much of the work. Her comic timing in Ghostbusters (1984) is one reason not to mistake that directness for solemnity. James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) expanded Ripley into a maternal and military leader, while Working Girl (1988) continued the comedy. After Alien, she had faced resistance to being cast in comic roles.
Cameron also offered a substantial change in the Avatar films, from Grace Augustine in Avatar (2009) to the teenage Kiri, performed through motion capture in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). The attraction is clear: this is work that asks her to attempt something beyond the familiar command voice. But that willingness does not make the films equally rewarding. Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025), with Weaver again as Kiri, is carefully built and disappointingly repetitive. We would not recommend it on the strength of her name.
Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) gives her the more familiar job of issuing orders as Colonel Ward. Her brisk command makes those scenes brighter, though the film remains pleasant and forgettable. There is pleasure in watching her take charge, but little here to challenge our idea of what she can do. For a first encounter, choose Alien; for a second, do not assume it has to involve a spaceship.
Biography
Sigourney Weaver, also credited as Susan Alexandra Weaver, is an American actor born on 8 October 1949 in Manhattan, New York City.
She is known for her role as Ellen Ripley in Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), Dr Grace Augustine in Avatar (2009), the ship's computer in WALL·E (2008), Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters (1984), and Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025). She plays Colonel Ward in The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026).
Weaver received Academy Award nominations for Aliens (1986), Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and Working Girl (1988). She won Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Drama and Best Supporting Actress in 1988 for the latter two films. She also won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Ice Storm (1997) and received a Tony Award nomination for Hurlyburly (1984).
