WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1369 - Sigourney Weaver

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

Multiple generations of audiences love Sigourney Weaver, whether it’s because of Ghostbusters or Avatar or Working Girl or the Alien franchise or all of the above. But Sigourney tells Marc she never imagined having a film career and in fact resisted it for a long time, preferring instead to work primarily in theater. And now, with movies like The Good House, Call Jane, Master Gardener and the Avatar sequel all releasing in theaters this Fall, Sigourney talks about how she’s never felt more comfortable working in film than she does now. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Lock the gates! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening i'm mark maron this is my podcast welcome to it let me say shana tova to those of you who are jews it's it's the new year today happy 5783 yep this is our year jews let's make sure we understand and all know as one that they still hate us and that uh it's subtle it happens on a lot of levels sometimes it's outward you know who those people are but sometimes it might be your pal or it might be somebody you agree with politically.

It might be just somebody that you assume is an okay person for the most part. But you know what? There's a little bit of Jew hate in almost everybody. So just stay vigilant, but stay out. Stay out. Don't hide. Don't hide. Jews be Jews. All right right shana tova to you uh yom kippur is around the corner and uh maybe we'll get a clean slate i don't know i don't know but uh i just wanted to put it out there jews so look today i have sigourney weaver on the show and she's like actually all over the place right now she's in in the film The Good House with Kevin Kline that opens this week. She's also in the upcoming movie Call Jane with Elizabeth Banks about the movement of women providing abortion services for women when abortions were illegal. She's in Paul Schrader's new movie Master Gardener, which

is another exploration of bizarre and troubling moral conflict and masculinity. And that just premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Also a great movie. It's sort of a recent trilogy, I think, of Schrader's movies. Schrader, who I talked to Sam Rockwell about, I would call them a trilogy. I'm looking at his filmography but it seems that these three first performed the card counter and master gardener of are of an ilk but they're always a lot of them are about men difficult morally uh dubious men i'll be in toronto this week friday and sat Saturday You can go to WTFpod.com

Slash tour Get tickets for that Not many tickets left I want to say thank you To the people of Boulder, Colorado And to the people of Fort Collins, Colorado Both those shows sold out

I had no idea I did the shows with Little Esther We had a great time Good shows Been doing a lot of reading I've been doing a time. Good shows. Been doing a lot of reading. I've been doing a lot of watching. I've been doing a lot of thinking. All right.

All those things happening. I just read David Baddiel's book, Jews Don't Count. And it was provocative. It seems that I'm going to be doing a live WTF with Mr. Baddiel in London. It's at the Bloomsbury Theater on Wednesday, October 19th. I haven't done one of these in years. It's a live WTF with Mr. Baddiel in London. It's at the Bloomsbury Theater on Wednesday, October 19th. I haven't done one of these in years. It's a live WTF, so come out, even if you're coming to my stand-up shows later in the week. And you can get the tickets to that at wtfpod.com slash tour. The info is there. But the book was interesting. It was an argument about basically the anti-Semitism, either latent or dismissive anti-Semitism of the left primarily. And he really dealt with a lot of stuff in there and I'm still processing it. So I read that.

and I've been watching Ken Burns' documentary about America's reaction to the Holocaust. And a lot of times when people get political or celebrities get political or anybody gets political, people think it's some sort of posturing. But the truth is, is that you learn to understand and engage when you learn to understand and engage. Who the fuck knows when that's going to happen? It's not an organic thing.

You have to be concerned. You have to be concerned. You have to want to be part of a change or elevation of ideas. And then, you know, applying that idea of what do I wake up in service of? I'm a fairly selfish guy, but I'm angry. I'm concerned and I'm engaged. What do I want to lock into and try to make a difference with or try to focus on? Al Franken once talked to me about it. It's like you have to pick your issue. Like right now,

you know, in Iran, it's a disaster. It's a fucking nightmare. It's a theocratic, religious, fascist nightmare. Masa Amini, this woman who was detained by morality police, they call him that and killed. It's now like unleashed massive protests around the world and in Iran. Rightfully so. That's what needs to happen. That's what happens. And who knows how it's going to play out. That is a risk. That's a reaction to a very specific religious fascism that's what it looks like in an extreme sense russia now we're sitting around waiting for russia to decide whether or not putin's ego will uh absorb failure and not unleash nuclear arms so now he's mobilized all these reservists who didn't even know they were had to fight again hundreds of thousands of people thousands and thousands of people are bailing they're jumping ship in protest in fear against authoritarianism

and in watching this documentary that Ken Burns made to see how it just starts in any country, Donald Trump is doing rallies and QAnon fanatics are doing some sort of thing with their hands. Anytime things with hands happen, you know what it reflects, whether or not, you know, Trump's actions at this point are desperate or he's a man in trouble, who the fuck knows. But he is a guy consolidating what is essentially an american fascist base you know i think a lot of regular or or slightly craven or not completely out of their fucking mind republicans are starting to be like i don't know but he's definitely appealing and focusing on a specifically fascist base, a brain fucked bunch of misinformed, aggrieved people. Who he's hoping are willing to do whatever the fuck he needs them to do to do whatever the fuck he wants.

Now, there's protest here. There's there's engagement. But this is all happening. You know, and what am i in service of i mean all of us should support any sort of pushback or protest against fascism which is either functioning in countries or almost functioning or taking hold when you see what's happening in these republican governed states on school board levels in which books they're saying can and can't be read how they're handling lgbtq rights how they're handling abortion rights this shit creeps in

all of a sudden you know you live in a state long enough and you realize a generation of kids wasn't allowed to know the history of America in its truth or was denied or forbidden to engage in educating themselves about different types of people, different preferences. Two generations past that, history gets erased. What's happening now is a pushback against decades of liberal democracy, an attempt to create equality and balance. That was very threatening to people like Samuel Alito coming up as he did.

This has been going on for decades. Christian fascism, autocracy, authoritarianism. They're all related. So, women in my life. Powerful women in my life. I have books out this week, I believe. I know that Betty Gilpin's book, All the Women in My Brain and Other Concerns is out and Betty's a genius. Not only is she an amazing actress, but she's very smart, very funny, poetic, cutting, but she's very smart, very funny, poetic, cutting, and satirically sound, and raw and truthful, all of it.

And these are sort of a collection of essays. It's very exciting. You can get the audio book as well. All the Women in My Brain is available available and Betty Gilpin is one of the best people I'm excited about it and she didn't even ask me to promote it and the other woman who I see regularly who I've always spoken highly of who I watch a lot who I've always spoken highly of, who I watch a lot, who I've argued with at times.

There's only a couple of comics I've got into it with and remain friends with. And that's Bill Burr and Eliza Schlesinger. We've had words over ideas and we've come out the other side of those times with a certain mutual respect

eliza has worked her fucking ass off for a long time years i remember she featured for me in la jolla once and now she's a you know she's a powerhouse she does a lot of specials i think she's got a new special coming out on netflix but she has a book. All things aside, absolutely correct opinions, Eliza Schlesinger. And she wrote a nice thing to me. That's all it takes, I guess. Eliza is a force to be reckoned with, as is Betty Gilpin. Both have books out, and I recommend them. All right? No paid promos there, just peers doing things. promos there, just peers doing things. You know, I had 23 years sober in August and, you know, I don't, I'm not as regular meeting goers as I used to. I don't have a home group.

