Actress Sigourney Weaver has had a long and acclaimed career. Over the years she has been in comedies, dramas and got her earliest breaks with science-fiction in the Alien franchise. Now, the 72-year-old is reflecting on the Oscar she nearly won for it.
Her views come in a new interview with Jake Hamilton on the Jake’s Takes YouTube channel. She was nominated for an Oscar for her turn in Aliens at the 1987 Academy Awards. She lost the Best Actress category to Marlee Matlin and adds that getting a nomination was a complete surprise to the team. We blame Weyland-Yutani for the Oscar loss.
At the time, hers was the literal first science-fiction piece to ever get such an honor. Normally, these kinds of works and their fantasy and horror counterparts are looked down upon at major award shows and them ever winning anything is a big rarity.
“It was a huge surprise to all of us because it was in that other world. I think that Jim Cameron created such an amazing structure for the character of Ripley, to start out with no one believing her and thinking she’s crazy and all these other things. He gave me so much to work with, and I really appreciate the Academy community getting over whatever prejudices they might have against this kind of sci-fi genre and nominating me for the actual work because I do think it’s an amazing role, and I was very very honored to be nominated for it.”
The future of the Alien franchise remains clouded at this time. While a television show is being developed for FX on Hulu, no news of a concrete nature exists about more films. Weaver continues to work and has Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar 3 coming up. On television she has appeared in Call My Agent!, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, The Defenders, Prayers for Bobby and Futurama as the voice of the Planet Express ship too.
