Sigourney Weaver got emotional while talking about Kamala Harris during her press conference at Venice Film Festival ahead of receiving a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.
Asked about the impact of her acting in empowering women — specifically her “Alien” character of Ripley — and how it could help make it possible for Harris to become U.S. president, Weaver said she was “so excited about Kamala.”
She then appeared to tear up at the thought of her having any influence. “To think for one moment that my work would have anything to do with her rise makes me very happy, actually, because it’s true,” she said. “I have so many women who come and thank me.”
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As she choked up, Weaver reached for her water, joking: “Sorry, I need my vodka.”
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Of Harris, she added, “It’s been difficult since 2016, and we’re all very grateful about her.”
Weaver’s experience as a woman in Hollywood was a throughline of the conference, with the actor reflecting on aging in the business as well.
“Suddenly, I think they had decided somehow that older women could actually play interesting characters and started writing a lot of older women characters,” she said. “Suddenly, we stopped being a joke and a mother-in-law, and we started to be real people because actually a lot of our audience are real people.”
When asked about her tendency to take on tough female characters, Weaver said it’s not a conscious choice but an inherent trait of women.
“I’m always asked why I play strong women and I always think that’s such a weird question because I just play women, and women are strong and women don’t give up,” she said. “You know why? We can’t. We have to do it.”
Weaver also waxed lyrical about Italian cinema and her appetite to do more work in the country. She suggested that alongside the Golden Lion, there should be a “small clause that you get to come to Italy and work with an Italian director, that should be part of the package.”
She also added that her child recently got married and that the first film they all watched together was the 1961 comedy drama “Divorce Italian Style,” which she added was a “curious choice.”
Weaver didn’t, however, go down the route of many veterans in the industry in bashing superhero films, saying that “Marvel is fine and everybody should be doing what they want.” But she asserted that her personal choice would be Italian cinema. “I haven’t really had enough of what Italian film means and gives us, so get busy Italian filmmakers — I’m available!”