No one usually, the last two years I've gotten a coin and it's not like I carry the coins around with me, but you want a coin and you want a heavy one, especially when the years get up there. You want a nice heavy coin. Coins are what we get when we get a year, two years, three years, years. A nice brass or metal. You want a metal coin with the number of years on there. And a few years ago, I remember buying my own because I wanted to have one. But the last couple of years, I've just gotten in my PO box a letter with a coin from a woman named Terry. I don't know Terry. I don't know her.

It just says, hey, Mark Maron, congratulations on 23 years of continuous sobriety. Please accept this coin from me to you with gratitude for everything you do through your work to help the still suffering alcoholic you educate and inspire by allowing us to watch you walking the walk so sending love and light to you in service always terry aa central office little rock arkansas thank you for the coin again terry again, Terry.

And that's the way it works. But I don't know her, and I didn't even know anybody like to me in Arkansas. Also, in Denver, I saw my old junior high buddy, Eric Tippman, from way back, and he brought me

a kind of great birthday present. Eric Tippman was the guy, he was was seventh grade maybe i was in eighth grade we used to ride the bus together and i used to bring a cassette on he did he had a cassette that he made and had the stones i think it was the first time i heard sweet virginia first time i heard midnight rambler was from his dad's records through his cassette on my cassette player i think that's the way it worked. And we used to listen to that stuff, but I didn't remember, you know, like we go way back, but we don't see each other hardly at all. But he came to the show with his wife. I think it's his wife. I don't know if they're married, but he brought me a birthday present. And that was David Bowie's changes one, but get this. It was mine. He's returning my record. It's got my little name

on it up in the right-hand corner, Marin. My copy of Changes One from junior high school is now back with me. What a great present. What a great present with my little writing. That's my changes one. And that was the record that introduced me to David Bowie. I remember how I found out about that. It was at camp. Okay, let's get on with it. Sigourney Weaver is here on this episode talking to me.

You're going to hear it momentarily. The Good House, her movie with Kevin Kline, opens this Friday, September 30th. Here we are, me and Sigourney Weaver. We deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes. Because that's alcohol, and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region.

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Zensurance, mind your business. So do you go down to Hawaii a lot? Oh, we do. He has some family there. And if you've only gone through Hawaii, like on your way to somewhere else or whatever, being with a native who can show you everything, the right food trucks and the right waterfalls, And just the spirit of growing up in such a special place with such a remarkable history, culture, the music, the dance. How did his family get there? Interesting story.

His grandfather was Scottish, and he was in the Black Watch during World War I. Huh. What is that? So that's a Scottish brigade of soldiers. Okay. All right. And so he was with his platoon. Yeah.

And they were being shelled. And so he was the only one that had a sweep hand on his watch. So he timed his guys out to safety. like 12 of them yeah and then for himself he was the last one he forgot to look at his watch so he was in an explosion and they had to put a steel plate in his head and they said you really can't come home and live here because the extremes of temperature will be so uncomfortable for you. You have to go to a warm climate. So he hitched a ride on some steamer going out to Asia. He had an uncle in the Philippines.

I think he might have known someone in Hawaii. Yeah. And he taught himself accounting, a whole way of dealing with numbers on his way out. Huh. And when he got to Honolulu, he thought, well, this looks pretty good to me. Yeah. And next thing you know, he sent for this girl he knew a tiny bit from the next town over. Right.

From Forfer, Scotland. Yeah. Who arrived and he had to marry her as soon as she got off the boat and um and i think she was terrified i think she you know honestly thought she was from scotland to be eaten or something you know she was in some yeah dangerous world and so um anyway so they had two children children, and Jim's dad was one of them. Wild. Yeah. And then Jim's dad actually was 17 when they bombed Pearl Harbor.

He stood on the roof of their house in Kaimuki, you know, watching the planes come, and he signed up. And he signed up. And they took all these boys from Hawaii and maybe from California, too. Anyone who'd grown up with anyone Asian, they sent to the European war theater. As revenge? No. Oh.

Because they thought that maybe they wouldn't be able to fight people who they grew up with. Oh, I see. So they sent these guys who'd grown up in Hawaii to the winters of Europe, which they knew nothing about. They knew nothing about the terrain. So his dad was on the front? Yeah. Wow. He was in the Navy, but he was in that theater.

It's crazy. It's amazing how people, where they land and how they kind of evolve and where their families are from. I mean, to be a native Hawaiian is a very unique thing if you're not a native person. Yeah. Hawaiian is a very unique thing if you're not a native person. Yeah. I mean, and, you know, they call someone born in the islands a kekioka aina, a child of the islands. And so for people, white people who've grown up in the islands who make that their home.

Yeah. I'm not sure they feel Hawaiian, but they definitely feel like their home is Hawaii. Like, yeah, I would think. I mean, at some point, I think you'd have to feel Hawaiian. I grew up in New Mexico, and I feel relatively New Mexican. But I wouldn't say I'm native to it. It's probably more political than that in Hawaii. I've never actually asked him. That's probably right.

Because there's still a sovereignty movement there. Yes. And there's a lot they're still working out. Yeah. I go down there. I go to Kauai a lot. Oh, do you? Yeah.

Yeah. Because, I don't know, I just started going there years ago. And I vacation there a lot. Yeah. And I love it. Do you ever go to the Allerton Gardens? In Kauai? Yeah.

I think I have been once. Because they have a wonderful dinner tour. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. They take you through these amazing garden rooms. I think I have been once. Because they have a wonderful dinner tour. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. They take you through these amazing garden rooms. Oh, I never did that. That this man, Mr. Allerton, he traveled with a young man that he said was his son. They traveled all over the world.

This was in the 20s. I think at a certain point they decided enough already. And they went back to Hawaii, found this land. And then they brought people in. So they would have these enormous parties, costume parties and things like that. And so the whole place is like these beautiful garden rooms. And then at the end of the tour, you see where Jurassic Park shot here and there. And then at the end of the tour, you sit and have dinner on the shore where

their little house is this is in kawaii this is in kawaii it's like the greatest deal you know i don't know why i've never done that well next time next time because i think it's still going on it's really you know they keep the tours it's just enough for one yeah uh van so it's only eight of us so you're like a garden person. I am a garden person. So doing that Schrader movie was sort of like, although the character's heavy, but the gardens seem familiar. Which, which?

The new movie, The Master Gardener. Oh, The Master Gardener. Yes. Yes. And I've actually done a big mini series in Australia where I play a woman who has a flower farm. Oh, really? Everything is coming up flowers. It's very interesting.

I came to gardening late because my mother is English. And so gardening was something she really did for herself. Yeah. She used to whisper to her roses and things like that. Oh, really? And I know that my nieces and I, we used to go, I wish Granny would talk to us instead of the flowers. So I always was around gardens, and I always found them so mysterious.

And now that I work with the New York Botanical Garden, I'm on the board. You live in the city? I live in the city. Yeah. And the garden is such an extraordinary resource yeah for new york you know i never went there i grew up in new york but now it's just filled with splendid things it's never looked more beautiful and you take your family up there it's free on saturday and it's free wednesday morning and you have 250 acres of, you know, I think it's like 40 acres of old growth forest, for instance, you can wander around as well as the most beautiful, you know, state of the art, you know, all the trees and all the flowers, the conservatory. That's great. And then, of course, at Christmas, they have the holiday train show,

which is in the conservatory. Have you done that? No. Oh, my God, you've got to go. There's a lot of things I have to do, apparently. Yeah, no, I mean, the holiday train show, it's all built of natural, like, acorns. It's a whole replica of all the famous things in New York.

