{"id":115608,"date":"2026-04-26T01:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/the-1979-movie-sigourney-weaver-doesnt-want-to-be-remembered-for\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T01:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:06:36","slug":"the-1979-movie-sigourney-weaver-doesnt-want-to-be-remembered-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/the-1979-movie-sigourney-weaver-doesnt-want-to-be-remembered-for\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1979 movie Sigourney Weaver doesn’t want to be remembered for"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The protagonist of Ridley Scott\u2019s groundbreaking 1979 sci-fi horror Alien<\/a><\/em>, Ellen Ripley, is one of the greatest film characters of all time, and her status as one of pop culture\u2019s greatest leading ladies is well-earned. <\/p>\n

In an era where women almost never led big movies, the Nostromo\u2019s warrant officer, played brilliantly by Sigourney Weaver,<\/a> proved that ladies could kick just as much ass as men. She is still held up as one of the prime examples of a \u2018strong female character\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Ripley helped make Weaver a household name<\/a>, beating out the likes of Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren to win the part, which lifted her from an unknown stage actor to a bona fide movie star. She has played the character in four different movies (to varying degrees of success) and even returned to the role in voice form for the video game Alien: Isolation<\/em>. In many ways, Ripley and Weaver are the same person, and that isn\u2019t always a good thing.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Total Film<\/em><\/a> in 2006, though, the Oscar-nominated star spoke about her relationship with the character that made her famous. She spoke about her complicated feelings towards Ripley as well as the pros and cons of being so closely associated with one fictional creation for almost 50 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very grateful to Ellen Ripley because who knows what would have happened if I hadn\u2019t played her?\u201d she said, \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure I wanted to do it back in 1979. I was like, \u2018Oh, I want to do Shakespeare\u2019. So I feel very lucky I ended up doing it. But when people think I\u2019ve only done Ripley, or never done anything since\u2026that\u2019s a bit galling.\u201d<\/p>\n

To reduce Weaver\u2019s entire career down to just four films is a huge insult, as she hasn\u2019t played Ripley on screen since 1997 and was making strides outside of the franchise even before this, winning two Golden Globes<\/a> in 1989 for Gorillas in the Mist<\/em> and Working Girl<\/em>, two films of very different genres, neither of which is science fiction. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s also had her fair share of box office success without the help of a Xenomorph, playing characters in Ghostbusters<\/em>, several Pixar movies, and has a role in the upcoming Star Wars<\/em> film, The Mandalorian and Grogu<\/em>. She\u2019s even in Avatar<\/em>, for crying out loud, the highest-grossing film of all time, so while her complaints might come across as ungrateful on the surface, it\u2019s not hard to understand where Weaver is coming from.<\/p>\n

There have been many actors who have been unable to escape their iconic characters<\/a>, such that Robert Patrick is constantly spoofing or paying homage to his role as the T-1000 in Terminator 2<\/em>, while Leonard Nimoy wrote an entire book about how he wasn\u2019t Spock. <\/p>\n

Weaver isn\u2019t like this, though, and while Ripley is an important part of her career, she has done enough elsewhere to make sure she doesn\u2019t define her. She\u2019s been very smart about her approach to the character, maintaining a healthy respect while also creating sufficient distance. If only she\u2019d decided to call it a day before Alien: Resurrection<\/em>, that would have saved us a whole heap of trouble. <\/p>\n

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