Forever known for the tough, no-nonsense characters she’s portrayed in everything from Alien to Avatar, veteran actress Sigourney Weaver returns to screens this month in A Monster Calls. But unlike some of her past roles, this time she’s fighting a very different kind of beast, as the strict grandmother of a little boy who befriends a monster that will help guide him through many of life’s biggest struggles, including the potential death of his mother.

Fandango recently spoke with Weaver about navigating the beloved but complicated material featured in A Monster Calls, itself based on the children’s book of the same name, as well as what it was like working opposite a little boy who’s just starting out his big-screen career. We also touch on the time a teacher told her she had no talent, and whether we’ll ever see her return to the role of Ripley for one last Alien movie.

Fandango: A Monster Calls is based on a beloved children's book, but it does deal with some very deep, serious, grown-up issues. Who do you think this movie is for?

Sigourney Weaver: It’s interesting, I think we give kids much more sanitized versions of things in life than they really want. And in this case, having now seen this movie a couple of times, reminds me of those great old books, like Dickens, where terrible things happened and the hero went on.

Fandango: It does feel like a timeless in that sense.

Weaver: Yeah, and you weren’t able to say this is a fantasy or this is a drama because in those great works, there were so many different elements. To me this is such a rich story about this boy and his relationship with a monster and how that impacts the rest of his life. One of the things I like about this story is that it just has so much to give us – I’d recommend it to any family, really.

Fandango: It’s not just a cancer movie…

Weaver: No, not at all. The film is so unexpected in so many ways. It’s funny, too, with this monster who doesn’t say what we expect, and doesn’t make it easy for Colin; he certainly doesn’t give him easy answers. It’s very complex, and I think the integrity of that will make it a film that stays around for a long time.

Fandango: Director Juan Antonio Bayona is really emerging as one of the next great visionary directors. As someone who has worked with many great visionaries, including James Cameron and Ridley Scott, what do you think separates Bayona from the rest?

Weaver: I had seen The Orphanage and The Impossible, and one of the reasons why I wanted to work on A Monster Calls was because Bayona was directing it. I already thought he was in a class of his own with these two very different movies that were both in a way about love. I thought what a perfect marriage between material and a filmmaker. And I knew he would really go for it, and it’s not an easy piece. Even the book itself… it’s tough. I think he’s already up there – both of those directors that you mention, Ridley was a visionary from the time I worked with him, and so was Jim Cameron. I don’t think it’s one of those things that comes with age; I think it comes with perspective and with passion. And I think Bayona has all that.

Fandango: And now they’re giving him a Jurassic Park movie…

Weaver: I think they’re very smart to have chosen him for Jurassic Park, and I think it’s going to be unlike any other Jurassic film we’ve seen yet.

Fandango: Did he ask you to come along on that journey with him? You’d be great in a Jurassic movie…

Weaver: Lewis [MacDougall] and I have been whimpering and whining to be in the movie, but we want to just be sitting there having breakfast as the dinosaur goes racing by to eat people… and we just keep eating. [Bayona] said he’d think about it! [Laughs]

Fandango: Speaking of Lewis MacDougall, so many of your scenes in A Monster Calls are opposite this little boy who’s just starting his big-screen career. What kind of advice did you give him?

Weaver: Oh, I didn’t give him any advice – he didn’t need any advice from me. If anything I feel more confident working with children and animals because they’re not going to fake anything. Luckily with Lewis, Bayona had given us time to work with each other and rehearse, and so by the time we got to our scenes, it was really just a privilege to work with him and with Felicity on the family part of this story, which was very complex.

 

Fandango: When we spoke to Alien: Covenant star Katherine Waterston recently, she said long ago you complimented her performance in a play and that encouragement helped fuel her desire to continue pursuing acting. When you were a young actress just starting out, was there a moment where encouragement from a veteran changed your life?

Weaver: I do remember long ago I was in a John Guare play. It was my first paying job; it was Marco Polo Sings a Solo at the Public Theater. I played a Norwegian maid who was cleaning a glacier, and later turned out to be the first lady of the United States – it was a rather complicated plot. I remember, I asked John to sign my copy of House of Blue Leaves, which he wrote. This is my first job, mind you. I had been at drama school where they told me I had no talent and I wouldn’t go anywhere, and John Guare writes, “’To Sigourney at the start of what I know will be an extraordinary career.'” I remember looking at that inscription thinking he must have been drunk or confused me with someone else. But I have to say, little things like that coming from someone you respect or that you feel has a real knowledge of the business is immensely helpful because it isn’t easy and you do have many disappointments.

Fandango: I’m still processing the fact that someone in drama school said you had no talent!

Weaver: I know… I think they were fired shortly after they said that. But it didn’t matter because you’re at a school and you’re so open to whatever the teachers give you. And a lot of teachers I feel are under the impression that they’re there to tell you whether you’re talented as a painter or an artist or a filmmaker, and that’s not why teachers are there. I don’t think that’s a teacher’s job, and I think teachers make mistakes. At my drama school there were 18 of us, and only 8 of us graduated. Everyone else they either threw out or people left.

Fandango: Wow, that’s unfortunate.

Weaver: That’s a lot of young artists, and I still think about them to this day. These people who never got the chance to continue all because these two people didn’t think they had what it takes. I mean, what do they know?

Fandango: Speaking of that new Alien movie, you still want to return to Ripley, huh? Do you think that Aliens sequel with director Neill Blomkamp will ever happen?

Weaver: We’ll see. I’m working on something else with Neill [Blomkamp] right now. I think we’d both like to get back to it, but we both have all this other stuff we’re supposed to do. So we’ll see…

Fandango: Before we part ways, a lot of people have been randomly sharing this old photo shoot you did with Jones the cat for Aliens. It’s adorable how you’re holding a cat and there’s this giant flamethrower next to you. Do you remember that shoot?

 

Weaver: I do! I do remember that shoot! And I loved working with Jones. I don’t even know the cat’s real name – there were four of them. I think they were cast for different qualities; like one would be asleep and one was used for hissing – stuff like that. Like I said before, unlike other people perhaps, I prefer working with children and animals. I don’t know why it’s suddenly circling around – maybe it’s cat week… or flamethrower week!

A Monster Calls is in theaters now.