Oh, that's cool. And done in twigs. Aviary, would you call it? It's in the Edith Haupt Conservatory, which is this big, huge, beautiful glass building that was built, I don't know how many years ago. Wow. I'll have to go to that, too. I go to the Huntington Gardens. Have you been there? Yes, I certainly have years ago wild i'll have to go to that too i go to the huntington gardens have you been there yes i certainly have yeah i'd like to go there now

yeah it's before it all dries up yeah yeah sad so like i watched all the new movies that you're in yeah and i saved that traitor movie for last uh-huh because i hear he's ill and it might might be his last movie maybe sadly you know i think that now that the movie came out in in um in venice and he he received you know certainly deserved the golden light i felt that the next day after all of that press he he had just bounced back oh he could so i think it's's a mistake to think that Schrader's down and out. I'm a big fan. And the last few movies have been very interesting.

The Priest movie and the Card Counter. And this one, this one's very surprising. Now, like when you, out of these three movies that you did, like the new ones, like not Avatar, but Call Jane and The Good House. But like, I have to assume that working with Paul would have been the like an exciting opportunity. Well, I'll tell you, I worked on Good House with Kevin Kline. We did that in Nova Scotia in 2009. Had you worked with him since Dave?

I guess I hadn't except that, you know, we're both actors in New York. And so, you know, we do stuff. Yeah. We'd given an award to Ang Lee after Ice Storm and all that stuff so we we he got some tribute oh that's right so you were where that you were in Dave but you're also you were his wife in Ice Storm no you were the other one you were the I was the yeah but so this is our first I would say um happy happier uh a love affair it's more romantic it is the story of a of a very wry funny older woman who's kind of being pushed out of her of her position in the

in the town and her husband's dumped her for a guy and all this stuff. But anyway, it's a great story about this woman. You know, she addresses us. She confides in us. Sure. And she's very funny. It was written by Maya Forbes and Wanda Walidarsky. She's a realtor. And she's very realistic about life.

Yeah. It's a familiar job, I think, too, for women of a certain age, the realtor thing. Yeah. Well, I think she's done it all her life. Right. And her kids sent her into rehab because she does like to party. Yeah, yeah. And so at the end of these days, you see her come home after not having a drink, you know, being a total teetotaler.

And she sort of, you know, unhooks her bra, lies on the couch and opens a bottle of Pinot Noir and relaxes. Serious drinker, though. She become, you know, I didn't think of her as a serious drinker. I thought of her as a merry drinker. Yeah. her as a serious drinker i thought of her as a merry drinker yeah and i sort of really wanted to show that the the joy and solace of drinking um in within certain boundaries and that uh and yeah it does finally get away from her yeah i thought yeah you must have done a little homework on that one to i think i i think

everyone has that in their family so i didn't need to do any homework it's in my cells um but it was really a lovely uh a lovely job to do to to be able to explore that that has been a problem in my family from from a much more intimate point of view oh really you had the heavy drinking yeah and and i would say that you know adult children of alcoholics when you see a bottle you know it always seems to have a skull and crossbones on it for you yeah and so you'll you can have a drink but you're so aware it's like the way people look at the ocean. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You look at it and you know that it has a power that you might not be able to control.

So it was really interesting to sort of to investigate that. It's interesting because like when you are an adult child of an alcoholic, it can go either way. I mean, you either become an alcoholic or you become the hypervigilant kind of like, you know, try to keep things in control and to manage. I think you have to be lucky also, maybe genetically, that you don't get the thing that makes it more likely for you to have a drinking problem. The bug, I call it. Yeah. And I mean, I call it. those few drinks and um how convivial it makes people certainly after covet i think we all became more acquainted with the bottle sure and uh and then continue to tell the story to where you know

um hildy has to hildy has to she hit bottom i mean she hit a real kind of like hallucinatory i like the whole sort of witchy element in the hallucination. Yeah. And also like, you know, I'm a recovering guy. And to sort of do that well, it's important to sort of get that right. And I think it did a pretty good job at that. That's great. I'm so glad to hear it. Yeah.

And also, I thought the Call Jane movie, it was another. I just watched a documentary about those women. Yeah. On HBO. So did you watch it? Yes, I did. And I thought that was a beautifully written movie. What's her name?

Phyllis? Is it Naji? Phyllis Nagy. She wrote Carol. Yeah, what a great movie that was. Yeah, and so she directed this and found the most amazing cast of women. I thought it was great. Elizabeth Banks.

Well, I think that it's coming out at a good time in October. And, you know, to tell the story of these women who came together to help other women find safe abortions before Roe versus Wade was passed. And they took care of each other. And they performed abortions. They did. They did. I thought Elizabeth Banks was kind of, I think it's the best I've seen her.

Well, it's a wonderful, wonderful role for her. She's amazing. You liked working with her? Oh, I loved working with her. But she's amazing anyway. Yeah, yeah. I always think that she completely, you know, elevates anything she's in. I liked your character too.

I thought everybody was great. Yeah. I love your character, too. I thought everybody was great. Yeah. I loved my character. My character is an old, you know, wry activist. Yeah. He's been around for a long time. And so I really related to Virginia. Well, you were sort of coming of age at that time. Do you remember that time?

Of course. I mean, the late 60s? Yeah. I was in high school, and then I went off to college. Where? I ended up at Stanford, where I did a lot of theater outside the school. They had some radical scene there, didn't they, in the late 60s? Oh, man.

I mean, we never had a spring term when I was there because we had the Stanford Research Institute develop napAPOM, had a hand in it. And so we were trying to get things like SRI off campus because we didn't feel they belonged in an institution like ours. And so it was a constant upheaval. I don't think Stanford likes to look back. And also the war you know constant war protests um it was an amazing time to go to school there i would say that a number of my professors were communists and um and you know it was a very you know a very earnest soul searching time yeah you know what kind of country are we and happening again yeah absolutely and so but i think that no one could have anticipated that

that a decree would come down from the supreme court on high uh you know ripping away these fundamental rights from women i still cannot believe what they did well i think it seemed like it was always on the table which was a big fear and it was really part of the motivation that i think uh the left and and and democrats were trying to make people aware of with the supreme court when you know when trump in 2016 yeah that you know despite whatever you may think this is the important thing thing. Absolutely. I think I expected there to be a national dialogue. Yeah. That's healthy.

Sure. Everyone's entitled to their point of view. Yeah. But the pro-abortion, pro-choice people, they're not saying that people who don't believe in abortion should have abortions, and yet they're saying that people who believe in choice and um uh should be made to carry these children to term and i i it's it's crazy it is so and it's it's cruel it's right back where that movie sort of takes off we recall jane and And I think that you and the cast and the writing

really created this sort of horrendous desperation and sort of what could be very unsafe situations and just what it would look like. Yeah. And also the demand for it. I mean, I don't think people really contextualize that this isn't, it's not a will willy nilly kind of decision anyone makes. No, no, no.

It's the hardest decision in the world. Nobody wants to have an abortion. Sure. You make a decision like that for all kinds of very personal reasons that no one in their right mind would want the government to be interfering with. Or to stop it. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember when it was when when when Roe was instituted? I do. I do. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember when it was, when Roe was instituted?

