Sigourney Weaver On If Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 Will Ever See Release

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sigourney Weaver spoke about whether or not Neill Blomkamp will ever get the chance to direct Alien 5 based on his pitch years ago. Here are highlights:

On Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5: “We almost started to do it when I was working with James Cameron. But by the time we were put off by Fox, Neill had gotten so many jobs that we’d have to wait probably. I’m busy doing Avatar 4 and 5. I love working with Neill and I think he’d do a terrific job, and James Cameron really thinks it’s a great idea, so you never know. Right now, I think Neill’s got like three projects going at once.”

On if women can play any role: “I pretty much do. I think they should absolutely do that. I always said to writers that the secret to writing any woman character is to just write the character. Think of her as a man, and then don’t change a word. Have a woman play her. Don’t make any kind of strange scenes where she suddenly collapses into tears because, “Oh we have to make her sympathetic.” That has always been a huge problem. They’ve been told to make the women sympathetic, when of course that’s what we admire in a man. They don’t suddenly break down in a corner. It’s a huge step forward in the battle for equality, for women in general in our country, and I think #MeToo extends all around the planet. It’s very exciting. It’s overdue. It absolutely needed to happen. I have been asked a couple of questions by Italian men who I think expected me to go, ‘Oh, it’s horrible,’ and I went, ‘It’s great!'”

On those who misunderstand the #MeToo movement: “One gets the feeling that in America we all understand what it is and maybe over here they think that we’re against all romance or any kind of flirtation. What we’re against is the abuse of power… sexual exploitation towards people who are more vulnerable. It’s very clear for us in America, except for a few holdouts. I think maybe it’s not as clear here [in Italy].”

On if she was ever a victim: “I was very lucky because I started out in the theater working with mostly gay playwrights that I knew from drama school, and gay producers, so no one was interested in me. Then I made Alien, which was basically my first film, and no one came near me. They were so afraid I’d yank out a flamethrower, and I think I was already too old for them to take advantage of me. I’m a New Yorker, so I’m naturally suspicious. You never know, because of course you want to believe in the sort of world of equals where women are listened to. It would be very hard to guard against this ambush for any woman. I’m lucky I didn’t experience that, or if I did, I blocked the memory.”