The great Sigourney Weaver turns 70 today. Like a great many viewers, I first encountered her as Ripley in Alien, and ensuing sequels. Think about the four movies of the franchise as you will - my own takes are
on Alien and Aliens here and on
Alien³ and Alien: Resurrection here -, I think there can be general agreement that SW never brought less than her A-Game. She made Ripley so intensely memorable that you believed every moment with her in it, no matter whether she faced outsized monsters or human greed - or her own humanity. Or saved her cat. There are so many iconic Ripley scenes; one that stuck deepest with me doesn't feature, strictly speaking, Ellen Ripley, but Ripley8 from Alien: Resurrection, in the sequence where she finds out what the number on her means. Trigger warning for massive body horror, but it's what Weaver does with her face that makes it so visceral to me:
Click to view
She's a superb comedienne as well - in Working Girl, for example, and wonderfully so in Galaxy Quest. Gwen de Marco speaks for all of us here:
Click to view
(This episode is badly written!" is what I constantly want to say about the present, but alas...)
Lastly, some funny interview moments:
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