I do. I do. It was 73. And, you know, it was, so much was happening for women back then. Yeah. And it made perfect sense that this would, you know, this would enable women to have, you know, to be able to make the choices they needed to make have families when they chose to yeah and also work and we've you know when you look at all the progress women have made in the last 50 years it's so amazing and no matter what the supreme court does they can't take

away those 50 years that we've had where now we're running businesses and we're you know uh doing all these things so we have to remember how far we've come and this is just um a horrendous setback it's a horrendous setback and i i'm um you know we're gonna we're gonna change it fight yeah so where do but you grew up in new york i grew up in New York. Right. Because I know that you mentioned your father liking radio, but I didn't realize he was like a major... He shifted the entire medium from radio to television, right? I mean, that was his thing.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he started off in San Francisco in radio. He did all the ads, and he also produced the shows and everything. So he was a broadcaster? Yeah. You know, he was like right out of college. Right, okay.

And then he ended up coming to New York. He really believed until the day he died at 94 that television was our rocket ship around the world and all kinds of different experiences. And if you wanted to watch the opening of the Bolshoi Ballet, that's your right as an Earthling. So he believed it as a great liberator. Totally. And the thing that would bring us all together. Bring us all up together.

Uh-huh, uh-huh. It kind of did, right? Yeah, until it kind of didn't, I guess. I don't know what you think of some of the shows. No, and that's why it's so funny. You have a podcast, but in the old days, we'd say that you had a radio show. Sure. That used to be the heart of America were all these amazing radio shows.

And they were live. They were live. So he came up through the ranks as a producer and then he worked for NBC or which one did he work for? I'm not sure he came up through the ranks. He kind of hopscotched around. He had such a clear vision. He kind of hopscotched around. He had such a clear vision.

And I think he, because television was just being developed, he got in NBC when they were just starting out. And he, you know, he created the Today Show because he said people need to wake up, find out what's happened in the last 12 hours. He created the Today Show. It's still on, isn't it? It sure is. Created the Tonight Show. Come on. He produced Show of Shows. Really? He created the Today Show. It's still on, isn't it? It sure is. Created the Tonight Show. Come on. He produced Show of Shows. Really?

He created the magazine format. He was the first person to put ballet and opera on television. You had Milton Berle come out and introduce Dame Margot Fonteyn, and she did a big bit of Sleeping Beauty. That's amazing history. Yeah. Did you go over there? Did you spend childhood at the NBC building?

I did go over there. J. Fred Muggs kind of mugged me. He took my hat and I never got it back. I think it was in shreds. Yeah. But I must say,

I think it certainly influenced me because I knew that whatever it was my father did, which I don't think I understood, made him very happy. He loved what he did. He came home smiling, no matter what huge crises there were. You're hanging around Sid Caesar and Milton Berle and that whole crew. You're going to kind of be chipper. Amazing people. So I think that that's probably why, even though I was really shy, et cetera, I sort of gravitated toward the business because I thought the greatest people are in it.

And they seem to have so much fun. Wasn't your uncle in it, too? He was in it, Uncle Doodle. Doodle's Weaver. He had his own show. Doodle's Weaver. Yeah. He's like a huge comic actor yeah ever yeah right and he also you know he he was a one-man band literally he played all the instruments

at once and uh he was his spike jones band forever oh my god yeah so i mean you know there's a lot of strange show business in my in, I'm proud to say. Doodles Weaver. Yep. Do you remember him being entertaining when you were a kid? Yes. Yes. But I also kind of remember the feeling that he was on, which my father used to talk about. And my father used to be a little fascinated by it because he was surrounded by people who were on. Right.

And my uncle was usually on people who were on right and um and my uncle was usually on when we were with him so i never had a peaceful moment with doodle you know we never had a quiet philosophical talk because he was always you know doing things that you know that he could then talk about sure doing crazy things yeah but you were able to talk to your dad i guess yeah yeah no dad and i were very very close and um what about your mom my mother had been a very successful actress in england oh wow and um and once the war broke out i think various things happened uh she ended up giving up her career more because his career, you know, was so all involving. And I think that was a decision she regretted.

You know, also as she grew older, you know, women's lib, you know, sort of seemed to bring all these opportunities out. And I think she felt, you know, that she had missed that, these opportunities. And she would have, whatever my mother took on, she would have been amazing in. So I think she felt it was a bit of a waste for her to be a mom and wife. Although, you know, she adored my father, so. But you don't, do you think she was bitter?

Probably. Probably. Probably. She didn't sit around and mutter about it. But, you know, they had an amazing life. But I think that she would have loved to do more work. And I think she was quite astonished that her daughter, who was, you know, kind of a dweeb, you know, shy and awkward and clumsy and everything else, managed to somehow, you know, become a butterfly in this business and survive. How did that start? I mean, how did you start?

I mean, because, I mean, it looks like you did a lot of theater. I mean, you definitely didn't cut any corners. I know. I mean, I always really loved theater. I always did what I would call sort of illegitimate theater. So I was never part of the Stanford Theater Department, which did very boring old productions. And so we had our own company. We toured the Bay Area in a covered wagon. So it was like a kind of a hippie timeie time yeah yeah except you know i think we were pretty

good we did you know we did king lear we did on the street yeah wow yeah wherever we can set up what was it called it's called kingly oh it was called the company okay and we did new plays and this was in san francisco this was uh palo alto. Okay. And so when it came time to graduate, I thought, oh, geez. I don't want to go down and get some nerdy job through my father on the television station. What can I do that I really love? And I ran around and auditioned for drama schools and I got in. So I took that step. Where to? Where'd you go?

I ended up going to Yale, which- That's a good one. It is a good one. Wasn't Klein there too? No. He wasn't? I can't wait to tell him you said that. He went to Juilliard and he's very Juilliard proud.

Oh, that's right. And I always think that Yale was better because we had our own playwriting department. Oh, okay. Juilliard was doing the classics. Yeah. And we had our own mad playwrights like Chris Drang and Wendy Wasserstein and Alfred Inorato. We did the Yale Cabaret and we were out of our minds. So they gave you a little more uh freedom

and you can work on and you could work on new playwrights works yes and i love that more than anything and in the end i ended up coming to new york and just doing off off broadway doing a lot of the work uh from these guys and just um uh like durang, never got paid, but somehow managed to eke out a living in New York. It's such a different time. Everything seemed more, in terms of my perception of it, more vital. There seemed to be a kind of creative inventiveness that was going on at all levels in the 70s. Yeah. Well, yeah.

I mean, I do think New York still has all of that. It's just that money's kind of ruined it. Yeah, sure. To have an off-off-Broadway theater takes the fundraisers and the board and all these things that in the old days you didn't need that. Well, that's what I think is happening. It's like rock music. It's like you were at the source. So what happens is generations want to recapture that,

and eventually it becomes either a mimicking or it becomes something that gets sold out a bit. But in the 70s, it was actually, this is new. Yeah. Right? You're setting the standard. Well, I'm not sure we were setting the standard, but we sure as hell had a great time

and I think put on a great show. I was always very proud of the work we did in Off-Broadway. I think it's super important. Like when you got out of Yale, so you did the whole program? I did. I'm not sure I should have, but I did. Why?

Well, they weren't very enthusiastic about my work. No? No, they were like, they actually said you should leave the school. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, they did. What was the criticism? Because my Juilliard was terrible with that. They would throw people right out.

They would say, look left, look right, none of you won't be here. Yeah, right. Yeah, I had a class of 18, and at the end of the first year um two left and eight were asked to leave really and the rest of us were put on probation who knows who was in your class anyone we know um kate mcgregor stewart uh she's had a wonderful career um uh i i'm it doesn't surprise me that uh that you know my class is still working somewhat under wraps. But I would say any of us who've kept at it, if you can do it, I'm amazed to see some of my colleagues. They're still working in the theater in New York and doing the most incredible work, like Reed Burney and people like that who I came up with.

Yeah, I mean- Christine Nielsen. If you're cut out for it and it's a life you want and you focus, you know, and you- I think with any of these things, like comedy,

which is what I do, or acting, it gets to a point where you're- there is no real plan B. I mean, what are you going to do? You going to teach? Are you going to- Yeah.

What are you going to do? Yeah. But I mean, I think some people can't hack it and they get into production on some level or writing. There's a lot of actors that do other things. Yeah. Directing.

I thought, well, you know, they're probably right. I probably don't have a future, but, you know, I can run a theater and my friends can work there. I thought I'll get the degree. Yeah. I mean, I actually think it was one of the, looking back, it was actually a kind of gift

because I came to New York with absolutely no expectations. I'd already heard the worst from, but those teachers were fired when I left, but apparently they didn't like actors. Maybe don't hire faculty who don't like actors. Because they're failed actors? I don't know. I don't know what they were. One was a voice teacher and one was a director. And they really got fired?

Oh, yeah. Wow. Well, that's sort of justice in a way, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. So when you did get down there to New York, so you just got into off-Broadway, but then you did big plays, though, eventually, right? I'm not sure I did big plays.

You were in the original cast of Hurley Burley, but that was years later. Well, yes, that was, yeah. So that was much later. Yeah, but like, so you were just kicking around doing young playwright stuff? Oh, yeah. I mean, that kept me busy for a long time. I worked at the Public, too, and, you know, we worked in a lot of places where, you know,

the show would run about three weeks and then the building would be condemned, you know, or the audience would be afraid to come down to that neighborhood and hell's kitchen or whatever. We certainly didn't have bathrooms. We usually didn't have heat. What'd your old man think of this,

of you doing it? That's a good question i think that he thought how great that sig went to drama school right that's something yeah uh i remember i think he said doodles wouldn't have had the patience for that so i think he liked that i think that he i i don't think my i think my parents because they were in the business yes and knew that it could eat you alive sure I think they probably thought I would make a meal for the business one of those days but that I had to get it out of my system or something I don't know I certainly think there were never two more surprise people than my parents who every year I'd come in and I'd have

another successful movie and I think they were just shaking their heads in shock and dismay. But proud, I imagine. I think they were proud, but I think it was mostly shock. Because they know what a hard and sometimes rotten business it can be. But was it that surprising? Were you that much of a sort of quiet kid, a nerdy kid? I wasn't quiet. I wasn't quiet, but I was this tall when I was 11.

Okay. So I was very insecure. So it took me a long time to grow into myself. And I think that whatever success I had in the business, which came quite late, you know, I did Alien when I was 28. Oh, wow. It took me a long time. I mean, I felt like I was still in the oven for a long time. Sure.

And finally, I remember one birthday, I went, you know, I think I'm done. I'll take myself out of the oven now. I'm full. I'll be toast. Yeah. Well, did your dad, did you do little TV bits here and there? Did he still have the power to help you out in that way? I did not want his help, Mark.

Okay. All right. Just for a little walk on. I actually was offered a very good role in television when I was still at the public playing a maid who cleaned the glacier in a John Guare play. John Guare, I know that guy, yeah. Marco Polo sings a solo. Yeah.

It was probably my first paying job, and I was offered a very nice big role on a TV series that was very high profile. And I turned it down. Really? Because I thought, I really don't want to do the same thing. In case it's a hit, which it looked like it would be, I don't want to do the same thing. In case it's a hit, which it looked like it would be,

I don't want to do the same thing for five years. I'll go nuts. I'd much rather be the maid cleaning this great glacier with Joel Grey and Madeline Kahn. I really was, maybe because I hadn't had as many opportunities coming up as you know training yeah i wanted to eat all the theater i could i was just ravenous and i certainly didn't want to have a job that had too much sameness and i thought i'm young you know i i don't need that kind of security i'm gonna continue in my odd world doing my odd thing thing. Right. And it paid off.

Well, I mean, all you can do is follow your heart at the time. Oh, my God. I was so confused. I didn't know what my heart was. I just knew what I didn't want to do. Well, that's what it was. I knew I didn't want to go to L.A. and have the security of a show that would continue year after year. Well, you had that foresight to know what the job is,

and I think that probably comes somewhat from your upbringing. I think so, too. You know, because a lot of people who don't have any understanding of the business would be like they take anything. Oh, absolutely. And if I'd had parents who didn't know the business, I might have felt I have to take this job. So they stop worrying about me and they see that I'm i'm decent enough actor so i can get work but my parents weren't like that and um and so i was able you know with their support uh for a while to to um you know continue following my heart yeah i mean because you would definitely have

been familiar with the repetition of television you know i, I mean, you see a whole career. And I imagine even your uncle on some level represented a thing that stayed the same for decades. Yes, I guess that's true. Although I bet he had lots of different colors in there. He's a comic actor. Yes, he's in The Birds. We watch it once a year.

We go, there he is. There's Uncle little doodle, he's so good, driving that boat. Well, I mean, so what was the first movie? Well, the first movie was Annie Hall. I was in a show with Chris Durang that he'd written. I had written a curtain raiser with him called Das Lusitania Songspiel that made fun of everything on Broadway and used all of, you know, claimed that Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht had done all the current songs.

Oh, okay, so it's a comedy. It was a comedy. It was a cabaret. Yeah, yeah. And so I was offered a nice role in Annie Hall, a much bigger role. And I turned that down because I could not. I was playing a multiple schizophrenic in Chris's play Titanic. I played this little girl in a sailor suit who had a hedgehog and a vagina and she fed it at the table.

Then I morphed into this woman, Helena, who was a multiple schizophrenic. And then I morphed again. Anyway, I was irreplaceable at this point because I had so many different personalities in the show. And so I thought, well, you know, if Woody Allen would offer me a nice role now, maybe he'll offer me a nice role again someday. So you turned down a bigger role to take which role? Which I'm trying to remember. I ended up getting a walk-on at the end of Annie Hall. I'm with Walter Bernstein,

and he's with Diane Keaton at the very end. Oh, right, yes. Oh, that's right. In front of the theater. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Sorrow and the Pity. So that was my little consolation prize

from Woody Allen. And so... So that was another, like, you chose theater. I chose theater. You didn't want to let your friend down. Yeah, and I think I would have let myself down, too, because, as I said, I'd co-authored it. Yeah. that was another like you chose theater i chose you don't want to let your friend down yeah and i i think i would have let myself down too because i as i said i'd co-authored it and we had such an amazing time well that's like those are like you know i mean it sort of makes sense in in looking

at the roles that you did choose and and what you're known for that you would have this fortitude to just say no you know what i mean to honor yourself and honor your friends and your responsibility to things that's that's making me sound very honorable but i think i just had to follow my my nose yeah where i where i found value and um and i i think i also loved what i was doing i didn't really want to go into another dimension, which was like Woody Allen. That's a serious like that's a film that's different from what I do. I wanted to stay in my little. Do you think any of it was fear?

Oh, I'm sure. Sure. It was fear. Yeah. I didn't even think about a film career, except with great skept skepticism because to me, I think my father was in TV. I thought film must be even crazier. Yeah. And more unpredictable.

So what shifted for you? How did Alien come to be? Well, and then I think I had. Because it was pretty soon after that. Yeah. I had gone out, I think the next next year maybe and met some casting people. In L.A.? I finally had gotten an agent, which took me years because people would go, oh, she's really good in that.

She's so tall. I couldn't figure out what to do with her. Really, the tall thing was really a problem. Oh, yeah, because I was like almost six feet. And they were like, oh, you know, she can never play anything really. And all the men are like five feet. Yeah, and they sit down as soon as you come in the room. So anyway, I went out and met some good casting people.

Yeah. And then I think when Ridley Scott was sent to New York to interview actors for this movie, I was on the short list for reasons I don't know. And I wasn't very interested. Yeah. You know, science fiction, which I knew very well. Was it always written as a woman's part? Actually, the original script was 10 men.

And Walter Hill and David Giler, who ended up writing the script, thought, well, listen, it's 10 little Indians. We'll just make the girl the survivor because no one in their wildest dreams will think it's going to end up being the girl. They thought it's going to end up being John Hurt's character who's so brave, blah, blah, blah. Right. And so they really did it just for story reasons, you even though they they love strong women um and there was one other woman too right and yes lambert and that she was that was a very funny part actually is originally written um and you know it's a very small cast and um i i don't think fox wanted me you know i was unknown. I think there were people with names trying to get this part.

Yeah. I just got really lucky that the producers and Ridley, you know, I met Ridley. I was wearing these huge hooker boots that made me too tall to even be in this room with you, Mark. And, you know, I don't know what kind of thing I looked like when I walked in but anyway we had a great talk about the script that I was pretty critical of I said yeah it's pretty bleak I don't know but this love scene would you really you know would you really get it on one of these things running anyway we had a good talk like monsters this monster's eating people. I know.

And I ended up doing a screen test with Ridley in London and got the part. I mean, I was so incredibly lucky. And then once I got the part, I thought, well, now I better do a good job. You know, I thought, here I am. I'm going to be in this new medium i remember thinking oh don't worry about it just pretend you're doing off-broadway right did you think that yeah i did that all the time because i thought it's look it's not a really legitimate movie it's like a little dark movie over here so i'm still in my world all right right so i get to still play in this

playground and i guess nobody was i mean ridley was not a huge director yet, right? His second movie. Yeah. So I guess there was no reason to think that it wasn't just a little dark, weird movie. Yeah. And what's wrong with a little dark, weird movie? And what a cast, though. I mean, to work with Harry Dean and Yafit Koto.

All those people are great. Absolutely. Ian Holm. Geez. Oh, so lucky. And all those people are great. Absolutely. Ian Holm, geez. Oh, I know. But it seems to me that whatever anyone was judging your craft or how everyone was looking at your acting, that you sort of dug in and were very emotionally available and interesting and vulnerable in that part as Ripley. I mean, it was a fully deep performance.

Oh, that's great. Well, I remember thinking, I'm not going to be able to play Henry V, but this is my breeches part. So I can imbue this character with anything you might see in any leader anywhere. And I had a very interesting discussion with Ian Holm, actually, because I remember he became my good friend,

which I needed then because I was very lonely. I was over in England by myself. And I remember saying to him, huh, do you think that Ripley knows what she's doing? Do you think that she thinks she's right all these times? And he said, yes, I think she does know she's right. these times and he said yes i think she does know she's right and i said i don't think she does i think it's a total crap shoot and she knows it and she's just got to fly by the seat of her pants hoping confident hoping no not with confidence because i think that that's the story it's a it's a kind of everyman story it's about someone who's you know

who thinks that the trip is going to go this way and she has a sort of manual of how things should go you know she's a young yeah ensign and she has to give up all of that order and and um deal yeah and deal and uh and it's to, it's everyone's story. Yeah. And especially for a woman, because she's not going to whimper in a corner and say, I need help, because she's got to do it herself, which I think is what, that's why I am an actor, I think. I think that's what women do. Yeah. We do the tough stuff all the time, and I love telling that story.

do the tough stuff all the time and i i love telling that story well i and also i mean i guess you could i mean it seems that the way you engage with it was was was you know contextualizing it as in every person's story but it was a women's story and you know you know the weight of that but i guess you couldn't have had any idea the impact it would have on show business on women on women in show business i'm still amazed by it i mean it was like a pivotal and in game-changing movie yeah that uh that a woman could carry a movie like that and i you know i i think of ridley scott and how innovative his camera work was he and derek van lint who was our our DP they just huddled together every every minute you know coming up with how to hold the camera and all these things that no one had ever tried before yeah so it was an experience going to the theater and that monster I mean that monster and

that was all Ridley too you know he found this he found amazing name? He found Giger. Yeah. And so we were using Giger's designs. Yeah. And he found an art student at a local pub who was seven feet tall from Africa. He put him in the suit. Yeah. So the man was so gorgeous. He already looked like he was from a different planet. Wow.

And he put on the suit. Yeah. Yeah. So I think a lot of it has to do with how good the script was yeah how wonderful the cast was that ridley assembled and the camera work the sound all those things scare the shit out of people and people have enjoyed that ever since well that i can't i didn't realize that he had found um giger that like that was like giger wasn't established at that point no i don't think I didn't realize that he had found Giger. Giger wasn't established at that point. No, I don't think so.

Because he became sort of a thing. Yeah, totally. And then that monster comes back for all the movies, like in some version, right? So now looking at that, looking at Ripley, do you find that that character evolves? Oh, completely. Completely.

For you, too, in age? And then, obviously, you're like, I know what's up. You know, with Paul Reiser, like his weird villain turn. Oh, yeah. That was great. That was great. And I think that, again, Jim Cameron, you know, it was his idea to write the story based on Ripley's coming back into the world and trying to warn people.

So he gave the Ripley character in Aliens the most incredible arc from this sort of anti-hero kind of thing. And so I think that really solidified the kind of reputation of what this movie was. How was that transition from Ridley Scott to Cameron? I can't remember. I know I was told. I think Walter Hill must have told me something. How did that happen? I think that Walter and David were talking to Jim Cameron

about something else. I think Jim had just done like Piranha 2. And I think he had the Terminator, you know, bubbling away. Yeah. But I think they kind of,

you know, in those days, no one did a sequel. Right. It was like very... Oh, really? Is that true? Yeah.

No, it was considered very, you know, like not cool. Right. But I think somehow Jim mentioned that he'd love to write a sequel for alien and they thought hey why not give that a try right i don't think anyone expected it to be this

tour de force it's great it's a great movie it really is um so i mean by that time it was i don't know several years yeah later uh i've been really lucky to work with so many different really strong directors the uh year of living dangerously was that was a great movie i remember seeing that movie yeah peter weir i love so much from him like what well like um i think that he he said the first day he's he, gosh, I didn't realize how inexperienced you were. Yeah. I said, yeah, I guess that's true. I think I'd made two movies.

Yeah. And he said, you know, see, you just, you know, just when you're talking to Mel Gibson, just talk to him. Just be Sigourney talking to Mel. Yeah. You don't need to do anything else. And on some level, I got it I got it because I trust his eye right but that's also that weird tricky transition from theater in a way oh completely that you do too much or or just to talk like I can't not like if I'm on a stage of any kind as an actor I'm like like, what's going on? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Absolutely. It's like your mic. Do we have a boom? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you have to adjust. Or do you? I mean, that's the great question is that if you have it inside of you, does it change from theater to movies? And I'm not sure I know the answer to that.

Well, I would think just the tenor is all I think all I'm thinking of. Like in theater, you do have to project a bit. You have to project a bit. Yeah, yeah. Definitely. But not on a set. No. Yeah.

So, well, Weird was great. And then Freakin', he did that Weird Freakin' movie. Yeah. Yeah, that's that. I talked to him. He's an intense character. Yeah. Okay.

That's that. I talked to him. He's an intense character. Yeah. Okay. So, well, moving into, like, you did many movies with Cameron. Like, these relationships with Scott and Cameron were career long. And Ivan Reitman as well.

Yeah. And that was really the, and that, like, you can do comedy. You like to. Actually, that's what the school ended up saying. Said, you know, you're great at comedy. Don't do anything else. Yeah. And that's really what I am good at. I've gotten away with the other stuff.

Really? You think that's true? Without a question. Huh. And Ghostbusters was a blast, right? Yeah. Absolutely. And these are movies that made people's childhoods.

Between Aliens and Ghostbusters, you must have people coming up to you all ages just saying, oh my God. Well, it is fun. I never quite know which movie they're going to mention. Oh, right, right, right. And Working Girl was a huge movie, too. It was a huge movie. And Gorillas in the Mist. Oh, my God.

An amazing adventure. Yeah? I mean, that's why, as you know, you're an actor. The business is so incredible because you get to learn all these different things, go to all these places. If you're willing to go for six months and do a thing. Oh, yeah. How many real gorillas did you work with? I worked with Diane's study group five.

So there were about 25 gorillas in that group. about 25 gorillas in that group and um i went up every day or every other day with simon trevor the great wildlife photographer and one other guy who pulled focus and we just spent the entire time with them yeah and tried to keep our heads down and uh be very respectful um and we had a lot of great surprises and got some really good footage. Yeah. So what is, how many Avatar movies did you just shoot? Nine?

So we have shot, we had made one a long time ago. Yeah. That's being re-released, remastered this month. Oh, so they're going to re-release the first one? Yeah, they're re-releasing it sometime this month. Yeah.

And then Avatar 2 is opening December 16th. And then we've already shot three. That will come out two years later. Did you shoot them down in Long Beach? Yeah, well, we shot them. Did you shoot him down in Long Beach? Yeah. Or New Zealand. We shot the performance capture in Manhattan Beach. In Manhattan.

Oh, that's where his... Yeah, his kingdom is. Yes. Because I went down there. He had me... I met with him. Oh, yeah? To audition for the part that the Flight of the Conchords guy got.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I had no idea I was really going to do an audition that day. Well, there are more. There's four and five. Get ready. I think I'm out of the possibility. I wouldn't be too sure. But I mean, it was interesting meeting him.

Yeah. You know, to sit there with him. And he was very nice. But like, what did you have to learn how to do? What did you, like, how much time? For Avatar? Yeah. Well, Avatar, we learned how to do what did you like how much for avatar yeah well avatar we learned how to free dive so we were trained for we learned everything free dive that means with no tanks

yeah so we had to do i play a kid in avatar 2 because my character died in avatar 1 right so the kids we we did a lot of parkour we did all these things to to try to uh figure out how we are going to move through the forest yeah like uh navi children and um so we did a lot of physical training and then because a good bit like 70 of the movie is underwater or in water yeah um we were taught by kirk crack who teaches the navy seals how to free dive he taught all of us yeah for over a year how to breathe up and how to how to free dive so by the time we were actually shooting in the tank underwater we had long scenes underwater yeah we had the training to pull that off. How long can you be underwater?

Well, I can do a static breath hold the most I ever did with six and a half minutes. Come on. I know. It's ridiculous. I can't believe it either, but I'm not lying. That's crazy. I know. I had the training, and I was using enhanced oxygen.

What does that mean? So, in other words, we're breathing 30% oxygen. And so sometimes doing the show, we would have 50% oxygen and sometimes we would have 80% oxygen. Yeah. So I don't know what I was breathing that day. I'm sure it was at least 50. Yeah. But a static breath hold, you're not moving and you just have to keep your mind from making you panic and make you breathe because it's a reflex and you can talk yourself out of it for a while. I'm starting to have a hard time breathing now. I know.

I can't believe I did it for that long. And my husband, who was taking the training with me, being from Hawaii, you know, he loved all this stuff. He had the same breath hold. So you just brought him in because he wanted to learn? Well, I think that they knew I'd be more secure with him. Because he's such a, you know, he's such a water guy. Yeah. he's such a water guy yeah uh and i would have to say that all of us facing this and knowing what jim would want us to do yeah it was intimidating so you wanted to uh train up in a a situation

where you felt as relaxed as possible and being in the water with jim is a very relaxing experience because he's so knowledgeable yeah okay yeah but cameron is you know intimidating cameron is is intimidating is the wrong word yeah you don't want to say no boss i don't think i want anything you're not going to say anything like that to jim cameron he will tease you so mercilessly until you say i forget it i forget it i'm gonna do it just show me show me where to go what to do yeah um and so it was kind of you know you know once he sort of you know tagged you to come along and be in his band of yeah merry pranksters you you kind of feel like you're you know you're in for it whatever it is you're ready you're gonna make it work and um i have to say we watched 13 minutes of it at d

23 this past weekend yeah the disney uh-huh whatever and the stuff underwater was so crazy good that my standing there watching it with the audience i think my feet started to move as if i needed to tread water because we were underwater for so long. It looked that real. And it's one of the most breathtakingly beautiful things you'll ever see. Yeah. It's totally cool.

So it's going to pay off. Yeah. And now I know how to free dive. Not that I do it all the time. Well, you go to Hawaii. You could do it. I'm much more confident in the ocean in Hawaii than I used to be. So after all these movies and everything else, I mean, are there, like, do you, like, you talk a little bit about we're, you know, kind of like being on to you and showing you something.

Did you find that throughout that, throughout your career, that you were able to pick up stuff from all these directors? You know, what I found was that the directors are hoping you know what you're doing. That's right. That's what Walter Hill said. Because the idea that a director directs is not about teaching an actor how to do anything. No. They want you to. They cast you because they think you've got it in you.

And then it's up to you to just come through. Right. Walter is still a very good friend of mine. So I think he's so eloquent about the business and everything else. Yeah, he's great. But no, I think that, you know, Mike Nichols used to say casting is 90%. And I think that's really true. I think if anything, as a director, you become, as an actor, you become a bit director-proof.

Yeah. You're going to arrive. You, you become a bit director proof. Yeah. You're going to arrive. You're going to have done your work. Right. You're going to have, you know, whatever they call, you pack your suitcase filled with this and that. Right. Right. And you're ready for anything.

And I mean, to me, that's where the fun starts. That's where I finally started to get confidence was when I kind of gave up trying to figure it out. And I just fling myself out into the void and see what happens sure and you're there with other people you're there with the other act like Nichols was it was he what's he special to work with incredibly special he could come up with the one physical move or something that would explain your entire character oh yeah and um he just was brilliant at that and um you know because i had this relationship with bill hurt's character and hurley burley and bill's character would drone on and on and on about this and that and yeah finally and i i said

to my geez i'm just sitting here kind of putting on makeup not really listening and she said to Mike, geez, I'm just sitting here kind of putting on makeup, not really listening. And he said, just put your finger down your throat and gag. And so I did that and the whole audience was feeling that, of course, too. We all wanted him to shut up. And so he was always,

he was really, first of all, he totally believed he could do it. I didn't realize he directed that. He directed Hurley Burley on stage? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's the first time I worked with with mike and then he directed the movie directed uh working girl yeah i didn't realize he did like that's so funny william hurt droning on oh yeah

that's what the play is mostly um well that's a that's like that's great memories. Did you write a book yet? No. No. Maybe you're not going to. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure I remember a lot of things. Oh, yeah? The things I remember are very, to me, interesting.

But it's fun to talk about it all. Sure, yeah. And just I want to talk about Schrader for a second. Yeah. Because he's sort of a fascinating character to me. And there's the movies he's written and the movies he's directed. But it seems like the last several movies of his are very controlled and they're very specific. Several movies of his are very controlled and they're very specific.

And he seems to deal with men very specifically, kind of like damaged or struggling or morally dubious men. But also the women characters that he seems to be generating are pretty tough and strong as well. Yeah. Especially in the last, well, the card, the card counter too. Mm-hmm. So what's it like working with him with that, with that language of his

and him as a director? Yeah. And what brought you to that movie? Well, interestingly, we only finished that movie in March.

So for him to have edited it and show it at Venice as we just did was really, you know, an act of a Superman. Yeah.

So he, I met him about a year ago. He had this script, which I thought was impeccable. You know, I'm used to working with all kinds of scripts. And there was something about this script that was, it was so elegantly written. It was so precise. There was so much that wasn't said right there was no exposition yeah there are no transitions it's just this like vertically built you know this this thing with all these layers underneath that you can never get enough of yeah

and the part for me the part of normal was like a kind of part I've avoided all my life. Why? Because I think they were often written in a very cliched way. The rich, haughty woman or something. Oh, the maid, right, okay, right. And, but I thought, you know what? I think this is the one. Because I also thought I've never been offered a part like this. She's so out there. Yeah.

And so I met him about a year ago and he said, I want to shoot in February. We're going to shoot in 20 days. We're going to shoot it without any money. Joel Edgerton is playing the part and he was looking for and ended up being Quintessa Swindell, who's wonderful. As Maya. Yeah. And, you know, in February in Louisiana, there were not many flowers. Yeah. So I, but it is a wonderful story.

As you say, it's the lonely man in the room and him coming to terms with his life. A heinous past. Yeah, a heinous past. And you being the sort of savior, but also somewhat exploitive. But that dynamic, I've never seen anything like it, really. Good, good, good, good. I'm so glad to hear it. But when you approach a role like that, let's just go over the last few years.

So when you see The Good House, do you think, this is not going to be a heavy lift? No, I never think that. You never think of it? Never think that. You don't judge the rules. I've never done this before. I can't wait to do this. Oh, good.

I loved Hildy so much. And it was the best part I'd been offered in a long time. Yeah. And then- I'm just saying that in comparison to the darkness of- Well, you know, you can only, there were, we did, we did Good House in 2019. That was wild. So you had COVID in between.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I did, I did Call Jane. So this I just did. I mean, I feel like I just came home from that. Right, right. And. So every role, it's just sort of like you're kind of like okay you're you're nervous or you're i'm terrified yeah yeah i think oh this is the one this is

the one where i'm gonna fall flat on my face uh but i also can't think of anything i love more than getting out there that pushing off into the unknown and yeah and letting the character out yeah um and norma was especially like um you know she was pandora's box when she opened her mouth you know and i just and that you know the the turn at the end you know and then again just sort of like uh the relationship shifting it's it's kind of an astounding thing. I've never seen anything like it. I'm so glad. No, I mean, I haven't.

I mean, I think Paul's amazing. I feel so fortunate to have been able to work with him and that he, you know, I once made the mistake of saying, why do you think of me for Norma? I don't know what I expected him to say. But I remember that Pauline Kael had been a great champion of mine early on, and he knew her quite well. Yeah. He said, no, I wanted Glenn Close, but she wasn't available. So lesson is never ask those questions.

Oh, no, you got that in your head. How would Glenn do it? Oh, no, I never thought about that. You never think that? No, no, no, because she didn't get to do it. Oh, that's good. That's better. You know, I got to do it. that's the fate rolled the dice and it's my part and i never look back like i don't do a lot of acting but i did a part in a movie that's coming out soon

and the guy they told me who they were kind of wanted it to be and i'm like oh my god boy how why don't you just use that guy yeah i'm not that guy. I wonder why they said that to you because that's not very helpful. It wasn't the director. It's just something that came back around from who the fuck knows where. It's just there to screw you up. Yeah, but eventually,

I think what you realize, and again, I'm not much of an actor, but you can only do what you do. Yeah. That's it. It's going to be your version of whatever it is. So you're just full steam ahead. Full steam ahead.

I'm in the time of my life. You ever feel like doing theater again? Well, not lately. I have to say I've been kind of working nonstop. Yeah, it seems like it. And I have another couple of projects lined up, and I'm working with people I really like. And so there's something about the form of film

that probably started with Peter Weir, because that's when I got it. I got that film had its own weird philosophy, that it was perfect, that it was out of chronology. All these things that I've been resisting as a theater person, it all kind of made sense in this bizarre way. And I've so embraced that that now I can't. To me, it's the more interesting medium.

Sure. You can look at it from a lot of different vantage points and you can understand the collaboration of it. It's totally different. Yeah, it's so much about collaboration. And the crew and the cast, you know, we're almost all one. I imagine on Avatar, you're practically living with these people. Oh, yeah.

I mean, really true, because it takes forever, you know. Yeah, it's like years. Well, it was great talking to you. Great talking to you. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, thanks for doing it. My pleasure. There you go.

Cultural icon, Sigourney Weaver. The Good House opens on Friday and you can see her shortly in Call Jane, Master Gardener, and Avatar, The Way of Water. All right, hang out for one second, people. Hang out! Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing.

With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means.

I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction.

Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com. Listen, we've got some movie stuff for the next two weeks of full Maron bonus content. This week, we'll be talking about documentaries in advance of my episode with Abigail Disney this Thursday. And next week, we're going to do a full talk about one of my favorite movies, Michael Clayton. I'll explain more of that on Thursday as well. If you don't have a full Marin subscription, click on the link in the show description or go to WTFpod.com and click on WTF Plus. You dig? This week, I'm inonto ontario at the queen elizabeth theater on september 30th and october 1st next week i'm in livermore california at the bankhead theater on october 6th and carmel by the sea california at the sunset center on october 7th that's going to be an intimate group

in a large room what can i tell you ma'am small? Small market, Carmel. I don't know. People aren't coming out, but I'm going to do the fucking show. Not really my choice even because it's not a great feeling to play for 100 people in a room for 700, but so be it. It'll get me strong. And again, I want to mention I added a show in London to my London, England dates. I'll be doing a live WTF at the Bloomsbury Theatre on Wednesday, October 19th. My guest will be comedian David Baddiel. Then I've got stand-up shows at the Bloomsbury on Saturday and Sunday, October 22nd and 23rd. Those probably are close to selling out.

Dublin, Ireland, I'm at Vicar Street on Wednesday, October 26th. Then in November and December, I'm in Oklahoma City, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Long Beach, Ireland. I'm at Vicar Street on Wednesday, October 26th. Then in November and December, I'm in Oklahoma City, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Long Beach, California, Eugene, Oregon, Bend, Oregon, Asheville, North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee. And finally, my HBO special taping is at Town Hall in New York City on Thursday, December 8th. Go to WTFpod.com slash tour for all dates and ticket info. Okay? Anyway, here's some guitar. guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. Boomer lives. Monkey and La Fonda. Cat angels everywhere.